On Friday, May 17th a group of protestors attempted to occupy the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago. The protest lasted several hours with minimal police intervention and zero arrests. Below are the communiques and the statement of principles:
Submitted Anonymously
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.
View and submit regional prisoner udpates on full post.
Submited anonymously
On May 1, 2024, a group of rabble rousers and freaks took part in an anarchist May Day parade that stormed through the Fulton Market neighborhood of Chicago. Before leaving Union Park, people danced around a May Pole in costumes, shared food, laughter and music and then hit the streets. The group of about 80 people was tailed by at least 30 squad cars as many people chanted, danced and re-decorated the highly gentrified neighborhood.
This action came together in the midst of four of Chicago’s big universities hosting occupations in support of Palestinian liberation as the Genocide continues.
Walking down Randolph street towards the original Haymarket Square, the group antagonized gentrifying zionists as they sipped their wine in the outdooor restaurants along the boulevards. The group brought noise and commotion to the Google building, Chase Bank, Starbucks and global headquarters of McDonalds — all four companies having known ties with Israel. The march culminated in a stand off with dozens of cops in front of McDonald’s Hamburger University, where some protestors were brutalized and arrested.
The cops continue to serve and protect the genocidal actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces and the US government while children die. But, a collective rage is bubbling and comrades all around the world are coming together to fight. Find your people, dance in the streets, create ruins and do everything you can to wreak havoc.
This action is dedicated to the Chicago anarchists, Haymarket Martyrs and all those who have lost their lives in Palestine.
Submitted Anonymously
Uchi’s encampment has been very disappointing. For starters, the community agreements are not community agreements. They are rules. One silly thing that they have decided for the quad is that no one can smoke or vape when it’s the norm. They have also decided to declare that people will not engage with any form of authority while they behave as such. Organizers and marshals have formed an internal divide within the encampment. On day one of the encampment, members decided to take down the israeli multi-flag display, and marshals chased them down and took pictures of them. It says on the community “agreements” that people are not supposed to take pictures of others without consent. Does that only apply to people who do what they say? Zionists eventually put them back up with UCPD guards. If marshals are supposed to “keep the camp safe,” wouldn’t it have been a great time to block them from taking the flags down?
It was stated that the unnecessary dichotomy between students and non-students is irrelevant and would not be applied here. However, undergraduate organizers have been silencing grad students, community members, and other radical individuals who came to support the cause. They say that they want people to escalate for Gaza. They don’t.
It was decided on day two that people could build certain kinds of barricades. When individuals decided to autonomously move the art installation a little to the left and stop people from walking within the encampment as if it ceases to exist, FJP came over. They policed and asserted respectability politics. They expressed worry about people walking through the flowers. As if they are not making that choice! As if people do not have free will! As if it is not a decision of the self! To blame community members for the actions of one is a pattern that has happened within this encampment. They expressed that they (they said “we” but there is no we here) want to lessen escalation, and we don’t want the university to retaliate against the camp.” This is not how the majority of the camp feels. The organizers agree with the faculty, as they have cemented the same points towards encampment members. The word autonomy has been abused tremendously within the last couple of days. Marshals have told people they can do things and they support autonomous action, but “we should all have a meeting about something before acting.” Organizers have said that autonomous actions need to be a group decision, autonomous actions are okay, and people want to escalate. But, individuals have to “assess the risk it causes the group.” People should “think about the safety of the group.” This is one example of how infantilizing yellow vests and organizers have been. This presumption that people taking autonomous action have no regard for the rest of the group is fatuous. The people escalating and taking autonomous action are thinking about the group. They are thinking about how to support the group with a diversity of tactics.
Autonomous actions do not happen after a “group meeting.” It seems like people do not understand what autonomy means. Autonomous actions do not need a damn coordinating meeting and a schedule. They happen whenever and wherever someone feels comfortable. Mind your business, and you’ll be fine. It feels like the organizers want this encampment for clout-chasing purposes instead of standing with people who deserve liberation. They do not want individuals who know what they are doing to spread their knowledge base throughout the camp. This could be a learning experience for all, but they are halting this educational process.
Another form of infantilization is the infantilization of Black people. Certain individuals within the camp have been advising people not to escalate because “there are Black people here.” They have expressed that people should not escalate because what if Black people get hurt?” “What if brown people get hurt?” They are not thinking about how historically Black people have escalated as a community. This is the same bullshit that happened in 2020. When Black people did what they autonomously wanted, white marshals and non-black organizers would try to shut shit down under the guise of protection. An organizer at the camp called a Black person antagonistic just for speaking to her about her actions. Community members should be able to converse with organizers without anti-black language thrown in their faces.
Back to autonomous actions being shut down, there are zine tables distributing different kinds of materials. People are passing out flyers, zines, and stickers all around the camp. One table was approached by marshals and was asked to leave because someone painted “Escalate for Gaza” in a breezeway and circled one of the As in an anarchist fashion. The autonomous table was told that they should leave because, obviously, this table did it because they’ve been distributing anarchist media. This particular table is not a collective or an organization. It has been random people holding the table down and putting out tactile information that has frustrated certain marshals. They want to act as if this is a decentralized community while forcing hierarchy upon others. Not all of the marshals wanted people to leave, but the sheer fact that people felt like it was okay to accuse others of illicit acts outside the camp is not cool. People around them did not want them to leave, and this is another instance of the internal divide, with marshals saying that they’re protecting the camp but choosing peace police instead. They say that they want to protect the camp, but they want everyone to focus on the respectability politics that they have encouraged. “We don’t want to look bad. We don’t want to give the university justification to shut us down.” The encampment already looks bad. The encampment is already antagonistic. These respectability politics help no one. It may give organizers and marshals peace of mind for everyone to contain their anger against the state by exhibiting passive behavior, but that’s not what everyone’s okay with.
This is the south side of Chicago. You can tell who has left the UChi bubble and who hasn’t. People are going to do what they want. Shit is going to go down here this summer. When students leave, UCPD does not. They continue to police and harass the south side. On day two, the police were attending to something outside of the camp. Someone on the megaphone decided to alert people to not worry after individuals went to check it out and exclaimed, “It has nothing to do with us.” This is NOT true. It has everything to do with UChicago. UChicago is the reason why UCPD exists. This is a gentrified neighborhood because of this filthy campus. These rich kids and out-of-state attendees are part of the reason the south side is so policed. Anytime UCPD harasses somebody within the boundaries of Hyde Park and the surrounding neighborhoods, it is a student’s problem. UChi students need to hold themselves accountable for their sheer presence and understand the privilege that they have. The amount of displacement that the university has assisted with is disgusting. This encampment should be for everyone. This encampment should challenge the university to hold itself accountable for not only helping out with genocide but also the destruction and displacement of racialized people everywhere. They have helped displace people in Gaza and on the south side of Chicago.
Indigenous liberation includes Black people. Indigenous liberation is about embracing autonomy. Indigenous liberation cannot happen with white supremacist values. Indigenous liberation when others are trying to force respectability politics down the throats of radicals. This is bigger than the atrocious deaths of Hind and Refaat. The true radicals in this camp will not be silenced. We will continue to dissent. Escalate for Gaza. Give Palestine back to the Palestinian people. End the invasion now. Fuck a ceasefire! End the IDF and for the love of everything on this planet, BLOC UP!
Submitted Anonymously
In celebration of May Day—International Worker’s Day—actionists defaced the McKinley monument in McKinley Park, Chicago.
William McKinley, the 25th president of the so called “United States”, was a violent colonizer who orchestrated the colonization & annexation of Hawaii in 1898, and oversaw the US takeover of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Phillippines & Cuba. McKinley, whose reign focused on expansionism, protectionism & US imperialism, was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901. Czolgosz’s final words prior to his execution by electric chair were “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people– the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime. I am sorry I could not see my father.”
The monument to US imperialism was covered with messages of “Topple Colonizer,” “Land Back,” “Fuck you from Hawaii, Ceasefire Now,” “Free Palestine,” “End Every Empire,” “Solidarity Forever,” “End US Imperialism” & “Leon Czolgosz we love you.” The statue from 1904 is made from the melted down bronze sculpture of Christopher Columbus—fuck McKinley, fuck Columbus, and fuck every president and settler colonial entity. We must topple and attack US occupation & violence and the monuments and institutions that glorify it. Decolonization Now, from Turtle Island to Palestine. SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
Submitted Anonymously
While there have been many students involved in planning efforts, it seems like only a small adhoc committee ever wanted and consented to these new terms. On the other hand, voices of dissent inside and outside meetings encouraged organizers not to yield. In fact, it is hard to tell who even wants this deal at the moment since decisions have been kept mostly under wraps. The broader community often only hears requests for support. How might people have reconsidered their involvement if they knew the truth about these backroom deals? How is any of this different from the way the administration treats its students, as dollar signs, bodies to be herded with no decision-making power?
Nevertheless, people stood their ground and formed defensive lines to resist the cops. The university police were totally unprepared for this response. They were outnumbered, surrounded and pushed back and forth. These weak-ass cop maneuvers show us that protesters could have done so much more. Instead, whenever individuals acted autonomously, the yellow-vests came in and policed their actions.
Northwestern doesn’t need new leaders or a different negotiation team. What this fight needs is action. If you’re reading this and you’re feeling disappointed, pissed-off, confused – you’re not alone. It doesn’t have to be over. There’s still time to turn this around. You came to this protest because you wanted to do something to stop the genocide in Gaza, for a free Palestine. Think about what it will take. What will make the administration recognize our collective power and tremble? How can you jeopardize their money, time, reputation or anything else they actually care about? If you’ve got an idea for something you want to do, get a crew together and do it! You can carry out any number of actions like barricading buildings, scaling roofs, interrupting meetings, chasing off cops, re-decorating campus, or showing up at the homes of administration members. Not only do you already have the numbers, when people see what you’re up to more of them will join. Just remember: keep yourself and your friends safe, cover your face and identifiable features, don’t bring your phone, don’t brag or talk about what you do. You’ve got this!
Submitted Anonymously
Chicago has amplified calls from the Palestinian resistance factions for mobilization against the Zionist entity and its enablers in the month of Ramadan and to mark six months since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Israel cannot prosecute this war of extermination without the financial support of the United States. Nor can it maintain the pace of destruction without massive American arms transfers. In light of this we level our attack on the reserves and industrial capacity of the military-industrial complex.
A short drive west from Chicago sits the Rock Island Arsenal, headquarters of the US Army’s Joint Munitions Command. The JMC produces, tests, stores, repairs, and distributes conventional weapons, chemical weapons, vehicles, and other materiel to supply the US armed forces – and for arms sales and transfers. A militarily designated strategic rail network (STRACNET) rail line crosses the west end of the island on which the arsenal sits, connecting it to other JMC facilities and the wider strategic rail network at large. This rail bridge crosses a section of the Mississippi River that frequently floods – as such, its steel supports on the industrial southern bank have seen better days.
On the night of 4/6 we attacked this vulnerable section of track. Inspired by actions of anti-war anarchocommunist factions in Russia, we loosened and removed bolts from the tracks, installed a shunt to halt rail traffic, and applied an oxidizing compound of iron oxide, salt, and paint stripper to portions of the already pitted and rusting steel. And while they can power wash the supports and replace the bolts, the corrosion has already taken hold. It will fester even beneath new paint. Perhaps a similar seed of corrosion will take root in the minds of those who sit assured of the US empire’s invulnerability.
Although we do not know the effects of our actions, we are choosing to publish them to demonstrate how easily accessible these targets are and how relatively few and simple materials can be employed in the fight against Zionism and its imperial master. Our research on the national network of JMC facilities, strategic rail infrastructure, and replicable methods of disruption can be found here.
Much focus has been on the visible symbols of American complicity: the driveways of plants and headquarters with names on them, individual politicians, the registering of dissent through crowds in the streets. But the machine grinds away on slowly failing rail, road, and port infrastructure. We offer this to comrades within Chicago and beyond: The tanks do not drive themselves to the transport ships. The white phosphorus does not pack itself into shells. STRACNET rail junctions and routes crisscross the country, easily accessible by millions. How far do you live from a JMC facility? Attack at the death machine’s weak points. Create uncertainty about the things these murderers take for granted.
Ever vigilant,
Eleventh Hour
Submitted anonymously
Breaking Through Borders and Prison Walls Building Bridges of Solidarity
A new Chicago Anarchist Black Cross is forming to strengthen networks of resistance and defend those facing state repression.
Having each other’s backs grows our collective capacity for revolutionary action so that we may break free from prison society. We are down with all those who fight for the abolition of all police and prisons, who refuse the logic of compromise and reform, who take bold action breaking the spell of law and order to defend the Earth and each other against all forms of oppression, domination, and exploitation.
We fight for the liberation of all imprisoned freedom fighters with the same urgency as we fight for the liberation of
everyone languishing in occupied lands and the colonizer’s cages throughout the world.
Free Them All!
The Spring Anarchist Skillshare is happening April 19-21!
To see the workshop descriptions and information regarding accessibility, child care, interpretation, etc., go to the welcome packet tab!
Have any questions/comments? Reach out to us at chicago_anarchist_skillshare@riseup.net
Via the Chicago Anarchist Skillshare.
