repression

In November, one or the other of the corporate candidates will win, and then, as always, it will be what the people do, not the politicians, that counts. A video report on the protests that occurred in connection with the Democrat and Republican National Conventions, Ground Noise & Static is a manifesto. We went to Denver and St. Paul to take the pulse of the movement.

Review by James Generic

The history of the United States is filled with stories of government repression of dissenters. While we know about the violent means of suppressing dissent, the more subtle means are harder to get a grasp on. In “Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States”, author Jules Boykoff lays out his theory on how dissent is suppressed and backs it up with historical and current examples, mostly from 20th century United States history. In many places in the world—and even here in the US—the crushing of dissent by the state is the pure violence we imagine, but overall, in “rich” countries like the US, the suppression of dissent requires a lot more cooperation from the larger population and the media. There are no tanks rolling through neighborhoods enforcing subjugation in most places in the US, but the near universal media complicity and an omni-present police force, coupled with all sorts of extra-legal rules targeting dissidents do the job.

by Tessa Landreau-Grasmuck and dave onion

On the morning of Friday, June 13th, 2008, Philadelphia police entered a Ridge Avenue home without a warrant and arrested four Philadelphia community members and dear friends – Daniel Moffat, Trevor Burgess, Andrea Okorley, and Jennifer Rock. These residents were pulled from their home at 1652 Ridge Avenue, arrested, and detained without charges at the Ninth District for over twelve hours. During their detention, Philadelphia Police called in the City’s Licenses and Inspections Agency, who deemed the house uninhabitable, and sealed the doors. Despite an extraordinary output of community support in response to the raid, the residents of the affectionately named Shoe Store are still facing an arduous struggle to reclaim their home. As we continue to support the displaced family of the Ridge Avenue Shoe Store, we seek to put their situation in the context of policing and displacement happening city, nation and world wide. We send this letter with two-fold intention: to respond to all the comrades who have asked how they can help, as well as to activate our support for those affected by these policies in the context of a diverse movement with wide and varied experience.

by Elliott

Something has lit a fire in my gut lately, and it’s not the tangy gazpacho chilling in my fridge. It’s not the body bags piling up in Iraq, or the precipitous decline of our planet’s wild systems, or any of the other train wrecks concocted by elites in the Global North. For the last three weeks, I’ve been spitting barbs because so many people I know have been getting targeted, terrorized and thrown in jail by the police.

Urgent Action Alert! Prisoners Under Attack in Camp Hill's SMU

Summary of Prisoner Reports

In the last four months over a dozen prisoners confined in the Special Management Unit (SMU) at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Camp Hill have written HRC/Fed Up! about conditions of severe brutality, white supremacy, and the systematic sabotage at all inmate efforts to file grievances and/or obtain legal assistance.  See the attached 14-page document culled from prisoner reports detailing a violent program of dehumanization.  The SMU at Camp Hill is one of two such control units in the PADOC system, the other being in Fayette, and functions primarily to repress prisoners inclined to file grievances, pursue civil suits against PADOC staff and officials, and otherwise assert their dignity as human beings.

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

Hello to all our friends and supporters,

The last few days in St Paul, MN police have been intimidating and cracking down hard on organizers and protesters at the Republican National Convention. While very little is making the news, police have been beating down and arresting protesters, bystanders as well as journalists (including Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and her producers). This may sound familiar to what happened to many of us when we"hosted" the RNC in 2000. But we managed to pull through, thanks largely to incredible solidarity people showed us all over the world. I'm passing on a note from a Philly comrade currently in St Paul in hopes you all can pull through for them like others did for us...

Criminal Justice Center - Room 1003
1301 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

On Monday July 14th, the remaining Love Park 4 defendants - Jason Robbins, Tom Keenan and Jared Schultz - are scheduled for a court date in Philadelphia Municipal Court, 1301 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.