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Tag: anti-repression

Statement of the CUNY 28: “Palestine is everywhere. We are all outside agitators.”

Posted on by neversleep

5 September 2024

The following statement was issued today by the CUNY 28 at their press conference outside the courthouse where 8 of the CUNY 28 continue to face unjust charges for their participation in the student encampment for Palestine. As CUNY for Palestine writes, “On 4/30, hundreds across the city were arrested at protests and Gaza solidarity encampments. While the charges have been dropped for most, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, CUNY, and the NYPD continue to pursue the heaviest charges for 8 of the now CUNY 28. In addition to the previously known 22, there were 6 additional comrades arrested that same night also facing felony charges. We’ve since connected with the 6 other comrades who were brutalized and arrested that night at CCNY, but who were isolated by the bureaucracy of the carceral machine and are also facing heavy and unjust charges.

TELL CUNY TO MEET THE 5 DEMANDS. DROP THE CHARGES FOR ALL OF THE CUNY 28. FREE PALESTINE.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in full solidarity with the CUNY 28 and join the demands to drop the charges. As we noted previously, ”

Escalating to end a genocide is not a crime — indeed, it is a duty, particularly in the heart of the imperial core, at a moment when the resistance forces of the region, from Palestine to Yemen to Lebanon to Iraq and beyond, are on the front lines sacrificing and fighting for the protection and liberation of humanity. We must all make clear that the raids and arrests will not intimidate our movement nor cause us to de-escalate our tactics and methods of struggle, but will only lead us to greater unity, resistance and confrontation, to end the genocide and for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

The strong and principled statement of the CUNY 28 is below:

As of today, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been martyred over the last ten months. This is a continuation of 76 years of the genocidal ambitions of the zionist state, a continuation of the Nakba. These numbers do not account for the countless thousands missing under the rubble in Gaza. An entire population is being starved, while over 20,000 are held hostage in the West Bank.

Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq continue to answer to the Palestinian call by confronting the zionist entity, smashing all illusions of the occupation’s invincibility while they deal with the entity’s outbursts. “The Axis of Resistance bears its responsibility not only in supporting Gaza but in doing more to serve the primary goal, which is stopping the aggression in all its forms.”

The fight is not just in solidarity, but in resisting assimilation to the colonial project. The CUNY 28 attempted to answer the call made by the steadfast Palestinian resistance to escalate from within the belly of the beast. We resist with Gaza.

Since October 7th, numerous CUNY administrations have issued disingenuous statements about anti-Semitism on campus, yet they remain silent on the ongoing genocide. Instead, CUNY actively represses and condemns any support of the Palestinian right to self-determination and liberation, contributing to the widespread racist dehumanization of Palestinians.

As the zionist entity continues its destruction of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank—and as the United States maintains its genocidal hegemony from Palestine to Harlem—the working-class people of the world escalate. An encampment should not normalize the institution—it should disrupt it, dismantle it and abolish it.

The occupation of buildings by students and outside agitators symbolizes reclaiming space and disrupting normal operations to draw attention to injustices and to force institutions to address the demands of protestors.

The night of the CUNY raid, “public safety” brutalized protesters. CUNY “public safety” are the pigs! The pigs are the IOF! Anyone that chooses to play the role of a pig is the enemy. A principled encampment should never collaborate with the pigs.

Since the violent escalation by CUNY and the pigs, all 22 agitators were charged with 3rd degree felony burglary—a clear representation of state repression against those of us who choose to act against genocide. At the same time, the CUNY Board of Trustees introduced a resolution to spend 4 million dollars on a private security firm that advertises its services to pigs and zionist-trained “experts” to spy on pro-Palestine protesters.

CUNY agitators spent more time in custody than Columbia protesters, and are still facing higher charges and continued backlash. The narrative of “good” vs. “bad” protester is a narrative pushed by the state to divide our efforts along class and racial contentions, but in reality the fight against the same enemy unites us.

We will not be intimidated into silence by the state.

Eight of the 22 have decided to resist this blatant state reprisal. We will not be bullied into silence by any court, nor Alvin Bragg and his many zionist donors. More than 90% of people serving time in federal prisons right now accepted coercive plea bargains instead of going to trial. The judicial system is built on mass-incarceration, capitalizing off of modern prison labor, which is just another form of slavery.

We are fighting our charges, not only because we do not recognize the state’s claim to authority over our actions, but also because we believe that challenging these charges is a necessary stand against an unjust system that seeks to silence dissent and criminalize resistance. It is hypocritical of the state to criminalize property damage at a protest, while signing lucrative contracts to destroy entire communities.

We are not just fighting for a Free Palestine but for the liberation of all. We fight for ourselves and our communities. Palestine is everywhere.

Remember, “we are all outside agitators.” Whether we are fighting in Atlanta, New York City, Sudan, or Palestine, the enemy remains the same. The zionist entity escalates, so does the Palestinian Resistance. The pigs and institutions escalate, so do the agitators of the world!

Found on Samidoun.net

June 11, 2024: No Separate Worlds

Posted on by neversleep

Repost from: June 11th

We once again approach June 11th, a day of remembrance and active solidarity, in a world of multiple crises and struggles for liberation. All of these are interconnected; there are no separate worlds. Across borders, languages, contexts, and identities, both catastrophes and victories of spirit and defiance reverberate around the globe. One environment is not untouched by another. The personal is not separate from the political. The positive project is not separate from that of destruction. Prison is not separate from the “free world.” Means are not separate from ends. Bridging these divides is a shared curiosity and commitment; bridging these divides is solidarity. This is not to flatten or oversimplify diversity and differences in circumstance, intensity, and consequence. Rather, that these different pieces are held together like organs of the body held by connective tissue. So we consider: how do we strengthen this connective tissue? How do we remain strong, yet supple and flexible? Bridges, connection, must also be built through time, especially in a world that moves too fast, from one crisis to the next. June 11th aspires to be one of these bridges: to build solidarity across borders, between movements, and among generations. Remembering and supporting long-term prisoners, as well as carrying on shared struggles, are two ways to strengthen this connective tissue. A stronger connective tissue will, in turn, bolster us against further repression.

Each year, as part of our effort to be a bridge between movements, time, and borders, we assess the terrain. We consider what threats from the state look like at this time, how imprisoned comrades can be connected to activity on the outside, how have the struggles they are a part of continued despite repression, and how remembering those locked up can become a natural part of anarchist activity. Often repression and criminalization feel new; but frequently, this is a failure of memory. There are innovations to pay attention to, while seeing their lineage in tactics and ideologies used against our forebears. What can we learn from how people have responded in the past? What can we learn from people in times and places where innovative repressive tactics were developed, and how can we act in complicity alongside them?

As the day of solidarity nears, we are struck by the unfolding of the current terrain; the horrors abound, and confront us in new ways, but these are also patterns and histories in repetition. Power is scrambling to maintain itself amidst the uncertainty of our fragilely constructed society, and individuals and groups continue on with our refusal of their world. We see continued colonial violence, through prisons, guns, bombs, and nationalist ideologies in places such as Palestine, Ukraine, and West Papua. Too, extremely harsh treatments of people in Russia acting against militarism and colonialism, as well as the criminalization of pro-Palestinian activity all over the world.

Palestinians, fighting for their freedom and against policing, surveillance and detention for decades, have faced an all-out culmination of violence and genocide at the hands of the Israeli state — crisis and colonial violence continue to rapidly unfold. So too, does an intense current of Palestinian resistance: solidarity actions have taken place across the globe in attempts to refuse complicity and the feelings of powerlessness fueled by the geographical distance, the 24-hour news cycle, and the propaganda and war machines that abound.

As people continue to flee their regions due to capitalist and imperialist-made violence, and the catastrophic consequences of climate collapse, we are witnessing a renewed fear-mongering at U.S and European borders, as white supremacist militias murmur about confronting ‘migrant caravans’, and individual states implement a greater level of violence to keep people out of artificial borders. This crisis extends throughout the globe, as people worldwide move to eek out any stability, and others rush to enforce the promised order of borders and citizenship.

Colonial violence springs up daily, in guns drawn and territory stolen, in extraction projects and the expansion of policed land, and in the loss of the last wild spaces. But resistance to a homogeneous and hollow future being sold to us by tech-giants, green capitalists and the State still continues across the world. Pipelines, cell-towers, and extraction infrastructure is being targeted, both in individual sabotage, as well as ongoing land defense world-wide. The dependence of this noxious future on policing, surveillance, and control couldn’t be clearer, and struggles are confronting the ways these practices interact. Rebellions break out against police, prisons, and the indignity and macabre realities of daily life. For every crisis, and moment of resistance we could list, there are countless others simmering, exploding, or simply being disappeared from the public, global view. Freedom and resistance always find their way through the cracks of this horrifying society.

Public food serves being harassed, heightened criminalization of houseless populations, RICO charges for bail funds and the “conspiracy” of anarchist ideas and practices, as well as proximity, associations and social networks. Intense and courageous acts of sabotage continue. Everything is new, and nothing is. The question is not ‘what are the solutions?’, but ‘how do we expand, deepen and intensify what we already know works?’. How do we see ourselves in one another, how do we understand our plights as intertwined, as inseparable, and how can we continue to expand these relationships of solidarity. How do we embrace the reality that there are no separate worlds, and explore the ways that we can break through the limiting effects of prison walls, border walls, time, place and context.

There are moments worth celebrating, when we feel the opening of possibilities and capacity, of cohesion and strength; there are certainly also many moments to mourn, when it feels like we’re losing it all and our bodies or spirits are taking a beating. We can savor a touch of solace when we notice the deep desperation apparent in the moves of the state. They’re scrambling, finding new ways to criminalize even the most basic of acts. This can serve to motivate us. If anything even vaguely anarchist is enough to throw us to the helm of repression, we must choose to live our lives as we decide, regardless of the consequences. As more and more of us interact with repression, jails, courts, prisons, let this possibility be a never-ending invitation towards continuing to remember and include those locked away as an ongoing part of our moves toward getting free. Time, geography, the barriers of the prison wall-none of these are strong enough to obliterate the vast network of bridges that keep us interdependent, connected, fighting the same enemies of freedom, worldwide.

This year saw the passing of many who carried the vivacious anarchist spirit. Some may be known to us, while many remain unknown. They sowed rebelliousness in every path they walked. Perhaps their impact is incalculable, though never nonexistent. We can carry the same spirit, traverse similar paths, and remain steadfast and diligent, just as those who have come before us have. Rest in power: Alfredo Bonanno, Klee Benally, Ed Mead, Sekuo Odinga, Tortuguita, Aaron Bushnell.

Rest in power to all of those whose names we’ve never uttered, not known, but who walked these lengths, nonetheless. Time is merely constructed; those that have come before us, and passed onto death, still impact the lives of the living, still contribute to the history of anarchists and anti-authoritarians, and our shared struggle. Let us make them a part of our active memory, and continue forward, in a fight for lives against domination. May these words spark a fire in you-encourage you to get up, forge ahead and seek what it might feel like, to live like you’re trying to get free.

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