Cheers y’all, to another year of raising hell against the prison state in solidarity with our comrades and community behind the walls. Chicago did it right again with a rambunctious noise demo outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the hellacious downtown federal jailscraper. Mobile laser sound systems blasting, pots and pans clanging; bird whistles and a gaggle of megaphones filled the air with chaotic rhythms. Folks inside loudly banged windows from every cell window and floor, showing us dance moves and light shows of their own. “Free Them All!” we chanted, demanding the release of Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all political prisoners; and called out the pigs for the murder of Dexter Reed in his car, Sonya Massey in her home, Cory Ulmer and Robert Brooks behind bars, just a few of the over 1300 people murdered by police this year. On the street, plenty of passing revelers stopped by to see what the street ruckus party was about, checking out the zine cart and even helping hold the ACAB banner. The crowd marched around the building to make sure people on all sides got to see that they are not forgotten, to share the countdown to the end, to ring in the new year and join in on the dance party happening on the street.
An overwhelming pig presence surrounded the area for hours in advance: cruisers lining the streets with dozens of cops idling on corners, a fence blocking off the plaza was installed since last year. Despite their seeming omnipresence, we resisted, shaking their fences and shooting fireworks bouncing off the heights of those brutalist prison walls, exploding joyously outside cell windows. Later, some went to the ICE field office conveniently located down the street visible from MCC. The pigs were too slow to stop a little redecoration with an important unwelcoming message to incoming Trump ICE dictator Tom Homan: painted on the front efface, “Die, Homan. GTFO Chicago”, “Abolish ICE”. We marched on for several blocks before disappearing into the new year for more late night revelry; unfortunately, after everybody had already dispersed, some sneaky pigs apprehended at random a few people at a CTA train platform; one was held overnight and released with a misdemeanor.
It’s imperative to mark the connections between the carceral state and the xenophonic white supremacist colonial project of of mass deportation; many more prisons and jails are being planned to be built to process the millions of lives they intend to interrupt. Homan, the incoming “border czar” says Chicago is ground zero on day one of the incoming Trump regime: but they underestimate how fiercely determined and prepared people are to defend our city from their racist federal stormtrooper armies. We reject the racialized copagandized ‘dangerous city’ narrative crafted by an entire ecosystem of police scanner bros, racist nightcrawlers, and low-orbit suburban MAGA chuds feeding video clips to FOX and other right-wing outlets, who all year have spread disinformation and sensationalist lies, hyping up crime and demonizing migrants to the point of absurdity. They’ve been laying the groundwork for the incoming regime to attack the good people in our supposed leftist “Sanctuary City”, but even despite this policy, neoliberal administrations fail our newest residents with embarrassingly insufficient social services and decrepit ‘shelters’. A coordinated astroturf campaign from the right has been underway to divide communities and erode the public, an attempt on Illinois MAGA takeover: dustbin of history types Paul Vallas and Darren Bailey have failed mayoral and gubernatorial power grabs, but unfortunately Eileen O’Neill Burke snuck through as new top prosecutor, a racist FOP-backed former judge who in her first week dropped charges against Oak Lawn pig Patrick O’Donnell who committed a brutal hate crime against a 17 year old Palestinian. Caught between cowardly neoliberals and fascist onslaughts, it’s time to break from elections, reforms, and turn to each other to carve new paths.
Crime will be the main vector in which the incoming fascist regime will leverage in justification for their abhorrent plans to deport, meaning our strategy of defending against this must apply abolitionist frameworks and a rejection of “citizenship”, “peace”, and their “law and order”. The struggle to overthrow carceral society is tied directly to the fight for inherent and forever rights and unstoppable force of migration. Facing an untenable dystopic future, more people are realizing the necessity to organize autonomously and collectively, to fight to survive against this fascist wave of aggressive prison politics going buck wild with Trump’s re-election, and to build a more liberated existence. Escalate against the state and support the comrades willing to take risks to bring it all down!
Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that two people escaped from MCC with bedsheet ropes from above the 10th floor of this downtown monstrosity, a reminder that no wall is too high to deter our desires and stop the will of people yearning to be free. Free Them All!!
It has been more than a year since israel commenced its genocidal assault on Gaza. Armed and enabled by the US government, the Zionist entity has slaughtered more than 42,000 captive Palestinians within this timeframe while also systematically destroying Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and killing tens of thousands more by starvation and preventable disease. Nor has israel’s genocidal rampage been limited to Gaza—Zionist forces have murdered hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank within this timeframe, aggressively expanded israel’s settlement enterprise, and launched repeated attacks on Yemen, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq.
In the past week, israel’s aggression both in Gaza and across the region has reached unprecedented heights. As part of its ongoing effort to ethnically cleanse and erase Northern Gaza, it has imposed a total siege on the area, preventing all food and aid from entering it for the past 13 days. Deliberately assassinating journalists in the northern Gaza Strip, few bravely remain to broadcast to the world. Simultaneously, Israel has launched an all-out invasion into Lebanon, displacing over a million Lebanese citizens and slaughtering nearly 2,000 in recent weeks.
UChicago United for Palestine called this action to interrupt business as usual at the University of Chicago, whose financial and institutional ties with the Zionist entity mirror its objective role as a colonial outpost on Chicago’s South Side—gentrifying neighborhoods and surveilling, policing, and displacing the people who live here. Our experiences during last year’s encampment taught us that our demands—disclosure, divestment, and repair—would not be taken seriously without demonstrating our willingness and ability to use every means at our disposal, including suspending the daily operation of the university. We called this action in conjunction with an international movement against a civil society, state, and international order that prop up the Zionist entity, facilitate its genocide in Palestine, and enable its war of expansion in Lebanon.
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On the afternoon of October 11th, following a rally that drew more than 150 students, community members, and faculty, protestors locked the main gate of the University of Chicago shut before hanging a banner reading “FREE PALESTINE – HANDS OFF LEBANON.” This was the first of a series of autonomous actions that marked the end of the Week of Rage for Palestine and Lebanon, as we passed a year of genocide in Gaza.
Protestors later marched to a statue commemorating the University’s involvement in the development of the nuclear bomb. A speaker said: “Today, Palestine and Lebanon are being used as the testing grounds of technologies built by universities like this one.” Tags reading FREE GAZA, FUCK THE BOMBS, and KEEP ESCALATING proliferated, and balloons full of paint were thrown at the statue. He continued: “our ultimate message today is that we can pick apart this university, and when we do, we can build something better in its place.” When the crowd regrouped and began to march north to disperse, UCPD cut into the middle of the march, targeting several protestors.
As cops resorted to violence far beyond what we’ve seen in past protests, we witnessed the crowd band together to protect each other as protestors moved to surround a squad car. The twenty-minute standoff that ensued was Hyde Park’s most intense confrontation between protestors and police in recent memory, and the bravery and commitment displayed by dozens of people let the march hold its ground against UCPD and CPD for longer than anyone presumed possible. In the face of this substantial escalation of police violence, the crowd reacted instinctively and successfully prevented more than a dozen arrests.
Eventually, UCPD and CPD realized that protestors would not budge of their own accord. Sergeant Grays Sr. began to issue orders. First, he demanded the driver of the squad car run over protestors: “Just drive!” The car tried and failed to drive through the crowd, which again refused to yield. This prompted Grays and another UCPD officer to repeatedly pepper spray upwards of twenty protestors, one CPD captain and another CPD officer. When the crowd held together and continued to de-arrest despite the pepper spray, CPD joined in to beat protestors with batons—one later remarked that “that was fun for a little while.” Like before, when confronted with police violence we worked to help each other: people circled around the crowd washing eyes and teaching others to do the same.
Whether on campus, in the city, or in the street, the Palestine movement must recognize and confront its enemies: the university, the police, American civil society, and the state, all of which collaborate to facilitate dispossession, land theft, and occupation at home and abroad. The people who locked the gate did so to shut down a university that has refused to even acknowledge the destruction of all Gazan universities, much less the ongoing genocide. It symbolized how, while we walk to class every day, the schools in Gaza are bombed, while israel’s genocide against Palestinians continues and the university remains materially and intellectually invested. Protestors painted the nuclear bomb statue red to expose the university’s culpability in the nuclear weapons program, a fact they memorialize through a statue that was explicitly designed to reflect “the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion, but also ha[ve] the shape and eye sockets of a skull”—mirrored in the present by its ‘neutral’ research and development programs which directly abet the slaughter in Gaza and Lebanon.
When UCPD and CPD came at protestors with batons, attempted to run people over, and mass pepper-sprayed in a drastic escalation of police violence from prior protests at the University, the crowd responded instinctively, recognizing that we must protect each other from the university’s agents of brutality. The people who spontaneously decided to surround a squad car, confront two police departments, and not back down in the face of pepper spray and batons realized that UCPD and CPD stand between us and divestment: the police are an occupying force, and the solidarity movement for a free Palestine will have to go through them.
In Palestinian culture, there is a state of being called sumud, which translates to steadfastness. The Palestinian people have remained steadfast for a century, planted firmly on their land and resisting all zionist attempts at displacement and ethnic cleansing. Over the past year of escalated genocide, Palestinians in Gaza and Arabs facing zionist attacks across the region have not, for a single moment, abandoned their sumud: their commitment to their land, their people, and their right to live with dignity and pride.
We will never stop fighting as long as they face genocide and occupation. We will remain steadfast and committed in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation, and the cause of all those who face brutal violence and occupation from UCPD and CPD every day. And we will not stop fighting until Palestine is free!
This release is issued by UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP), a student coalition calling for the immediate end of israel’s genocide against Palestinians, an immediate ceasefire, and the immediate end of israel’s siege on Gaza and occupation of Palestine. This coalition is committed to the liberation of Palestine and supports the ongoing campaign demanding that the University of Chicago cut its ties to the Israel Institute on campus and also supports the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement.
Update from the Casey Support Committee August 12, 2024
On July 23rd Casey was indicted by a federal grand jury on three charges all relating to the same incident. Two of the charges allege destruction of property by fire/explosives and carry a 5-20 year sentence each if convicted. The third charge alleges possession of an unregistered firearm and carries a maximum of 10 years (note: “firearm” here is referring to the alleged destructive device, not a gun). Casey’s lawyers have officially agreed to represent them in federal court.
Casey is back in Santa Rita in federal custody and expects to remain where they are for the time being. All the transfers and changes in custody were jarring and Casey will hopefully be able to finally settle into a routine. Alongside their already rigorous usual studies they have been pursuing their own legal self-education in preparation for their ongoing case.
In observance of Black August, Casey will be participating in FLEA days along with one other person from their pod- 24 hour fasts in commemoration of New Afrikan revolutionaries on the days they were assassinated. Here is more information about the history of Black August for those wanting to learn more!
People across the country have been putting out beautiful statements of support! These are so important as they demonstrate the incredible love people have for Casey for their years of commitment to community, solidarity, and mutual aid.
Statement of Solidarity with Casey Goonan by Stevie Wilson Message of Support to Free Casey Goonan: Free Them All! by Hybachi LeMar of Black Autonomy Federation – Chicago
The support team has also been working on launching a crowdfunding campaign for Casey, so please stay tuned and start thinking about how to mobilize your networks or throw a fundraiser yourself! Updates will come soon. We can currently already accept large donations from individual donors in the form of checks, please reach out for more information to make this happen.
If you would like to write Casey, you can do so at: Casey Goonan #UMF227 Santa Rita Jail 5325 Broder Blvd Dublin, CA 94568
Casey is still excited to receive mail including updates on news and current affairs as they have been feeling cut off from the world.
As a reminder:
Do not discuss the case. Casey is still pre-trial and receiving mail concerning their case can seriously endanger them.
Do not valorize Casey. They are a person and a member of our community, not a symbol or martyr. Casey isn’t looking for praise, but rather to maintain correspondence.
Do not write anything you wouldn’t want Fox News, a cop, or a judge to see. Assume that intelligence and law enforcement agencies are reading your letter.
As you correspond with Casey, they may send requests aside from books or commissary. Please coordinate directly with Casey’s Support Committee regarding additional asks.
If you wish to help keep money on Casey’s books, there are several ways to do this:
At the jail via the TouchPay kiosk in the lobby.
Sending a money order in the mail. The money order must be made payable to “Casey Goonan #UMF227” and there must be no other material in the envelope. No cash or personal checks will be accepted.
Online with a credit card via one of the vendor platforms run by GlobalTel such as accesscorrections.com or connectnetwork.com. You will have to create an account. If the platform offers different fund options, the fund you want to get Casey money for commissary is called the “Trust Fund”.
Your ongoing support is so needed and appreciated. To receive these updates by email, message cscommittee@proton.me
Stay strong! Stay tuned! Love & Struggle from the Casey Support Committe
My name is Hybachi LeMar and I’m a member of the Black Autonomy Federation Chicago Local Organizing Committee. I’m sending this message to support the release of scholar activist dedicated community organizer and friend Casey Goonan.
When I was houseless, he let me eat and sleep in his home. Each morning we asked each other, “What’s your positive affirmation for the day?” We take a meaningful moment before sharing a positive truth, both of us knowing it’s significance in our lives when we internalize it as an instrument of our liberation. More often than not, for the years I’ve known Casey, he’s neglecting his own needs to prioritize those of others, has led me to ask him instinctively, if he’s taken his meds yet. And I’ve lost count how many times he thanked me for reminding him before asking if I remembered to take mine too.
With barely anything in his pocket, I watched him fill a perfect stranger’s diabetic medication prescription. He’s loved, and I don’t mean by me, but by street walkers and other commoners throughout Chicago.
He’s organized fundraisers in one particular area of the city on several occasions. We’d pass out $20 bills he prefilled in envelopes, for every single houseless person on the street, or asking for change. From one corner to the next, up one gentrified block and up another, not letting him know the contents, or lingering around for thanks; often with the clenched fist of unity and a solidarity smile. It was heartwarming to hand out gloves, masks, hygiene supplies like cases of hand sanitizer, chips, and other community needs for free, under the el train one blistering winter amidst the pandemic from a makeshift warming center he’d open each weekend. A smile on people’s faces glow from appreciation, from those of us who know him, to the newcomers asking ‘And this is for free?’ when glancing at the fold-out tables, not far from the turnstile. “Mm-hmm! Yep! Help yourself,” Casey responds, wishing them a good day and to take care, which is substantial to folks rendered socio-economically invisible in the city. Free, the root word in freedom, has been top priority as an agenda item for Casey from dusk til dawn every day of every year that I’ve known him. He likes to remind everyone how special we are in this world, by showing how easy and necessary it is to care for each other, and to help a world that could certainly use it, offering a space and a table of togetherness, and free education. As a publisher, he provides an invaluable resource for writers. With freedom inspired by billions of us, it speaks not only to our conscious, but to our collective benefit to know we’re substantially freer in this world with him inside it. We, particularly poor folk throughout the city, appreciate him.
The socio-economically engineered gentrification spiraling genocide by poverty in Chicago’s northside has been as politically protracted as an alienated southside housing he helped me leaflet. His spirit of spending his last to buy insulin for the diabetic outside the electric doors at Walgreens is the same one alive in the Holy Land 5 that sends medicine and food supplies to orphans in Palestine.
Casey Goonan is a walking model of our aspired-after ideals as Human Beings. A genuine listener, whose aura is evident in the integrity of compassion. His ideals against genocide are shared by me and each of us around the globe who envision a world released from it’s grip.
Free Casey Goonan! Free Jack Mazurek! Free the Cop City 61! Drop the charges against the Merrimack 4 and the Mountain Valley pipeline defenders! Free the Holy Land Foundation 5! Free Leonard Peltier! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Free Cletus C Rivera! Free them all!
In solidarity with the Columbia University Hinds Hall demonstrators and the CUNY 22.
Many years ago, while imprisoned at SCI-Smithfield, and struggling to keep our study groups afloat, I received an e-mesage from Casey Goonan. I had no clue whom he was. He said he reached out because he heard about the work I was doing inside and wanted to offer any assistance he could. He did, and he continued to do so. Casey has been one of the most consistent and ready allies/accomplices of imprisoned people. Whether producing zines that center imprisoned voices, mailing zines to imprisoned people at no cost, coordinating phone zaps to combat repression by prison officials, raising funds for mutual aid, building social media presence for imprisoned folx or just lending an attentive ear to the concerns of imprisoned people, Casey has been unstinting in his support of anyone, anywhere, who is being oppressed.
My friend, my comrade, my brother, is currently being held in a county jail in CA. I wish I were out there to do more for him, to manifest by love and solidarity for him. What I want everyone to know is that Casey Goonan is an amazing ally/accomplice of oppressed people everyone. In this, his time of need, he should be supported and cared for. I ask people to keep close tabs on the situation, show up for Casey and make sure that while he is inside, jail officials do not harm him or exacerbate his condition. I don’t ever claim to speak for all imprisoned people, but I feel confident in saying that thousands of imprisoned people across this land have benefited from Casey’s efforts. We ask you support our comrade and care for him.
Casey’s arrest and incarceration have obviously caused immense distress and disruption to Casey’s life. They have entered the belly of the beast! Yet their dedication to abolition, commitment to study, perseverance, humor and spirit continue to shine through despite their conditions.
LEGAL UPDATE Casey’s state charges were dismissed and the case has been moved under federal jurisdiction.
One federal charge has been unsealed, a single count of arson, 18 U.S.C. 844(f)(1). If convicted, this charge alone could mean 5-20 years plus a quarter million dollar fine. We are anticipating that additional charges could follow.
Last week, Casey was moved to SF County Jail to appear in court on outstanding warrants. The transfer forced Casey to spend over 24 hours in a holding cell without access to insulin, to endure several hours long bus rides while shackled, harassment from correction officers, sleep deprivation, and inadequate access to food needed to regulate their blood sugar. These experiences were very disregulating and their mental and physical health have been fluctuating as a result.
They have just arrived back at Santa Rita/Alameda County Jail under federal custody. We anticipate that Casey will stay at Santa Rita for the foreseeable future as they await trial. We are hopeful that things will stabilize now that the recent rounds of transfers and unpredictable court appearances have settled down for the moment.
In the move to SF and back to Santa Rita, Casey lost access to the books and mail that they had been sent while previously at Santa Rita. We are intending to look into getting their belongings returned, but in the meantime they would appreciate more books, zines and printed out news articles. Any excess or duplicate literature can be shared inside.
Freeing Casey will likely be a long fight. Just as Casey has persistently for years cared for, supported, and struggled alongside incarcerated comrades, we aim to replicate these actions in solidarity with Casey as they continue their struggle from the other side of the wall.
WAYS TO SUPPORT
Write Casey With the case now being federal, Casey has a new PFN. Their mailing address is now:
Casey Goonan #UMF227 Santa Rita Jail 5325 Broder Blvd Dublin, CA 94568
Casey is excited to receive mail including updates on news and current affairs as they have been feeling cut off from the world.
What not to write about:
Do not discuss the case. Casey is still pre-trial and receiving mail concerning their case can seriously endanger them.
Do not valorize Casey. They are a person and a member of our community, not a symbol or martyr. Casey isn’t looking for praise, but rather to maintain correspondence.
Do not write anything you wouldn’t want Fox News, a cop, or a judge to see. Assume that intelligence and law enforcement agencies are reading your letter.
As you correspond with Casey, they may send requests aside from books or commissary. Please coordinate directly with Casey’s Support Committee regarding additional asks.
For those who have written Casey and have not heard back yet, Casey mentioned that they hadn’t received any of the mail that was sent to them at Santa Rita after June 22nd. With Casey going in and out of different jurisdictional systems, it is likely that much of their mail has been lost, ‘lost’, or returned to sender. Casey also wants people to know that the mail system is very slow so it may take a while for people to hear back from them.
Send Casey some commissary funds Casey’s support team has made sure that they have some funds on their commissary account upon arrival back at Santa Rita.
If you wish to help keep money on Casey’s books, there are several ways to do this:
At the jail via the TouchPay kiosk in the lobby.
Sending a money order in the mail. The money order must be made payable to “Casey Goonan #UMF227” and there must be no other material in the envelope. No cash or personal checks will be accepted.
Online with a credit card via one of the vendor platforms run by GlobalTel such as accesscorrections.com or connectnetwork.com. You will have to create an account. If the platform offers different fund options, the fund you want to get Casey money for commissary is called the “Trust Fund”.
Fundraising In addition to making sure Casey has commissary funds, we are preparing to fundraise for Casey’s legal representation. Stay tuned and on call for more info on fundraising.
Casey knows they have the support of their community and appreciates everyone who has shown up in court, written letters, sent literature, and expressed care and solidarity. This will be a long struggle, and we commit ourselves to it until Casey is free. Please join us!
To receive these updates by email, message cscommittee@proton.me
Over issues of poor basic conditions in their housing unit, Casey went on hunger strike, refusing trays and only taking liquids from June 22 to June 27. At one point, Casey went hypoglycemic and ate some gummy worms (C is diabetic.)
The strike had 4 main demands:
A pencil sharpener so that people can consistently write letters, grievances, etc.
An increase in water pressure so that people don’t have to put their lips to the faucet in order to drink.
An end to weekend lockdowns, the jail predictably claiming that this is due to “staffing issues”
Increased yard time and use of recreational equipment. (Currently the unit only receives 1 hour of yard time a week on a bare yard with no equipment, balls, etc.)
In parallel with the hunger strike, Casey filed grievances on each of these issues and circulated a petition around the unit regarding the issue of weekend lockdowns.
On the morning of June 27th a deputy met with Casey and committed to meeting the first two demands. (A working pencil sharpener and increased water pressure.)
With the meeting of these two demands, Casey agreed to end their hunger strike and ate lunch on June 27th. Casey said they intend to eat, get rest, and to study further on the policies and case law surrounding such lockdowns which already seem to violate policy and federal law. Deputies have also agreed to take up the remaining two demands with their superiors.
Casey wants everyone to know they are doing well despite their conditions. Casey appreciates all the letters and books and wants everyone to know that all mail is processed really slowly but they do intend to respond in due time.
Casey signed off with “Love and Struggle.”
♥️♥️♥️
___________
All inquiries, asks, offers, or requests to subscribe to these updates can be sent to cscommittee@proton.me
We are a decentralized collective of animal rights activists using disruptive tactics to further the goal of Total Animal Liberation. Target number one is the fur industry.
This recent weekend, we along with dozens of other cities strong-armed the most influential American designer, Marc Jacobs, to go FUR-FREE.
MJ lied to activists in 2013 by mislabeling faux fur when it turned out to be dog fur, he lied in 2018 to activists that confronted him about his use of fur when he claimed he would never use fur again – only to resume in 2023 when he collaborated with Fendi on an ugly hat (made out of fox). Fendi’s motto in the past was “Fur is Fendi, Fendi is fur”. Both corporations are owned by LVMH, owned by the richest man in the world: Bernard Aurnault (who also funds the current genocide in Palestine).
After 2 years of store protests and asking nicely, home demos erupted in the US (particularly NYC), resulting in his full commitment to never use fur again. The Chicago contingent remained steadfast in our local efforts until victory was secured.
100 million animals are tortured on these fur farms with no quality of life – all for the vanity and greed. We are happy to declare that Marc Jacobs will no longer sell fur today nor in the future. Strategic pressure campaigns work, join us.
“The flea has fascinating fighting strategies and techniques…It does not kill its host…what it does is exhaust its host and consume its blood, causing constant disturbance, eventually preventing the host from being able to rest. It makes the host nervous and demoralized. […]
[T]he guerilla fights its wars like fleas…If the battle lasts long enough to exhaust the host then it will fail in the battle due to its weakness while unable to locate the flea(s)…[F]ight like a flea.” Live Like A Porcupine, Fight Like A Flea
“The beginning of every revolution is an exit, an exit from the social order that power has enshrined in the name of law, stability, public interest, and the greater good.” Exiting Law & Entering Revolution
CONTEXT
Since October 7th, Chicago has seen countless marches and actions that have been successful in bringing out hundreds and thousands of people. However, many of these numbers consist of suburbanites driving or being bussed into the city to show support, rather than a mass of Chicagoans coming together from across the deeply race- and class-segregated city. In addition, these marches have usually been put on by a small number of nonprofit organizations. They have been heavily marshaled and largely symbolic, leaving many people demoralized and looking for more.
As every day sees more Gazans murdered by the zionist entity, symbolic parades that play into respectability politics at every turn and ask the state for permission to protest are clearly a toothless and insufficient response. Small, isolated acts of sabotage aren’t enough either—it is crucial to seek more militant forms of collective action. These actions should demonstrate an understanding of the throughline between the colonial states of the US and Israel, and the need to abolish both entirely—prisons, police, military, and state bureaucracies alike—to stop both the genocide in Gaza and the daily forms of state violence here in Chicago. From within the imperial core, there’s an obligation to interrupt the material support that the “U.S.” provides “israel.”
In order to encourage more militant collective action, there is a need for a change in protest culture that is rife with peace policing liberal concerns about “outside agitators.” Contrary to what peace police, protest managers, and the heads of liberal social justice organizations would have us believe, many people are looking to take more escalated action and learn the skills to do so together. This desire clearly expressed itself in flashes at the campus encampments here in Chicago, including in the brief but impactful establishment of the Casbah of Basel Al Araj on the University of Chicago campus.
SUMMARY OF EVENTS
Around 4:40 pm on Friday, May 17th, as the University of Chicago’s Alumni Weekend kicked off, a group of protestors marched to the Institute of Politics on the University of Chicago campus. Soon after they arrived, a group entered the building and barricaded its entrances from the inside. Banners were dropped from the upstairs windows. Staff working in the building were told that the building was being occupied and it was time for them to leave. Most of the building’s occupants complied, but the director of the institute, who happened to be a former senator, refused to leave. Cops were able to breach a first-floor door on the side of the building that led to the basement, but protestors prevented them from accessing the inside of the building for the time being.
Meanwhile, the crowd outside was trying to prevent cops from entering the building but did not succeed in blocking pigs from going up the porch stairs to the front door. Once the pigs got to the front door, it only took them a few hard yanks to break the barricade’s pull on the front door. From there, the protestors regrouped to the second floor and tried to barricade that floor. As pigs started to enter the second floor, the protestors retreated to a small conference room, and held off the pigs for long enough to leave the building through windows and onto a porch roof. Just as the cops were able to enter the room, everyone escaped onto the roof and climbed down into the crowd. From there, people were able to escape using the cover of the crowd. No arrests were made.
As police worked to enter the building, protestors outside had set up barricades in the gangway between the IOP and a neighboring building, making it harder for cops to move between the front and back yards. After protestors made their escape and active clashes with cops slowed down, people began to set up tents and chairs on the front lawn of the building, and continued to occupy space in the back yard as well. Food and snacks arrived, attempts were made to set up a speaker system (though cops threw a wrench in this plan by cutting an extension cord), and kids played on the lawn. The demands of the action and the principles guiding it were read aloud.
Struggles with police occurred in the building’s backyard, as cops attempted to control the space and warned that arrests would be made if any more tents were set up. A nearby frat blasted shitty music (the national anthem and mediocre dad rock with a quick reprieve in the form of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5), trying to drown out protestors’ chants. Protestors continued to surround the building and hang out until around 9:30 PM, at which point protestors assessed that there was not enough energy, support, or numbers to spend the night amid cops’ threats to start making arrests. The group marched to the University president’s house nearby with chants of “we’ll be back.”
TAKEAWAYS
We share these takeaways in an effort to contribute to tactical and strategic knowledge developing across campuses, as solidarity encampments have been set up, attacked, repressed, voluntarily disbanded, and in some cases escalated. We hope this can be useful to others pursuing escalated tactics in solidarity with Gaza and in resistance to colonial violence at home and far away.
(1) On escapes and exits—hope for the best & prep for the worst. Protestors who entered to barricade the IOP were able to make a full escape—footage shows them climbing safely from the roof into the waiting arms of friends. It wasn’t clear in advance that this would be possible, but folks inside were quick on their feet and had the foresight to leave to fight another day.
The University of Chicago’s campus is highly policed by the private University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) and the municipal Chicago Police Department (CPD), so drawing enough protestors to fend off an initial police response was going to be difficult, especially during Alumni Weekend when police presence was already heightened. UCPD responded most actively to the protest, quickly moving past protestors attempting to block the front steps; removing furniture blocking the front door; shoving protestors and throwing chairs at them; and then entering and sweeping the building. CPD officers set up lines on all sides of the building, but mostly sat back and watched events unfold, after initially chasing some protestors who attempted to barricade the alley behind the building back into the crowd.
Leaving the building so quickly was not the only way things could have unfolded. Had the front door barricade held, or had protestors blockaded more successfully from outside, UCPD cops would not have entered the building so quickly, and protestors could have remained inside longer. This would have necessitated longer-term organizing from supporters outside the building, and perhaps a different police response. By the time police entered the building, it might not have been possible for protestors to exit into a friendly crowd; leaving in handcuffs was thus a possibility protestors likely anticipated.
However, the protestors at Casbah of Basel Al Araj had no apparent interest in symbolic arrests, and seized the opportunity to leave when pigs breached the building and an escape route presented itself. This flexibility, and mental preparation to leave if possible rather than submit to forms of “surrender” and planned arrests, was a strategic strength.
(2) On scouting, preparation & logistics – practice more.
At the Casbah, cops were able to move relatively quickly through barricades protestors attempted on the building’s doors.Had there been more materials on site for back-up barricades—or more knowledge on site about methods of barricading doors—protestors might have been able to improvise stronger barricades and hold the space for longer. Practicing skills routinely, to be more ready to act in escalated action situations and to pivot on the fly when plans change, is an evergreen takeaway that’s especially relevant at actions where success hinges on specialized techniques and tactics.
Further, having more supplies on site for the full range of possible scenarios would’ve served the action well. Tents, chairs, food, and more defensive materials didn’t arrive on site as soon as they could have, which delayed the crowd’s ability to jump in and support holding the space.
(3) On Identifying Cop Tactics—Repression goes beyond arrests. The fact that no arrests were made is always something to celebrate. However, it’s important not to reduce state repression to a single tactic. Cops may not have taken anyone away on the day of the protest, but they did stand by with body cameras recording footage throughout, and at several moments pointed out specific individuals within the crowd, seeming to single them out for increased attention. We can’t be sure why specific people were pointed out. The cops could be noticing people arrested in previous protests, they could be trying to identify potential organizers of an action, or mapping networks to see who might know each other. Observing these practices underscores the importance of disguising identities when in action spaces, and having a robust threat model. For all we know, arrests could be attempted weeks after an action using footage of people involved, as we saw in 2020 in Chicago after a protest in Grant Park where a statue of Col*mbus used to stand.
(4) On liberal co-optation — strong principles set the tone.
This action aimed to disrupt the pattern of liberals deescalating confrontational tactics through peace policing. So, we created principles of unity that included escalation, self-defense, non-cooperation with the state, and diversity of tactics. We shared those principles through fliers handed out to the crowd before the march, and through announcing them over the megaphone at the rally outside the Casbah.
Setting these expectations, and very visibly sharing and practicing the principles and demands that don’t fit into liberal organizations’ platforms, made it harder for liberals to co-opt our action. As we thought might happen, liberal organizations emerged after a few hours and tried to tell people what to do. When they did, they were shut down and ignored by the protestors, with some responding to people claiming to be “police liaisons” with “this action doesn’t have police liaisons.” These same liberal organizations also took issue with some of the demands because “fuck the police and gentrification” don’t fit neatly into their single issue platforms, making the action harder to co-opt. Messaging should focus on reaching folks who share values and ideological leanings, like being critical of cooptation, reform, and negotiation.
The demands issued also helped prevent co-optation. They were:
1. Free Palestine
2. Abolish the University
3. Land Back
4. Fuck gentrification
5. Fuck 12
Following the logic that making demands pushes movements and insurrections toward negotiation and moderation, and leaning into the observation that there is no centralized authority capable of granting us the world we insist on building (without abolishing itself…) the demands are maximalist, general, uncompromising, and reject incremental logic. They challenge respectability and the demands-based framework itself, making it harder for liberal organizations to claim credit for the energy or power built by the action.
(5) On student radicalization — learning by doing.
Student organizations limit imagination of possible actions and control protests into being governable, peaceful, and nonviolent. Often, the heads of these organizations are obsessed with the idea that they are responsible for keeping a crowd safe and are willing to police the actions of others in the name of preventing arrest. When not intentionally challenged, the campus bubble of student organizing can isolate students from non-student genocide resisters, which means isolation from collective knowledge of resistance techniques.
While the encampments did allow for some new networks to be formed and more militant tactics to be shared, some organizers were more interested in control than in escalation. This desire for control played out along racial lines, as students in the encampements policed Black protestors and failed to understand the reality of police violence.
In addition to more methods to occupy, defend, and evade, this action also led students to think about the question of demands. Traditional organizing encourages creating “achievable” divestment demands and other institutional reforms. But students are seeing that demands and appeasement reforms don’t go far enough. The full disruption of the University’s ties to occupation, genocide and imperialism requires the abolition of the University institution.
The Casbah of Basel al-Araj showed students that they can take actions which threaten power and that they can do so without the permission of a central organization. Students saw that actions do not have to end in performative arrest. We lose our ability to attack if we all go to jail. Risking capture can be done with strategy and material impact, but being captured is not the goal.
At the Casbah, the possibility of autonomous action and militant escalation was not just theoretical. Students and non-students joined in by building barricades, covering for people exiting IOP, kettling the cops, joining other actions throughout the day, and opposing co-optation.
CONCLUSION
From the Casbah of Basel al-Araj, protestors demonstrated the possibility for forms of escalation that allows for an escape from marshals, peace-policing, student and nonstudent divides, and negotiation, and can allow for a variety of tactics. It also showed students disaffected from the encampment and failures to escalate that it is possible to attack and escape—both from the clutches of police and from the hierarchical peace policing of liberal student groups attempting to suppress more militant actions. The university is accidentally giving its students an education in autonomy and direct action. What we learn from disrupting the university, prepares us to intensify and deepen our actions to free Palestine. School may be out for summer, but the fight goes on.
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.
