Category: News
Community PSA regarding recent contact with the FBI in King County/Seattle
Police Raids at UPenn
🚨 On Friday, October 18th at 6am, 12 Penn Police officers and one PPD officer raided the home of pro-Palestine student organizers in full tactical gear and pointed rifles and handguns at the students. They refused to provide a warrant or share their names/badge numbers. The escalation of student repression nationwide continues.
The pigs are trying to scare people into obedience to the genocidal US war machine. Do not let them. We must become more bold, more audacious tacticians, more unified amongst revolutionaries…more uncompromising.
We cannot bow our heads and accept this or throw out radicals in an attempt to save our own skins. The hammer of the state can and will come down on any of us. We only get out of this together, as revolutionaries…not fractured, separate, weak, and reformist.
Even if it’s unlikely right now, it’s good practice for *all* of us to prepare for the possibility of raids, detainments, increased surveillance, subpoenas, etc – find educational resources at unityoffields.org
March in CDMX: Stop the War in Chiapas
Chiapas burns. It burns with a war between organized crime cartels. It burns with the proliferation of armed groups everywhere. It burns with conflicts for territorial control encouraged by the state and federal governments. It burns with violence against those who struggle against violence.
Faced with this, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation creates common lands to contribute to peace. It plans meetings to reflect on the crisis of civilization. It stimulates the arts and sciences to combat the catastrophe. It proposes dialogue, creativity, critical thinking, reflection. It proposes life.
In the face of this, capital, the State and organized crime (the tripod that underpins the national catastrophe) respond with more violence. On October 16, the EZLN, in the voice of Subcomandante Moisés, denounced that people from the community of Palestina have been attacking the Zapatista community of 6 de Octubre, belonging to the Caracol de Jerusalén, threatening the inhabitants with expulsion from their lands, recovered in the 1994 uprising and peacefully occupied by them for three decades. This with promises of “legalization” of the lands in favor of the invaders from Palestine by the municipal and state governments and with the participation of organized crime. For this reason, the EZLN is contemplating the cancellation of the announced series of meetings, which would begin this December.
In addition to this, the nefarious assassination of Father Marcelo Perez Perez, tireless fighter for peace in Chiapas, last Sunday in San Cristobal de Las Casas. To put an end to every voice dedicated to building peace and denouncing violence, abuse and arbitrariness… that seems to be the slogan of the powers that be in this crumbling state and country.
Faced with this, thousands of people marched in various cities on October 24, the international day of struggle in support of the Zapatista communities. The march in Mexico City included the participation of the National Indigenous Congress, the Otomí community residing in the Samir Flores House of the Peoples and thousands of people in solidarity.
These were the words of the CNI-CIG in Front of the National Palace:
Words of the Resident Otomí Community in Mexico City:
Bangladesh Garment Workers Clash With Security Forces in Mirpur
Two workers were shot dead as textile workers, numbering 5,000, took to the streets in Dhaka on Thursday, October 31 to demand the payment of their wages.
In response to the uprising company management closed down several factories. The workers clashed with the police and army, throwing stones and setting fire to two police vehicles.
Attempts by the police and military forces to disperse the crowd met with fierce resistance. Police used batons to control the crowd, but the situation quickly worsened. Police fired several shots to disperse the protesters, injuring two workers aged 15 and 17.
The injured were taken to Dhaka hospital, while six other workers were detained.
Found on: Abolition media
Indigenous from Pantelhó Accuse Municipal Council of Financing Murder of Padre Marcelo
The protesters claimed that the council is made up of people linked to the armed group “Los Herrera.”
TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Chiapas. Indigenous Tsotsiles and Tseltals from Pantelhó who asked for the dismissal of members of the municipal council, recognized by the local Congress, after the cancellation of the elections of June 2nd, affirmed that the new municipal officials “financed the murder of Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez,” which was carried out on October 20th in San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
In a press conference, the protesters assured that this council is made up of people linked to the armed group “Los Herrera.”
In a statement released during an event held on Wednesday and which according to the organizers was attended by more than four thousand inhabitants of Pantelhó, it was reported that the new municipal council received 18 million pesos that were deposited on October 4th, and it was with this money that “they financed the murder of Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez.”
“Those of us gathered here are asking for the dismissal of the municipal council because they are the ones who ordered the killing” of Father Marcelo, they insisted in a video.
The protesters affirmed that the members of the council “appointed by a commission of the previous deputies on September 30th, do not provide social attention to the communities and only entered to plunder the resources of the municipality in complicity with ‘Los Herrera’ who live in the municipal capital and others who are outside the municipality, but who continue to finance minority groups to continue the social instability in the municipality.”
“We ask Congress to reinstate the installation of the new municipal council; we trust it will admit we are right, being the majority of the inhabitants, with the purpose of guaranteeing governability and privileging social peace,” they pointed out in the statement.
They also demanded that the Electoral Court of the State of Chiapas resolve the issue of the Municipal Council of Pantelhó as soon as possible and annul the decree of Congress dated September 30th, 2024 issued by the Permanent Commission of the previous deputies, “since the constitutional validity does not prevail, because it was not appointed in a session.”
At the beginning of this month, the protesters demonstrated in Tuxtla Gutiérrez for several days to request that the municipal council not be recognized, but when they did not find a response to their demand, they returned to their villages in Pantelhó.
In the municipality of Pantelhó, located in the Highlands of Chiapas, the normal elections were not held on June 2nd nor the special elections on August 25th, due to the situation of violence that has prevailed there for three years. On September 30th, Congress appointed a Council that was rejected by the majority of the inhabitants.
In 2021, after 18 years of governing Pantelhó by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Mayor Raquel Trujillo Morales was disowned and a municipal council was appointed that was chaired by Pedro Cortés López, linked to the group “Autodefensas del Pueblo El Machete”.
But after the forced disappearance of 21 men, the Prosecutor’s Office arrested Cortés López, who remains detained in the El Amate prison, along with the first councilor, Diego Méndez Cruz.
In the case of the “Los Herrera” group, Dayli de los Santos Herrera is imprisoned, accused of being the intellectual author of the murder of the former prosecutor of Indigenous Justice, Gregorio Pérez Gómez, who, according to the State Attorney General’s Office, was murdered in the framework of the investigations he was carrying out on the activity of criminal groups in the municipality of Pantelhó.
Found on: Schools For Chiapas
Berlin, Germany: Arrest of Antifascist Accused of Attack on Nazis
An anti-fascist activist who is the subject of a European arrest warrant was arrested on Monday in Berlin. Thomas J. was wanted in connection with the case against the Leipzig antifas. It was following this case that Lina E. was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by the Dresden Higher Regional Court in May 2023 for “membership of a criminal organisation, multiple serious assaults, property damage, forgery of documents, theft and coercion”. Investigators from the Criminal Police of the State of Saxony (LKA) arrested Thomas J. on Monday afternoon while he was riding his bike. The federal prosecutor general opens an investigation into the 48-year-old activist, suspected of “supporting a criminal organisation” and “serious assault”.
Thomas J. is to be taken to Karlsruhe on Tuesday and brought before an investigating judge who will decide on pre-trial detention. It seems that Thomas J. is accused of at least one attack on neo-Nazis. He had been on the run for more than a year. At the beginning of May 2023, he reportedly stumbled upon a police traffic stop in Brandenburg. While the police were checking his personal details, Thomas J. allegedly fled at full speed in his car. Since then, he has been considered a fugitive. Thomas J. is also accused by the German police of having fought in Rojava in the ranks of the YPG.
Found on: Abolition Media
Martinique revolt grows, airport invaded
France declares curfew as second overseas territory erupts with protests over failing services and high cost of living
~ From Contre Attaque ~
A brand new gendarmerie barracks was completely burned down in Martinique on October 9, and yesterday the island’s airport that was invaded by protesters, preventing planes from landing. At the same time, increasingly violent riots are taking place at night, the police are being pushed back, and radars are being set on fire.
For weeks, a revolt against the high cost of living has been shaking the French overseas territory in the Caribbean. Roadblocks, demonstrations, a McDonald’s fire, a Carrefour invasion… actions are multiplying. The French state has decreed a curfew without managing to stifle the anger.
In the French overseas territory, public services are seriously failing, with regular water and electricity cuts. The population has been poisoned by chlordecone, a pesticide used by the banana industry.
Vital foodstuffs are also unaffordable. Supermarkets sell food two to three times more expensive than in mainland France. It is a few large store owners, often from families of settlers and slave owners, who are getting rich.
Earlier this year, a revolt took place in France’s the Pacific territory of New Caledonia, in which settler violence and the nickel industry played an important role.
French CRS troops were sent as reinforcements to Martinique, a heavily colonial symbol: in 1959, three young schoolchildren were killed in Martinique by the CRS, and the elected officials obtained the departure of these forces. Now they have made their return to violently repress the demonstrations.
This additional provocation has rekindled the revolt in recent days. The announcement of an additional 300 CRS planeloads pushed the movement to take over the airport tarmac.
Through his authoritarianism and his colonial contempt, Macron will have succeeded in inflaming all the overseas territories. In Martinique, the movement is therefore gaining momentum, and so is the repression.
Found on: Freedom News UK
Flood the Tech Core: A New Front Opens in Austin’s Movement for Palestine
On 10/7, the anniversary of the heroic Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the unified Palestinian resistance factions, a group of 30 people demonstrated at the BAE facility in Austin. The BAE office sits in a corporate park that also houses General Motors, 3M, Qualcomm, Infosys, Apple, and other tech companies. This corporate park was labelled the “Core of Genocide in Austin” as indicated by a banner at the demo.
The rally started off fairly tame and hesitant. Many were uncertain what the police response would be; the rally had been pre-announced on social media, and the last deviation from the downtown parade spectacle (the encampments) resulted in heavy repression with mass arrests and injury. For the first hour or so, the rally stood on the side of the road facing Parmer, chanted, and received honks from supportive passerby. The rally was only observed from the parking lot by a small handful of private security guards. No cops were present.
After tiring of standing and chanting, the demo turned into a march. The crowd walked down the sidewalks past the BAE building, chanting and yelling in its direction. As the crowd turned towards a road leading towards a private entrance, the energy started to build. The crowd walked up towards the parking lot, where they were cut off by a security guard in his car who unenthusiastically asked the group not to come up onto private property, but encouraged the group to be on the sidewalks. After a brief yelling match, the crowd marched back towards the sidewalk near the front entrance.
There, after spending another few minutes chanting and yelling at gawking BAE employees, the rally found another round of courage and marched up to the door of the facility. Despite the frustrated threats of another security guard, who claimed they were calling the cops, the rally stood its ground outside the facility. After about 15 minutes, with no sign of police response, the group returned to the sidewalk to recharge. After a brief break, they marched through the corporate park towards Apple, then ended shortly after.
While the action in itself was only mildly confrontational or escalatory in intensity, the gesture of this demo opens up a new front for the movement for Palestine locally. This is fitting for a gesture that honors the Al-Aqsa Flood battle. By identifying the “Core of Genocide,” this action challenges the movement to refocus its priorities, and demonstrated that it is easier and more effective to target this area. Even the simple activity of marching and chanting–not that different from the content of rallies downtown–feels more meaningful here, as one can direct their rage directly at the workers & infrastructure complicit in the genocide, rather than an empty legislature or the glass walls of a hi-rise.
The police are far less likely, less prepared, and less capable of mobilizing in massive force here–whereas they have extensive training and infrastructure for overpolicing the downtown & campus playground. The area around the tech campus is a mixture of lower-income suburban neighborhood, brush and trails, apartments, and businesses, with lots of spaces for people to gather, park, disperse, or move around. A wide range of autonomous actions could be experimented with here–pickets, office disruptions, autonomous art initiatives, and even classic rallies. If even a fraction of the crowds that are mobilized for rallies downtown could be mobilized to this campus, it would open new opportunities for the movement. More of the movement should turn its attention to this new front, and consider what they have the capability to plan advance the struggle here.
The opening of a new front, one that escalates in direct confrontation with the war machine, is essential to the growth and survival of the movement for Palestine locally. Locally and nationally, energy and turnout for rallies has waned. The futility of the existing routine of managed protest has become more palpable and more draining, particularly in the wake of a year of genocide and the post-encampment movement lull. Across the continent, everyone is seeking new directions for the movement to stop the genocide.
It is hard to say what direction the movement must go, to know what actions and trajectories will accomplish the task before us. The existing strategies in the activist toolkit will find limited purchase. The Amerikkkan economic & geopolitical interests lined up behind Israel are too invested to be swayed by any combination of demonstrations voicing our opposition, or by pressure campaigns trying to convince military contractors to end their business model and abolish themselves. As the brutality of the spring should have made clear, the facade of democratic order and liberal rights fall away when the core of the colonial project is threatened. Probably, any real challenge to the genocide would require a high degree of unrest to generalize across the country, undermining the government’s ability to rule, the functioning of the economy, and the stability of the military.
This is a tall order for a Left that can barely get beyond navel-gazing about its own powerlessness and victimization, or that capitulates to the State and polices itself. But we can start by finding our next step forward–the next action or direction that can build the size, militancy, and effectiveness of the movement. The turn towards the Tech Core of Genocide is one such direction. An escalation of disruptive activity targeted at the role that Austin-based tech plays in the genocide holds the potential to re-energize those who have been drained by the endless parades down Congress and inagurate a new cycle of varied movement activities in a new area. Such an escalation sets the stage for a real confrontation and challenge to the most important local ties to the genocide. This also forces the local movement into a confrontation with the economic forces that dominate the city and its economic interests–themselves aligned with a domestic project of displacement, development, and dispossession.
Perhaps there are better focus points for escalation in Austin. Or perhaps the most powerful contribution the movement in Austin can make is mobilizing forces *somewhere else*, somewhere more materially impactful on halting the war machine or generalizing social unrest. Or, perhaps, a few relatively simple but powerful actions at BAE could set the stage for a new explosion of activity locally, and perhaps regionally or nationally. The answer can only be found through experimentation, strategic thought, and reflection–qualities the movement has thus far been lacking, particularly the last two.
A brief recap of the rally was posted to Instagram. While it is good to post even brief summaries of our activities, and to engage traditional social media to do so, we challenge autonomous forces in the movement to advance beyond this. We challenge the movement to generate and circulate their own strategic reflections on their activity, the opportunities and limitations they perceive, and proposals for others to take up. Particularly, we encourage the movement to do so in ways not determined by the logics of the social media platforms we use, and should make our movements less reliant on these platforms alone. This could look like more long form texts to go to counterinfo sites like It’s Going Down or Austin Autonomedia (though you could easily start your own), or circulate on large Signal threads. It will mean fewer Instagram infographics, which pushed towards analytically shallow, attention grabbing, highly aestheticized content. Our reflections, analysis, and reportbacks should not be structured to fit the limitations of an Instagram slide deck; we should build Instagram slide decks to highlight and circulate our deeper reflections and analysis, which ought to be developed outside of social media, ideally in direct conversations and meetings with other comrades in the movement.
Long Live the Resistance, Long Live Al-Aqsa Flood!
–some reflective protesters
Found on: Autonomedia
Chiapas, Civil War Knocking at the Door
The Zapatista community of “6 de Octubre,” part of today’s Caracol IX Jerusalén, was formally founded on that day and month of 1997, with lands occupied as a result of the Zapatista uprising of 1994. Since then, its inhabitants have worked them peacefully for the good of the community.
However, now the inhabitants of Nueva Palestina, together with members of organized crime, with the support of the authorities of the municipality of Ocosingo and the government of Chiapas, intend to evict them violently.
Since June of this year, unknown individuals carrying weapons of different calibers and wearing black uniforms have roamed the village, threatened its inhabitants and taken photos. Days later, two Zapatista support bases that went out to work as day laborers were warned that they had to leave the community or they would be removed “by force.” A drone has flown over the town. On September 23rd, the attackers set up huts in the town and dedicate themselves to intimidating rebel sympathizers.
The communal authorities of Nueva Palestina claim to have the support of the municipal leaders of Ocosingo, from the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) – the mayor Martín Martínez, known for the bad company he hangs out with, is originally from that community – and also the support of the Chiapas government, in the hands of MORENA. Without mincing words, they claim that they will give the aggressors the papers that prove the ownership of the stolen lands. As if that were not enough, they claim that organized crime, with official approval, gave the instruction to expel the Zapatista support bases from those lands. The presence of the CJNG in the region is increasing.
Nueva Palestina, Lacanjá Chansayab and Frontera Corozal make up the Lacandon community. Formed by the presidential decree of 1972, which gave 614,321 hectares of the Desierto de la Soledad to 66 Lacandon family heads, it has become a terrain of operation and dispute for drug traffickers. Although historically the communal property was in the hands of the Lacandon, in the last election the assembly chose a Chol as president of the commission. However, at the beginning of 2024 he was disavowed by the federal agrarian authorities. So, to date, the commission is without leader.
This is a region that is the last frontier in Mexican territory before reaching Guatemala. To the north, it borders communities in resistance, such as the Zapatista village of “6 de Octubre”.
Some Lacandons (including authorities) have become associated with organized crime. Planes loaded with cocaine land on their territory (https://shorturl.at/yHOv). In Frontera Corozal and Nueva Palestina, some community members, a very wealthy minority, are “coyotes” and sell alcohol (an activity linked to the sexual exploitation of Central American migrants). They are armed. They have monopolized land through unfair loans and indirectly control social programs such as Sembrando Vida, renting hectares of “their” land to peasants who do not have any, so that they can participate in the program and work on it.
To exorcise the ghost of the Viejo Velasco massacre in 2006, the communal authorities promoted a technical and political process between 2008 and November 2022 to determine a new polygon of Communal Property for the Lacandon Zone. Agreements were reached with 52 neighboring communities and neighbors. The axis of this negotiation is the Life Plan for the Biocultural Management of the jungle. As part of the negotiation, an agreement was reached with the town of “6 de Octubre,” one of the six polygons within Communal Property.
Until November 2022, everything seemed to be ready for the new decree. However, the authorities of Lacanjá Chansayab filed a legal appeal, claiming that they are the only beneficiaries of the 1971 decree and that the Tseltals, Tsotsils and Chols are invaders of the territory. This stopped everything. A recording was then leaked in which the then deputy Patricia Armendáriz yelled at the authorities of Lacanjá. She demanded that they present a development plan – which would counteract the community proposal of the Life Plan (Plan de Vida) – so that together with her, linked to the Na Bolom Foundation, they could receive financing from international agencies. In the audio, the businesswoman confesses that she personally financed the lawyer who filed the legal action that stopped the process that would define the New Polygon of Communal Property (https://shorturl.at/rWjhU, minute 1:09).
In February 2023, they appointed communal authorities in Frontera Corozal, ignoring the commissioner committed to the agrarian process and the Life Plan. In December 2023, they changed the community authorities in Nueva Palestina, putting in place a commissioner with no management capacity or experience. This is how, on August 30th, the Nueva Palestina community members linked to the PVEM, to the trafficking of undocumented immigrants and close to organized crime, agreed to attack the Zapatista “6 de Octubre” property, accompanied by unknown individuals with high-caliber weapons.
Chiapas is a powder keg. Kidnappings, murders, death threats and blockades extend throughout the territory. Just on September 30th, an armed commando set fire to the municipal presidency of Benemérito de las Américas. In the Sierra and Frontera regions, fighting between cartels continues without interruption, while thousands of residents are displaced. On October 9th, in Ixhuatán there was a heavy armed confrontation, with a death toll of at least two. Residents took the Rizo de Oro barge demanding the return alive of four missing fishermen. Migrants were shot by the Army in Villa de Comaltitlán. The attack against the Zapatista village “6 de Octubre” is a watershed in this escalation of violence. The Caracol de Jerusalén was one of the venues contemplated for the celebration of the Zapatista resistance and rebellion meetings.
It is no exaggeration, in Chiapas civil war is knocking at the door.
Found on: Abolition Media
Community PSA regarding recent contact with the FBI in King County/Seattle.
In mid-October 2024, a comrade was contacted by FBI agents representing themselves as investigating a right wing agitator in regards to a public-record interaction the comrade was involved in. The agents identified themselves as members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. While there is no known direct evidence that these agents are investigating the Seattle leftist movement, previous contacts publicized by Puget Sound Prisoner Support have suggested that federal agents have made contact in other capacities in recent months (see link at bottom for further info). We are therefore taking this opportunity to make sure we are refocusing on operational and personal security (opsec and persec) and steps to take if an agent knocks on your door.
1) Cops, including feds, can and will lie to you about anything, including what they’re investigating, whether you’re a subject, suspect or witness in an investigation, whether you need a lawyer present, etc. The safest thing to do is not talk to them and to seek legal representation if they insist. This is true even if they’re asking about oppositional figures, public events and information, and other innocuous things. Even the simplest question can establish whether you were in a specific place at a specific time, are aware of a particular person or event, etc. If an agent knocks on your door, ask for a business card and end the questioning there. You can and should set the parameters by which you might speak with them, AFTER securing legal representation. The National Lawyers Guild maintains a federal defense hotline to contact if you are approached by a federal agency: massdef@nlg.org or (212) – 279 – 2811.
2) The US government has incredibly powerful digital and physical surveillance capabilities, and their exact limits are unknown. Using signal is better than alternatives, but signal is only as encrypted and secure as the user makes it. Whenever possible, going offline (and away from tech) for important meetings is better. There are many things that can and should be done to minimize risk with signal including: disable ‘find me by phone number’ in signal, disable face/finger ID, change your signal notification settings to only show chat names and not message content in notifications, set a passcode for signal and set it to be required every time you open it. Make sure your phone is encrypted and habitually locked!
3) We cannot assume that these measures are sufficient, especially in larger group chats where there are members you don’t personally know and trust. Be careful about what you say. If you aren’t willing to hear it read back to you in court, think long and hard before you say it on signal (or in person, without taking careful measures first).
4) Protesting is not necessarily illegal. You have a right to freedom of expression and assembly. This does not mean that the government will not try to characterize your actions as criminal! Just because you “haven’t done anything wrong” or “don’t have anything to hide” doesn’t mean you can’t be a target, or that your comrades will not be targeted. Our personal and operational security is what keeps all of us safe for each other, not just for ourselves. For the sake of our whole community, especially its most vulnerable and marginalized members, please do not talk to cops, be careful about opsec, and inform your community right away if you get contacted by law enforcement.
Puget Sound Prisoner Support’s recent piece about a FBI contact with a community member: https://pugetsoundanarchists.org/statement-from-psps-on-recent-fbi-snooping-in-pnw/
Thank you for reading. Free Palestine.
Found on: Pungent sound anarchists