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Episode 1
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On today's show we feature our Behind the Barricades roundup of movement news, events, and updates, along with a look at the recent media explosion following the shooting of a United Healthcare CEO in New York.
We then speak with someone involved in a new campaign to support Stop Cop City defendants facing both RICO and domestic terrorism charges.
Finally, we speak with a long-time anarchist to look back on the historic mobilization against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.
Music featuring:
Seaside Tryst @ https://seasidetryst.bandcamp.com/album/different-places
Gary Lamaar, "Freedom Rap" (garylamaar.bandcamp.com)
Transcript
Introduction to 'The Beautiful Idea'
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello! You're listening to the first episode of The Beautiful Idea, a new project from a collective of several anarchists and autonomous media producers scattered around the world. We're bringing you interviews and stories from the frontlines of autonomous social movements and struggles, as well as original commentary and analysis. We plan to put out about two episodes a month. One will be more focused on action news and include shorter interviews with frontline activists and organizers, and the other will feature longer, more deep dive interviews or reports on specific topics, including theoretical or historical analysis.
Movement News & Historical Reflections
00:00:54
Speaker
On today's show, we feature our Behind the Barricades roundup of movement news, events, and updates, along with a look at the recent media explosion following the shooting of a UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York. We then speak with someone involved in a new campaign to support the stop-cop city defendants facing both RICO and domestic terrorism charges. Finally, we speak with a longtime anarchist to look back on the historic mobilizations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999. Thanks for listening.
Protests Against Tech & Environmental Injustice
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome to Behind the Barricades on the Beautiful Idea, a roundup of action news and upcoming events across so-called North America. In October, an Austin, Texas, anarchist and pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied and marched against tech giants in their role in facilitating the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Counter-info website Atana Media reported, 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. In Chicago, Unsalted reported on a recent mobilization against the Mid-Continent Gas Conference. A report
Housing and Pro-Choice Protests
00:02:20
Speaker
back wrote,
00:02:21
Speaker
A group of people entered the hotel hosting the conference and crashed the attendees welcome reception of the 2024 Mid-Continent Gas Conference. A banner with the words, Embridge out of the Great Lakes shut down Line 5 now on one side and Evil Embridge fuck off on the other side was unfurled at the Cocktail Hour reception. People sang and chanted with the bullhorn, played instruments and left messages for Embridge and other gas companies inside the hotel.
00:02:50
Speaker
After causing a ruckus inside, the group walked outside to the bar's patio overlooking the Chicago River and less than one mile from Lake Michigan to greet more LDC conference attendees with noise, banners, and rowdy jeers. One person was arrested by the pigs for allegedly trespassing and released on site.
00:03:09
Speaker
In Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Halloween night, a rowdy crowd held a spooky demonstration outside of a slumlord's home. A report back posted to Unsalted wrote, Hark! Let it be known that on this 31st of October, Devil's Night, we, the peasants of so-called Ypsilanti, have declared that we've had enough of landlords. You have left us serfs with garbage, so we left you with our garbage.
00:03:36
Speaker
eggs on your stupid giant windows, rotten tomatoes all over your door and porch, and remnants of our chamber pots in the form of toilet paper all over your trees. The ghosts of Christmas past gave Scrooge a second chance, but the ghosts of Devil's Night and Halloween do not.
Pipeline Resistance & Broader Demonstrations
00:03:53
Speaker
The slumlord will know no comfort until he abandons his properties and makes reparations for his crimes.
00:04:00
Speaker
In November in Boston, clashes broke out when hundreds of pro-choice counter demonstrators faced off against riot police and far-right gender fascists holding a men's march to abolish abortion. Police made several arrests of counter demonstrators who attempted to block streets in the face of the far-right procession. You can check out a report back linked in our show notes.
00:04:22
Speaker
Anger is rising in so-called British Columbia against the PRGT pipeline. An anonymous report on BC counter-info claimed credit for spiking thousands of trees along the PRGT pipeline route. It went on to state, it's up to each of us to combat this project. We hope this effort poses one more obstacle. Indigenous people are also currently fighting their project in a variety of ways.
00:04:46
Speaker
In Cleveland, Ohio, around 100 people rallied outside of a jail in support of several folks arrested for supposedly writing pro-Palestinian graffiti slogans on a college campus. Also in Claremont, California, over 100 people rallied in support of students being targeted for oppression over ongoing actions in support of the anti-war struggle.
00:05:07
Speaker
Hundreds protested in solidarity with Palestine at UT Austin against an appearance by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. In 2013, Bennett claimed, quote, I have killed lots of Arabs in my life and there is no problem with that. In anti-fascist news, a small protest was held outside of the yearly white supremacist American Renaissance Conference in Tennessee.
00:05:30
Speaker
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, hundreds mobilized in support of the LGBTQ plus community and against proposed book bands by gender fascists. Demonstrators also rallied against attempts by MAGA Grifters to speak before the local school board.
Campus Activism & Divestment Demands
00:05:44
Speaker
A post Blue Sky reported, quote, the community was able to surround and for some of the gender fascists rallying outside to leave.
00:05:52
Speaker
while filling the air with chance of solidarity and love. Drowning out the mic and their speaker, we saw people along the outskirts of this crowd breaking into tears as they felt the power of the community standing together. Hundreds rallied at Penn State in Pennsylvania against a quote, pray the gay away event hosted by washed up white supremacist Milo Yiannopoulos.
00:06:13
Speaker
best known for promoting and working with the neo-nazi Nick Fuentes and promoting white nationalism at Breitbart News before being fired for endorsing pedophilia. In Columbus, Ohio, a group of neo-Nazis attempted to hold a small march with swastika flags, but quickly found themselves attacked by members of the community. While stopped by local law enforcement, neo-Nazis told police that people pulled guns on them and threw cans and vegetables as they marched, and they were covered in pepper spray by angry locals.
00:06:43
Speaker
The next day, a group of black men organized a counter-demonstration. Students in Lafayette, Louisiana organized a demonstration against gender fascists with Turning Point USA, who held an event attacking trans people on Trans Day of Remembrance. In Montreal, anti-fascists held a large march in demonstration against a medal festival scheduled to feature several acts connected to the far-right and neo-Nazi groups. Anti-fascist researchers have also recently released doxes and exposรฉs on neo-Nazis in North Carolina,
00:07:12
Speaker
members of the Goyem Defense League and the now-defunct National Justice Party. Things are still hot on campus, as the student intifada keeps the pressure on university administrators to divest from Israeli apartheid. In Montreal, thousands of students took part in massive coordinated strikes demanding divestment as student strikers marched through the Concordia campus,
00:07:34
Speaker
picketing and briefly occupying buildings. The next day a mass march took place against a NATO summit as a large black block broke out windows at the event center holding the summit as demonstrators clashed with authorities.
00:07:47
Speaker
A communique from the Black Block posted to Montreal Counter Info wrote, The military interventions supported by NATO protect governments aligned with American interests and crush any alternative, keeping the global south under capitalist constraints. The media will focus on our violence. They will manipulate our messages, our messages confronting the atrocities perpetuated by Israel and NATO, responsible for millions of deaths.
00:08:11
Speaker
So it's crucial to say again that it is the brutality and the oppressive structures governess that we fight, that is the worst violence, that is the
Housing Crises and Eviction Protests
00:08:20
Speaker
states. Back in New York, students on the CUNY campus took over a floor used by administrators, renaming it Fatima's Floor, demanding divestment from the school. Students at the nearby Sarah Lawrence College also engaged in a sit-in and building takeover, dropping banners and demanding divestment.
00:08:38
Speaker
Students then set up an encampment outside the building to continue the protest. The 13th hunger strike this year is kicked off at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, according to La Restencia. According to the group, 40 people are taking part.
00:08:53
Speaker
prisoners are demanding an end to solitary confinement, better food, and access to healthcare, and for ICE to end its contract with the Geo Group. In tenant news, a rent strike in Missouri has continued into its third month, with residents vowing to not back down until their demands are met, including a rent cap among other priorities. Meanwhile, in Sweetwater, Florida, residents of a mobile home community are taking to the streets in protest of a looming threat of eviction.
00:09:19
Speaker
Here is an audio report from a member of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation. This is Adam Weaver of Miami Black Rose Rosonegata with a report on the struggle of Miami mobile home residents facing mass displacement. A new fight highlighting the struggle over housing has erupted in Miami. In mid-November, thousands of residents living in the massive 900 unit Little Abner mobile home park located in the Miami suburb of Sweetwater received a surprise notice announcing they had only a few months to abandon in their homes and move.
00:09:49
Speaker
Many residents fear that they will have nowhere affordable to go as rental prices in Miami-Dade County have skyrocketed by nearly 60% over the past five years, and the average rent price for a two-bedroom apartment is now over $3,400 per month, according to Rent ah.com.
00:10:07
Speaker
Furious at facing mass displacement, residents immediately took to social media and began staging nearly daily protests at a nearby busy intersection under the slogan, no desa lojo, or stop the evictions. Overheard were comments from residents that quote, this is worse than Cuba and that local politicians have abandoned them. The population of the park is almost entirely working class Latino immigrants, many families, but also a significant number of elderly or disabled residents living on fixed incomes.
00:10:38
Speaker
Residents may own the homes that they live in, but the land that they sit on still remains property of the ownership, with most homes unable to be relocated. Adding insult to injury, while the owners have offered residents 14,000 to leave by mid-January, which decreases to the legal minimum of 3,000 if they do not move until April, the resident owners are responsible for dismantling their homes, which in itself can cost thousands.
00:11:05
Speaker
Whether residents recently bought into the park or spent decades paying off a mortgage, the value in their investment will be wiped away. Another layer to the situation is the mobile home park is being cleared out to begin construction on a supposedly affordable and workforce housing development by CREI Holdings owned by Miami businessman Raul Rodriguez. The mayor of Sweetwater, Jose Pepe Diaz, who has claimed to be as surprised by the eviction notice as the residents, has since been revealed to have sponsored a 2022 resolution, which allocated more than a half a million dollars to the project.
Military & Police Action Protests
00:11:44
Speaker
The struggle at Little Abner Mobile Home Park has attracted the support of local activist groups and residents are forming into a new association to press their demands with the ownership and city officials, demanding greater compensation and extension of time, or to side with the residents and block the eviction altogether.
00:12:03
Speaker
Since this report was recorded, tensions ignited again after police violently arrested one woman who was protesting as homes were being physically destroyed. Check out a larger report and info on ways to support the struggle linked in our show notes. In the Bay Area, 75 people converged at Travis Air Force Base, shutting down the entrance to the base with a blockade, an effort to block the weapons supply chain from Travis to Israel of US bombs and military supplies that aid in the ongoing horrors of genocide.
00:12:33
Speaker
Close to 30 people were arrested. Lastly, in Philadelphia, a communique claimed credit for flooding a home belonging to the CEO of Ghost Robotics, which develops robot dogs that are used in occupied Palestine and along the US-Mexico border.
Anarchist Publications & Resistance Festivals
00:12:49
Speaker
Another anonymous report claimed responsibility for writing graffiti slogans on the home of a University of Michigan police officer involved in repressing student protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
00:13:00
Speaker
and now some updates to put on your radar ah new anarchist publication intention has been a release check out the first issue linked in our notes An offensive animal is selling swag to support two people accused of freeing mink in Pennsylvania. Check out the new shirts and prints on offer on their website. George Floyd Rebellion prisoner Malik Muhammad, who recently came off of a hunger strike, is looking for commissary donations this holiday season.
00:13:26
Speaker
Check out our show notes for more info and ways to support and a new zine collection of Malik's writings. The Intercept also has a new article up on Malik's case and how he has been placed in solitary confinement for more than 250 days. The Civil Liberties Defense Center, or CLDC, also has an update on their fight to support Malik.
00:13:49
Speaker
CrimeThink has published several new zines, including strategizing to stop mass deportations, which can be viewed in a link in our show notes. And now for some upcoming events. On December 31st, there is a call for New Year's Eve noise demonstrations outside of jails, prisons, and detention centers. So far, demonstrations have been called in Asheville, North Carolina, Chicago, Illinois, Brooklyn, New York, and Montreal, Quebec.
00:14:16
Speaker
On February 1st is the Austin Anarchist Book Fair in Austin, Texas. From February 28th through March 2nd is the Florida Abolitionist Gathering in Gainesville, Florida. And looking ahead from May 15th through the 21st is the Constellation Anarchist Festival in Montreal, Quebec. Finally, a call has been circulating for Festivals of Resistance the week before Trump takes office.
Organizing Resistance to Trump
00:14:41
Speaker
Here's an audio version of that call. Festivals of Resistance.
00:14:45
Speaker
a call for gatherings the weekend before Trump takes office. Along with others around the country, we invite you to join us in organizing festivals of resistance on the weekend of January 18th, immediately before Donald Trump takes office.
00:15:00
Speaker
This is a crucial opportunity to engage in outreach, education, and action ahead of what is sure to be a tumultuous time. Once Trump takes power, it will only become more challenging to make connections with our neighbors, create the networks that we will need to face down his assaults, and share the skills we will need to survive his reign. Right now, we have a precious window of time in which to prepare. Let's make the most of it.
00:15:25
Speaker
When Donald Trump enters office on January 20th, he will order mass deportations, escalate the repression of protesters, dismantle the few judicial and legislative provisions that still protect ordinary people, and consolidate a propaganda ecosystem intended to stupefy us all into obedience.
00:15:42
Speaker
The Democratic Party is willingly handing power to an autocrat they say will bring democracy to an end. The Democrats show every intention of continuing to ratchet their own politics to the right. Authoritarian leftist groups are simply treating this as a recruitment opportunity. But from Texas to the West Bank, millions of people's lives are about to get even harder. We owe it to each other to meet the second Trump era side by side in solidarity.
00:16:09
Speaker
The chaos that will accompany the return of the Trump administration represents an opportunity as well as a challenge. This is a chance to assert an autonomous poll of organizing, carrying forward the lessons of 2020 and the movement against COP City, while continuing the fight against patriarchal violence, white supremacy, and colonialism. By organizing ahead of Trump's inauguration, we can seize the initiative and set our own timeline rather than being caught flat-footed and forced to react.
00:16:37
Speaker
We need to welcome new participants into these struggles and foster a revolutionary perspective that can orient us through the challenges ahead. No amount of internet activity could substitute for gathering face-to-face. The most important battles ahead will not be fought online, but in the streets of our communities. January 18th is observed as the day of the forest defender. It will be the two-year anniversary of the murder of Tortugita in Wilani Forest.
00:17:04
Speaker
It is an important date to gather, honor the memory of the fallen, and pledge ourselves to resistance and to one another. How to participate You could start by calling for an assembly bringing together everyone who wants to participate in organizing. It could be a public gathering if you think you can facilitate something on that scale, or an invitation-based conversation bringing together people who have already worked together, or at least have cause to trust each other.
00:17:30
Speaker
For the event proper, you could host workshops and distribute literature, teaching security culture, digital security, protest safety and first aid, direct action, reproductive autonomy, forms of organization, including affinity groups, and other skills that may be relevant in the years to come.
00:17:47
Speaker
Local organizers could share stories and lessons from the history of resistance in your area during the first Trump era. You could facilitate discussions to identify what people need to do to prepare for the years ahead, both for their own safety and to ensure the safety of their communities, or to strategize about how to prepare to confront the Trump agenda in your region. You could do an art build for future demonstrations and an organizing fair to connect people to local projects.
00:18:13
Speaker
This will be a chance to expand rapid response networks for community defense and mutual aid. In some places, the gatherings could conclude with public actions, a first salvo in the resistance to Trump's plan for mass deportations. Elsewhere, there will be open assemblies, spaces for people to encounter each other and learn new ways of working together and sharing ideas. Small towns can screen documentaries and invite speakers to share their expertise.
00:18:39
Speaker
It's up to you and your community to decide what best fits your local context. The important thing is to create a space that can serve as a point of entry for everyone who needs to get connected ahead of the next round of struggles. A space where people can hone their skills and begin to think of themselves as a collective force.
00:18:57
Speaker
No matter who Trump's administration targets, whether immigrants, Palestine solidarity organizers, sex workers, school teachers, trans people, environmentalists, or people seeking abortions, we must show that we will love and protect one another. If we all pull together, showing everyone who wants to resist that there are movements that they can join, we can begin to build the strength that we will need to overcome the challenges ahead.
00:19:22
Speaker
Events like this are already being planned in dozens of cities and towns, but time is tight. If we want to be ready, we have to get started now. That's going to do it for us in this episode. Enjoy the rest of the beautiful idea and we will see you soon.
00:20:01
Speaker
On
Healthcare Injustice & Social Inequality
00:20:02
Speaker
Wednesday, December 4th, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead by a masked assassin as he walked into an investor meeting at a Hilton hotel in Manhattan, New York. While the initial motive at first remained unclear, written on the bullet casings themselves left behind at the scene read three words.
00:20:24
Speaker
deny, defend, depose. A reference to the systemic way in which major insurance companies deny coverage to those seeking medical care. A recent statement released by the press from the person arrested in connection to the shooting makes these statements only even more clear. They write,
00:20:43
Speaker
Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder, the US has the number one most expensive healthcare care system in the world, yet we rank roughly number 42 in life expectancy. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play.
00:21:02
Speaker
Evidently, I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty. As journalist Taylor Lawrence wrote, When it comes to denying healthcare care coverage, UnitedHealth stands above its competitors.
00:21:14
Speaker
The insurance company denies an average of 32% of claims, double the industry average. UnitedHealth does this through a myriad of ways. In one instance, according to a recent lawsuit, it has used a deeply flawed AI algorithm that generates widely inaccurate predictions in order to deny health coverage to severely ill patients by cutting the time they can spend in extended care. The AI system has a 90% error rate and yet it remained in use. Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare made $8.9 billion in profit through the first three quarters of this year alone. Matthew Cortland went on to write, UnitedHealthcare makes its money by denying necessary care to people who need it.
00:22:03
Speaker
Brian Thompson was a mass murderer. He killed adults. He killed children. He murdered them with spreadsheets and contracts. He did it for money. Thompson was a very well paid killer. In response to the assassination of Thompson, there has been wide scale dejection and denouncement of the healthcare care industry across social media.
00:22:23
Speaker
with many people on various platforms sharing their own horror stories about being denied coverage, along with mass indifference and even outright celebration in the wake of the murder of Thompson through memes, TikTok videos, viral original songs, and shitposts. Tech reporter Matt Novick of Gizmodo mused, TikTok is pretty wild right now. I don't think the ruling class is prepared for the cultural shift that's happening this week. These aren't edgelords. There is a real shift in the way the average American is discussing this.
00:22:55
Speaker
Meanwhile, a collection of both neoliberal and far-right gatekeepers, pundits and grifters, have attempted to wag their fingers at the working class, who gleefully cheer on the mass killer, correctly pointing out the mass hypocrisy of a system that systematically murders people for massive profit, yet expects us to shed a tear when a CEO gets smoked. The cultural phenomenon which has erupted following Thompson's murder,
00:23:21
Speaker
From a recent round of lookalike contests, to thirst trap posts about how hot the shooter is, to long screeds posted against healthcare care and this capitalist hellscape, all point to the first collective eruption of working class self interest, albeit largely online, which has been able to manifest itself in a real way, in the wake of the election spectacle, which ironically was marked by the near total absence of discussion on healthcare,
00:23:47
Speaker
apart from Harris going back on her 2020 call for universal coverage, and Republicans vowing to further slash social programs like Medicaid and Medicare and destroy the Affordable Care Act. Like the viral celebrations which erupted after neo-nazi Richard Spencer was punched in 2017,
00:24:06
Speaker
or the polls that showed that over 54% of Americans supported the burning of the Third Precinct during the George Floyd uprising in 2020, the gleeful laughter and resignation following Thompson's death shows the chasm that exists between people's lived realities and that of the narratives produced by the technocrats in power and the media institutions they control.
00:24:29
Speaker
But moreover, the elite rush to clutch their pearls over public sentiment following the assassination in Manhattan lays bare not only mass anger at inequality in this society and how violence is unevenly distributed in it, but moreover, how it is unevenly mourned.
00:24:45
Speaker
Millions are sacrificed on the altar of the capitalist economy, a reality that the pandemic made even more clear. Yet we are supposed to shed tears for someone who made this slaughter possible and was enriched by it in the process? To further illustrate this point, look at the reaction to the recent stabbing of two migrant teenagers, one fatally, in New York City literally a night after the shooting in Manhattan.
00:25:10
Speaker
The two teens were attacked in a racist assault by someone who approached them and asked if they, quote, spoke English. Predictably, this attack and murder did not generate the same police mobilization or manhunt. Clearly the life of a CEO shot by an angry assassin is worth more than that of a teenage migrant killed by a racist vigilante. To add insult to injury, on the same day that a suspect was arrested in connection to Thompson's murder,
00:25:36
Speaker
Daniel Penney was found not guilty for strangling to death a black homeless man on a New York City subway car. Here's a clip from Fox News decrying the outpouring of support for the CEO shooter while also uplifting those who called Penney a hero. We'll dig into it later. ah The Instagram post from Nutbag People, which I was sent in the commercial break earlier,
00:26:02
Speaker
Crazy, like he's cute, and people celebrating this, this is a sickness. Honestly, it's so disappointing, but I guess we shouldn't be surprised. um Gentlemen, thank you so much. And up next, the other big news out of New York, Daniel Penney. A lot of people think he's a hero, and tonight he's not guilty. My take next.
00:26:21
Speaker
Meanwhile on the far right, interestingly enough, blowhards like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh are being dragged by their own fans, as their recent reaction videos complaining about how the revolutionary left is cheering on the CEO's murder have been panned, and mass downvoted on platforms like YouTube. Thousands of comments are dunking on Shapiro. As one person stated, Ben, you're a millionaire. You aren't a true blue collar conservative, you're a rich guy that tries to appeal to working class Republicans. You don't understand what poor people go through. Another wrote, Ben Shapiro is the CEO of his company, so it makes sense that he might see a little of himself in the victim.
00:27:02
Speaker
These comments have thousands of likes. This blowback against the right is interesting and points to the reality that many people hold sentiments that run physically counter to what fixed partisan identity they may currently adhere to or party they may vote for. While I personally think it's silly and even dangerous to imagine the quote left and right coming together around some vague notion of populism, this is a moment that shows talking and relating to people on the wavelength of shared material conditions and lived experience is powerful.
Stop Cop City Movement Discussion
00:27:32
Speaker
An anti-capitalist position makes sense, and it is popular. We should be thinking about how we can deepen these contradictions and break off working class people who voted for Trump in the hopes that he would improve their lives, along with people who thought that the Democrats would be a bulwark against attacks by the GOP,
00:27:50
Speaker
and instead bring them into social movements that are in conflict with the state and capitalism. This moment also gives us an opportunity to ask exactly why people end up supporting politicians and billionaires which are pushing through the very policies which allow corporations like UnitedHealthcare to exist with impunity.
00:28:08
Speaker
how anti-blackness, white supremacy, and transphobia all are weaponized in an attempt to sell white workers the bedtime story that they have more in common with the elites than they do other poor and working class people. As the holidays approach and Trump continues to stack his cabinet with billionaires intent on looting the country, slashing taxes on the wealthy, deregulating corporations, and gutting basic safety net programs,
00:28:34
Speaker
It will be interesting to see how this ether rich sentiment continues to evolve. I hope that people are hungry.
00:29:39
Speaker
Thanks for speaking with us. Lots of listeners have been following the Stop Cop City movement for years, including the prosecution of the Atlanta 61. These are 61 people who were indicted on RICO charges. RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Law. And this was in fall of 2023 for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to prevent the construction of Cop City.
00:30:05
Speaker
And ah in a second, I wanna ask you for some updates on the RICO cases and also to talk about this new initiative called Community is Not a Crime that's related to the Stop Cop City movement. But before we get into that, can we just do, let's back up for a second and can you give an overview of the significance of the Stop Cop City movement? What's it about? Why is it important? And then we'll go from there.
00:30:29
Speaker
Oh, that sounds good. um Also, thank you for having me on. I expect that a lot of listeners are familiar or have heard of COP City in Atlanta in the movement to stop COP City. This is a training force for not only the Georgia police, but also police across the US.
00:30:50
Speaker
plan to train here. It's also a global training force. I invite listeners to look into what's called the GILI program, but it is a long established relationship between the Israeli IDF forces and the US military to kind of co-train and to have kind of this exchange program where they learn each other's tactics. I think GILI does not stand for Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Program, and that's the program they have with the idea to exchange resources around basically how to contain and control ah civilian populations. Correct, yeah. I think it's important to remind ourselves of the broader context that this is coming from. COP cities are being proposed all over the US. Some of them have actually been successfully stopped by local organizers.
00:31:44
Speaker
A lot of these are kind of on halt, on wait, to see how this trial of the 61 people ah associated with Stop Cop City goes. We also know that Cop City is a kind of last gasp effort from the police state after failing in 2020 to suppress people's outrage. Atlanta is kind of the the flagship program that received a lot of attention and it's also I always like to highlight that it was supposed to be built over three years ago. They are currently working on construction but it is because of people's massive efforts right from across the country and from around the world that it has yet to be built. This could have been an easy success
00:32:32
Speaker
for Atlanta, but in fact it's turning out to be a pretty embarrassing loss on their end. Thanks for that rundown. So as you were explaining, this has been a really important campaign for years now, really movement.
00:32:47
Speaker
And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about the history of these RICO charges. Like I mentioned at the top of this recording, these are charges that dropped in the fall of last year, right? And so can you explain a little bit about what's happened in the last year and where these cases currently are?
00:33:05
Speaker
Sure, yeah. So people have probably heard of the Atlanta 61 or the Stop Cop City 61. But what we have is 61 individuals who are associated with Stop Cop City to some degree. There's a full range of what people are charged with.
00:33:23
Speaker
And what the state is trying to do, one, is that they are imagining or putting this narrative forward, that these 61 people, because all of the efforts are associated with Cop City, that this alone is part of a larger organization. And then what what a lot of people were kind of shocked to see is this use of RICO.
00:33:48
Speaker
which you know a lot of people are talking about. RICO is is originally used for like mobsters, was was how it originally came to be. was like It was passed in 1970, right? Yes. yeah um It's for structured organizations, moving money, kind of something that just doesn't make sense in this political context.
Atlanta Solidarity Fund & Legal Challenges
00:34:11
Speaker
kind of at all and so it's like it's clear to everybody even the prosecution that this really doesn't make sense but this is an attempt to stretch and expand the definition of RICO and this is partly why this case is so important is that even beyond the topic of these 61 people what we will have to live with is whatever political precedent this sets right So if this this use of repression and specifically here with the RICO charges are used, a lot of legal experts have been worried that this will have a chilling effect on a lot of different protests, really all protesting efforts in the US. And so how have people been handling these charges and what are some of the ways that defendants and um their supporters are
00:35:02
Speaker
are trying to strengthen their defense. ah chair So again, we have 61 people. A lot of the defendants have no contact orders. These are a little bit inconsistent. But I just like have so much respect for the care teams and legal teams of these defendants who are committed to a collective defense, despite um people not being able to talk directly to one another.
00:35:30
Speaker
And essentially what is happening on the trial level is that they are planning to break up these 61 defendants into smaller groups. Obviously, they cannot try all 61 at the same time.
00:35:47
Speaker
In fact, Judge Adams has made many statements where she seems exasperated by the task alone. The trial date has not been set yet, so everything is kind of just a waiting period. There was one defendant, Ayla King, who people may have heard of, who filed a motion for speedy trial. Essentially, the court waited too long. They put a jury together.
00:36:14
Speaker
Then they had a year-long recess. Then a higher court said that it was too long. It is a mistrial. And so now we are kind of waiting to see what will happen next. And then we also had the first group have a hearing. People may have heard about the very good news, but the Solidarity Fund short mostly known as the Sol Fund in Atlanta, which I can speak a little bit more about. They had their money laundering charges dropped, but I do want to clarify that they are still facing RICO charges. There was a little bit of confusion on Twitter that I saw, but that that was a great win to start with. Okay, and that's the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, and maybe you could explain a little bit for listeners what their deal is. they I think sometimes people
00:37:03
Speaker
think that the Atlanta Solidarity Fund was created specifically for the Stop Cop City movement, but they've actually been around for several, several years, right? Yeah, the the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has been around for a while. It does a lot of community work within Atlanta. It works on a lot of mutual aid projects, a lot of food shares, and it also is responsible for bailing people out of jail. They were really, really on their game in 2020. I think they bailed out around 900 people during the George Floyd uprising.
00:37:37
Speaker
and They are just this team of people who are very passionate and who are really, really admired within the Atlanta scene. Great. Thanks. and so they had They were charged with money laundering and RICO, and they've since had the the money laundering charges have been dropped, but they're still facing RICO charges. Is that what you're saying?
00:37:58
Speaker
Correct, yeah. Again, we we see a pretty desperate prosecution. These money laundering charges had to do with, you know, you can you can buy tote bags on their website and the money goes to the bail fund. So the prosecution was trying to, you know, use these mobster laws to make it seem that they are something other than what they are. I'll also say that there has been horrible, horrible missteps by the prosecution with this case alone. For instance, they improperly seized items from the house that three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund live in. They misused a warrant. Judge Adams actually like verbally reprimanded the prosecution for this and they had to go through this whole stack of things that they had taken from the house.
00:38:50
Speaker
and say that each one individually was not relevant to their case. They also leaked a private conversation between the defendants and their lawyers in discovery. So all these things have been recognized by Judge Adams as missed us by the prosecution, although she did not waive the trial itself, which which the defense attorney put in a motion for.
00:39:15
Speaker
So it still is continuing just with this wag of the finger from Judge Adams at the prosecution, which you know we can we can say or we can imagine that this might lose legitimacy on the prosecution's end, but there's no real repercussions other than you know a wagging of the finger.
00:39:35
Speaker
All right, so I'm wondering now that we have a little bit of this background on how the cases have been going lately, how do you see the movement responding to this? What are some of the ways that people are trying to support the Atlanta 61 and how are they trying to organize themselves? And maybe this is a chance to talk more about the ah community is not a crime initiative.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, so I mean, firstly, there are 61 individuals who many of them are people that I know and love, and I just want to give thanks to their friends and their support networks and all of that kind of unofficial work that falls on loved ones and roommates.
00:40:14
Speaker
that stuff is really important. Isolation is kind of how repression works and when we fight that we have more of a chance of winning. But then also we see that work has continued across the board. People are still going to city council in Atlanta. I can speak later maybe about the failed petition due to voter suppression in Atlanta. We see WDS chapters which are Walani Defense Society chapters across the U.S. Still organizing to support. We see fundraisers again this is a really expensive thing to do to fight the state and we have 61 people you know
00:40:56
Speaker
with with moved into states of precarity that they that they wouldn't have chosen with jobs and paying rent and traveling for trial, all these things are expensive. But also in an effort to kind of combine all these forces to give people kind of a container because we know people wanna support defendants and they might not know any personally, this initiative of community is not a crime has begun.
00:41:25
Speaker
And right now, if you are in Georgia, if you're in Atlanta, check out the website. There's a lot of getting together, firing, knocking doors, getting to know the people who are in Atlanta and and recognizing that 61 people are still awaiting trial.
00:41:44
Speaker
and need the support. There's also opportunities if you're not in Atlanta, I'm currently not in Atlanta, to do data entry to help collect all of the information that many people who care have gathered. But this is something that the legal defense team could really benefit from is having all of these resources kind of entered into a database so that they can better support our friends.
00:42:09
Speaker
Great. So thanks for that overview a little bit on this community is not a crime initiative. It sounds like it's really an attempt to, as you said, create a container to sort of encompass all of these different ways that people are supporting the Atlanta 61. I want to kind of move beyond the case of the 61 defendants, codefendants, right? Like how have these charges impacted the broader movement to actually stop the construction of cop city and where do you see the movement going now, right? And maybe I'm talking a little bit about defensive versus offensive strategy, but feel free to take that wherever you want to take it.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, I think in addition to the stated goals of Stop Cop City, it was also a several year period where people from across the country, some very new to the scene, you know, some young, some old, a lot of people with lessons from other spaces.
00:43:08
Speaker
came together and also just imagined what we do want, the kind of world that we do deserve and want to build together.
Integrating Defense in Activism
00:43:18
Speaker
And so I think that beyond yes this idea of defense only as something that comes you know after a loss or after repression, I think I would like and I think this initiative is an attempt to kind of weave defense into all of our organizing and to anticipate that when we are winning is when our adversaries become the most scared, are most likely to to lash out or want to hit back. And so I'd really like to move
00:43:53
Speaker
anti-repression work away from defense only and actually into offense, to use a word maybe incorrectly, but into a more offensive or building strategy. I think of all the times that I spent in the forest learning with people and that doesn't end in this moment. In fact, I think it's an opportunity to continue doing that and to continue wherever we are, not just Atlanta, but wherever we are to stay engaged. beautiful Yeah, some some other thoughts that I just want to include while we have the opportunity to talk is that this January 18th will be the second annual day of the forest offender. The police killed Tortugita on January 18th. almost two years ago. And I just, it's important to me to remember that while there are 61 people facing these charges, repression also killed our friend, killed tort, and and have impacted other people's lives beyond kind of the the official defendants themselves. The state has been wanting to make a narrative spectacle with their with this case and with Cop City itself.
00:45:13
Speaker
They want to create a world in which this is normal in which a cop city is just the city. You don't even need to call it a cop city. Right. And they're already acting as though we live in one and we can see that in this trial. And so I just.
00:45:27
Speaker
And I i guess this this word offensive is just really on my mind. And I'm not even sure I feel articulate about it right now. But I just i really believe that that in this moment, this is not the end. In fact, even though this is not you know where all of our tactics and and the ways that we move in the streets and in each other's houses and cooking in our kitchens, legal world is very confusing. um And you don't need to be an expert.
Honoring Resistance & Closing Remarks
00:45:58
Speaker
to to be a participant in anti-repression work. And in fact, this is where we could we get to kind of say, this is not normal. We do not accept this. 61 people are facing bogus charges. Many other people's lives are impacted right now on this kind of inhabitable cop city world. And and we are not okay with a future that is a cop world, right?
00:46:27
Speaker
Copsity everywhere. And finally, is there anything else that you want to add and other ways that people can plug in? I think you talked about the website, but can you can you spell it out so that people can find that more easily? Totally, yes. Right now there is an Instagram, which is at community is not a crime. And I have some other things to plug. I think there is a website coming and a sub stack as well. But that is the Instagram where you can stay tuned for everything else.
00:46:55
Speaker
There's also a website for Jack. um Jack in Atlanta is one of the people who is not part of the 61, but is facing repression due to Obsity alleged charges. You can find more about that at 3jack.co. Good Twitters to follow for more updates about trial and else. Our ACPC Live Fire Ant Defense.
00:47:25
Speaker
And the third one is the ATL Sol Fund. I also suggest if you're looking to get involved, other than just following along, fundraisers are fun and great ways to throw a party and meet others in your community.
00:47:40
Speaker
And likewise, if there is a local WDS, which again is Lelani Defense Society in your city, these have been around before the trial before the charges, I should say, and is another great way to kind of find a community um working and thinking through these things. Great. Well, thank you for that, and thanks for your time. Thanks so much. You see, that's another thing. When you talk about a revolution, most people think violence.
00:49:28
Speaker
And they say I should learn love.
Analysis of 1999 Seattle WTO Protests
00:50:19
Speaker
Let it crisp off for the moms Exhale a new degree Exhale in Jubilee True in deed and in thought and in speech It's about the principles and the means But you gotta know, shit's gonna blow
00:50:49
Speaker
Last November marked the 25th anniversary of the historic mobilization against the World Trade Organization and global capitalism in November of 1999 in Seattle, Washington when thousands mobilized to shut down WTO meetings leading to clashes with riot police that spilled into surrounding neighborhoods for days.
00:51:07
Speaker
helping to set a high watermark for the growing movement against capitalist globalization sweeping the globe. As anger against neoliberalism continues to shape our world, including the growing power of the neo-fascist far-right, we sat down with a friend of the show and longtime anarchist who reflects back on the importance of the demonstrations and talks about its lessons for today. A note to our listeners, these answers have been re-recorded.
00:51:34
Speaker
So to start off, you've written your personal reflections about the mass protests, which shut down the WTO meetings in Seattle of 1999 and kicked off several days of clashes with riot police. What brought you to Seattle to become involved in the demonstrations?
00:51:50
Speaker
I was a teenager at the time of the demonstrations, but I had been politically active for some years. I had been involved in punk and hardcore counterculture in my hometown, as well as food not bombs, political prisoner support, union organizing, and Zapatista and Central American solidarity. Basically, I felt that if there was going to be an opportunity to take on the architects of capitalist globalization and corporate dominance, that there was no way that I was going to miss it.
00:52:15
Speaker
I had a fairly decent job around this time, but somewhat fortuitously, I had gotten injured and was out of work. I bought a bus ticket to Seattle and rode up there by myself. You know, Seattle is often presented as this high watermark for the movement, but it seems like this was really a testament to what was going on before that and leading up to it. Anti-racist action organizing, Earth-first tree sits, lots of other mobilizations in places like Portland and beyond. What are your thoughts on this?
00:52:45
Speaker
I think it's fair to characterize Seattle as the high watermark of what came to be called the anti-globalization movement, at least in the United States. I would say that this specific period of global social movements had a pretty clear cut beginning and end, from the Zapatista uprising on January 1st of 1994 to the Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11th of 2001.
00:53:06
Speaker
The WTO protests were the result of a great deal of specifically anarchist and broadly anti-capitalist organizing that took place in a wide variety of social spheres during these years. You know, listening to people that were very heavily involved in the anti-globalization movement of the nineties and early 2000s, people often talk about how it just brought people together, anarchists, labor unions, environmentalists, anti sweatshop activists on college campuses, just in mass mobilizations that were specifically anti-capitalist. What do you think helped create these conditions for all these people to come together?
00:53:42
Speaker
In the ten years or so after the end of the Cold War, there is a pervasive ruling class myth that capitalism had brought about the end of history. Especially in the United States, the conventional wisdom at the time was really that we were living in the best of all possible worlds, and that it was all going to be pretty much smooth sailing from there on out into infinity.
00:54:01
Speaker
A great many people worldwide, however, did not believe this fable for a second. The anti-globalization movement tapped into the fairly widespread understanding at the time that the bubble of prosperity associated with the global capitalist order was predicated on the accelerating destruction of the natural world and the hyper-exploitation of third world labor, and that it was ultimately going to end a disaster for laboring class people in the first world as well.
00:54:27
Speaker
To be clear, most people in the United States had not come to these conclusions in the mid to late 90s, but there was enough of us to fuel the movement. It seems that after the attacks on September the 11th and the ramping up of police repression afterwards, all this helped to push back against the anti-globalization movement. What do you think of the trajectory that happened after Seattle?
00:54:52
Speaker
It's probably not necessary all these years later to give a detailed blow-by-blow, but the main mass demonstrations in the United States and Canada in the period after Seattle were in the following places. Washington, D.C. at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in April 2000. Philadelphia and Los Angeles at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in August 2000.
00:55:15
Speaker
Washington, D.C. at George W. Bush's inauguration ceremony in January 2001, Quebec City at the Third Summit of the Americas in April 2001, and a post-9-11 quota in Miami at the free trade area of the Americas ministerial meetings in November 2003.
00:55:33
Speaker
None of these engagements ended in a clear cut victory, as did Seattle, but none were absolute defeats either. There were wins and losses, but we continued to build up momentum until September 11th of 2001. I'm not sure if there is realistically anything that we could have done to maintain this momentum during the reactionary period after the September 11th attacks. There was then another 10 years of activity connecting this period to Occupy in 2011, but that is another story.
00:56:01
Speaker
A lot of people have commented, CrimeThink wrote a piece about this, how Trump has been able to redirect the anger at corporate globalization in the passage of things like NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement and redirect it in the interests of the ruling class. What do you make of the Republicans weaponizing anger at neoliberalism? These are policies that they helped pass and put forward.
00:56:27
Speaker
I have nothing but contempt for the Republicans. As far as I'm concerned, they are enemies of all decent people worldwide and can directly go to hell. I'm pushing middle age, and the Republican Party has served the interests of the global ruling classes for my entire life. They broke the unions and destroyed the safety net of our society. They bankrolled murderers all across the Third World and have invaded Iraq twice.
00:56:51
Speaker
They crashed the economy and laid waste to the planet that our children will have to live on in order to line their pockets. While my friends and I were getting our heads kicked in by police from Miami to Seattle for standing up to the corporations, Republicans everywhere celebrated in safety. Trump and his followers have no connection to anything that we fought for, and it is ironic indeed to now see these same people portray themselves as working class heroes.
00:57:17
Speaker
That said, the Democrats played a role in all of this as well. They passed NAFTA and bailed out the banks. They bent the knee to Bush and his adventures, and they'll keep propping up the Israeli government until their last day in power. Those of us who were involved in the anti-globalization movement screamed bloody murder to them for years that the capitalist globalization was going to end in disaster.
00:57:40
Speaker
For this, we were mocked, beaten, and jailed. After half a century of betrayal and failure, the Democrats are now preparing to hand over the future to a bunch of tech and finance oligarchs, snake handling and evangelicals, and extractive industry shills. Whatever happens, no one can say that we didn't warn them. So in closing, what do you think some of the lessons are from the anti-globalization movement looking back 25 years after Seattle?
00:58:06
Speaker
The world has changed a great deal over the last 25 years. I do not think that it is safe to assume that things that were true a generation ago are necessarily true today. For one thing, the stakes are simply higher now. Without a doubt, there were real stakes during the anti-globalization era as well. We took real risks and made real sacrifices. That said, there was always an element of play-acting at war to the mass demonstrations of that period, at least in the United States.
00:58:36
Speaker
It was generally understood we might build barricades and destroy corporate property, and that the police might beat us and haul us off to jail, but that generally speaking, nobody on either side was going to start shooting.
00:58:48
Speaker
Those days are done. I do not know what the organizing model in the years to come will be, but for better or worse, I do not expect puppets and lockboxes to feature so prominently in the next generation's youth as they did in mine. Still, in terms of basic values, I do still believe that there are lessons from the anti-globalization movement that remain as true today as they were 25 years ago. I'll be as succinct as possible.
00:59:12
Speaker
For one, corporations are not your friends and capitalism can never be disaggregated from racism, global inequality and environmental destruction. Secondly, globalized capitalism will only be defeated by international solidarity and resistance from below. Nationalists inevitably lead humanity into the common grave, as will likely be proven once again in this generation. All of these years later, we still fight for, quote, a world in which many worlds fit.
00:59:41
Speaker
And in the face of repression and war, it is wise to build a culture of anonymity. As the Zapatistas used to say, quote, we cover our faces in order to be seen.
00:59:57
Speaker
Thanks for listening to today's episode of The Beautiful Idea, news and analysis from the front lines of anarchists and autonomous struggles everywhere. Catch you next time.