Friday, September 30, 2022

New video by Unicorn Riot on YouTube - go check it out ;-)


Watch on YouTube here: Alabama Prison Guards Assault Striking Prisoner Kinetik Justice
Via Christian Gasper
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This Would Be A Wise Stopping Point For This War: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Listen to a reading of this article:

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At the risk of upsetting the entire internet, the annexation of those four Ukrainian territories seems like a great time to end this war to me. Does anyone honestly believe a significant percentage of the people who live there want a massive counteroffensive on their doorstep? I don’t.

The west knowingly provoked this war, the thing experts warned for years would happen did happen, and now Ukraine lost some territory. Rather than risking millions or billions of lives escalating this conflict, it seems sensible to draw a line under it. You can yell “Putin bad!” and “International law!” all you want, but it’s just a cold hard fact that after the annexation the US/NATO/Ukraine tandem is going to be presented with the choice of either ending the bloodshed or massively, massively escalating it. Pretty easy choice, in my opinion.

There are two kinds of people who want peace in Ukraine: those who want it to come now via diplomacy, negotiation and compromise, and those who want it to come years from now after pouring millions of lives into driving Russia out of every last inch of Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders. You either support a negotiated settlement right now or you support an extremely long, protracted proxy war that risks nuclear annihilation, ends up costing millions of lives and trillions of dollars, and has no guarantee of success. And the latter position is what’s being planned for:

Of course I don’t actually believe the fighting will end in this way at this time; there’s too much riding on keeping the bloodshed going. I’m just highlighting the fairly obvious fact that it could end now, and should end now.

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So far the strongest arguments I’ve seen that Russia destroyed its own pipelines essentially boil down to “Putin is CRAAAZY! Who knows why that wacky guy does what he does? He’s bonkers!”

“Of COURSE Russia would destroy its own energy infrastructure and hundreds of millions of dollars in natural gas against its own interests and in direct facilitation of longstanding US unipolarist agendas! He’s nuts! He’s CWAAAZY!” Science should really start taking a closer look at this unspecified mental illness which only affects geopolitical foes of the US empire.

If we really believe Putin is so crazy and irrational that he’s begun exploding Russian pipelines and shelling Russia-controlled power plants, the strategy should logically be to simply stand back and let him bomb Russia back to the Stone Age.

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A think tank is an institution wherein academics are paid by the worst people in the world to convince everyone that good things are bad and bad things are good.

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To want a healthy world is to want what the ego sees as a boring world: peace, collaboration and harmony instead of conflict, competition and drama. The fact that egos can’t be content without conflict and drama means humanity must transcend egoic consciousness to become healthy.

Our movies, shows and stories all revolve around conflict and drama because most of humanity is enslaved by egoic consciousness, and conflict and drama are what egos find appealing. We’re going to have to change that about ourselves to be able to live in a healthy world.

If we remain in the same egoic patterning it wouldn’t matter if someone used a genie wish to make the world harmonious and egalitarian today, because we’d just ruin it immediately and return to our old modes of dysfunction. A healthy world can’t exist without a conscious humanity.

We’re going to have to change, and we’re going to have to change in all the ways that are least appealing to the ego. It’s a hard sell. But it’s also an existential necessity, because we’re going to wipe ourselves out if we don’t.

Image

And of course a healthy world would not be boring. Peel away the egoic filters on human perception and all of life is clearly seen as thunderously beautiful and endlessly fascinating. The inability to be content with life as it is is just dysfunction born of egoic consciousness.

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The universe is becoming more and more perceptive. More and more sentient. More and more capable of knowing itself, to greater and greater degrees of depth, breadth, and complexity. It’s like a baby slowly developing self-awareness.

Did you know evening primrose flowers can “hear” bees approaching, and quickly make their nectar sweeter in order to attract them? Perception is happening all around us in the most unexpected ways, in places we’d never even think to look. Life is amazing. The universe is amazing.

The dawn of life allowed the stardust to behold itself for the first time. And as life becomes more and more advanced, the stardust gets better and better at beholding.

_________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, buying an issue of my monthly zine, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/30/this-would-be-a-wise-stopping-point-for-this-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
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Antifascists Successfully Defend Pro-LGBTQ Event at Church From Kelly Neidert Rally with Hitler Saluting Neo-Nazis

Report from Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee and the Space City Anarchist Organization on a recent mobilization to defend a church in Katy, Texas, which was hosting a pro-LGBTQ bingo fundraiser for youth, from a coalition of neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, and Republican groups.

On September 24th, Saturday afternoon, the First Christian Church of Katy held a Drag Bingo fundraiser to buy supplies for transitioning youth. The event was heavily protested by a wide range of right-wing and white supremacist groups and was successfully defended by antifascists from the Houston and Katy area. Both sides were heavily attended, and small scuffles broke out throughout the event, primarily between Proud Boys and antifascists. No serious injuries were sustained by antifascist protesters and the Drag Bingo Fundraiser went on successfully without disruption.

The First Christian Church of Katy lacks access to resources that other gender-affirming institutions have that are closer to the inner Houston area. Isolated in gentrified suburbia, this island of trans-inclusivity created a fundraiser for their transparent closet, which provides clothing, makeup, accessories, and other gender-affirming items for trans, queer, and gender non-conforming youths.

Although we were able to successfully prevent fascist violence against the event, and the drag bingo happened without major complications, Saturday could potentially be a sign of what’s to come. Community defense and organizing are more important than ever to keep each other safe.

Detailed Overview

Starting around 3pm, antifascists and right-wingers began staging on both sides of the street in front of the First Christian Church of Katy. Antifascists occupied the grass directly in front of the church and right-wingers staged across the street. The Anti-Fascist side was confined to a small strip of land in front of the church, with cops forcing us away from stepping anywhere on the property. The first notable event was when a group of evangelicals came over to attempt to drown out the antifascists with loud music, chanting, and speaking in tongues. They eventually were forced to move back by the police once the Proud Boys showed up. More people on both sides gradually started trickling in, and by around 5 PM when the drag bingo event began inside, there were nearly a hundred fascists and somewhat fewer people defending the church against the bigots of various stripes. The bigots’ crowd consisted of explicit fascists like the Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and the Aryan Freedom Network standing and protesting alongside Evangelicals, Trump Supporters, out-of-towners from Protect Texas Kids, the Fort Bend County Young Republicans, and traditional Catholics that had all converged from across Texas – and across the US in some cases – to harass a church fundraiser. Our side was organized by a coalition of antifascists in radical anarchist and socialist groups such as The Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee, The Space City Anarchist Organization, and The Houston United Front Against Fascism. Smaller groups and individuals such as queer Houstonians and Katyites, parents of queer people, veterans, and others also came in solidarity with queer youth and made up the bulk of the crowd.

There were various loudspeakers and sound systems on both sides, with the fascists screaming profanities and condemning us, and our side chanting and playing music. Our side held signs showing messages of support for the oppressed and resistance against those who want to see us dead, while the fascists displayed explicitly genocidal signs preaching hate and conspiracy nonsense. We received an outpouring of support from cars passing by –drivers regularly honked at us and shouted messages of support. The people of Katy showed they support tolerance and acceptance over hate and bigotry. Although the day started out hot and humid, by the time most of the protestors had left between 7 and 8, it had significantly cooled down. Fortunately, our side stayed cool with plenty of water, umbrellas, and some shade.

Fascists, almost exclusively associated with the Proud Boys, tried crossing the street on multiple occasions to start fights. The more explicit fascists like the Aryan Freedom Network and Patriot Front avoided confrontation, opting instead to hide by the MAGA crowd where they could for once hold their signs in public without being run off by antifascists. Despite our smaller numbers, we were able to force the Proud Boys back every time they attempted to come over, and none were able to get past us towards the Church. At one point a group of about 6 Proud Boys came over and a minor scuffle ensued. They quickly dispersed after one was struck with a pole and pepper spray was deployed, nobody on our side was injured.

The police presence was sparse and when interventions were made it was in defense of right-wing instigators. They made no effort to stop proud boys and fascists from coming over to our side unless they were being confronted, and they were clearly unprepared for the scale of the event. On multiple occasions, after we pushed back proud boys, they’d go whine to the cops. If we weren’t there, it’s unlikely the cops would’ve done much to stop fascists from approaching the property and harassing congregants and attendees. Police yelled at leftist protesters throughout the event for crossing invisible lines in the grass where the public property supposedly ended. After the event, police followed a group of antifascists and ambushed them while they were traveling across a field to leave, claiming they were trespassing and threatening them with arrest. No such effort was made by police to follow or harass the multiple groups of fascists who also likely crossed over private property lines while marching out.

Ultimately, the drag bingo event took place safely inside the church and was a great success, raising thousands of dollars to support queer youth. Aside from right-wing Journalist Tyler Hansen sneaking inside, the attendees didn’t face any harassment or harm, and the church was successful in meeting its fundraising goal. We want to extend a huge thank you to First Christian Church Katy for choosing to continue the event despite consistent harassment and threats of violence. Now more than ever, queer people need allies who won’t back down and show true solidarity, like FCC Katy has and continues to show.

Right-Wing Presence

There were a number of different organized hate groups at this event, ranging from homophobic religious groups to explicitly Neo-Nazi groups as well. While they did fight amongst themselves on occasion throughout the event, generally speaking, they all protested on the same side of the event together and held space together. Some of the organized groups present at the event are listed below.

Fort Bend County Young Republicans

The right-wing youth wing of the Fort Bend County Republican party. Hannah Nehad (pictured far left below) is one of their most prominent members and is heavily associated with Kelly Neidert. They were the first to publicly call for a protest against this event.

Protect Texas Kids

Led by Kelly Neidert of Dallas, Texas, Protect Texas Kids is an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group that organizes disruptions of queer and trans events under the false premise of protecting kids.

Tayler Hansen interviews self-described “Christian fascist” Kelly Neidert

Proud Boys

The Proud Boys are a far-Right group who have been characterized by violence and street fights against leftwing groups since their founding in 2016. They are not explicitly a white supremacist group but generally have large overlaps in membership and ideology with other fascist and white supremacist groups.

Patriot Front

Patriot Front is an openly fascist, national white supremacist group with various chapters around Texas including Houston. They likely had members travel in from elsewhere for this event, as their Houston chapter is generally not very active.

Aryan Freedom Network

Aryan Freedom Network is a Neo-Nazi group with a Houston chapter primarily run by Ronald Murray. Many of them have formerly organized under the name “White Lives Matter” in the past.

source: @atruebluetexan

Right-wing Media

There was some tension between these groups, as many of the more mainstream conservatives were annoyed by AFN’s presence, but there was no real effort to push out the nazis, and many of the conservatives were chanting alongside and associating with Patriot Front and the Proud Boys.

What this Means for the Future

Although we succeeded at protecting this event and keeping each other safe, nobody should be complacent. This event may be a sign of resurgence for the far-Right and the street-level cooperation between right-wing moderates and open fascists that has not been seen since the early Trump era. Saturday was the largest gathering of fascists in Houston we’ve seen in a long time, and even more significantly it was a gathering of multiple fascist groups who typically only host private rallies with their own immediate membership. Multiple groups from across the right united to threaten a peaceful event, and this is just part of a growing trend across America.

This event also showed how violent bigotry against queer people is increasingly mainstream among conservatives. As mentioned earlier, this event was originally announced by a group officially affiliated with the Republican Party after Don Huffines, a Texas politician and failed governor candidate with ties to white supremacist Groypers, posted in opposition to this event. Although there were some disagreements among the protestors and certain individuals such as Kelly Neidert officially “disavowed” the more explicit fascists in attendance, this event still shows an increasing link between mainstream conservatives and violent neo-Nazis and fascists. As one counter-protestor with a megaphone put it, “isn’t it weird how every time you [Kelly Neidert] show your face in public, Nazis show up?” Whether the mainstream conservatives want to admit it, they are united with nazis and fascists in wanting to see all queer people dead. We’ll almost certainly see increased violence and terrorism against queer people while Republican politicians continue to legislate against our existence.

source: @CandiceBernd

The situation isn’t hopeless, though. Opposing this will take all of us. Voting won’t save us – if we want to keep our queer friends, loved ones, and neighbors safe, we have to oppose fascism and bigotry however we can. We strongly encourage everyone reading to start taking action. We need to begin reaching out to spaces holding queer-affirming events to make sure they’re safe, join existing groups working against fascism and create new ones, create networks to support queer people, and train in self-defense and hand-to-hand combat to make sure that when fascists bash us, we bash back. The threat to our existence is daunting, but as long as we fight with love in our hearts, we can keep each other safe, just like we did on Saturday.

For more details about the cycle of right-wing violence from social media to news networks to local fascist groups, visit this link.

To see an FCC Board Member speaking about this event, visit this link.


by Screwston Antifascist Committee via It's Going Down
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Thursday, September 29, 2022

New Zealand’s PM Wants More Online Censorship For The War In Ukraine

Listen to a reading of this article:

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New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern continued her crusade for the expansion of internet censorship during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, this time using the war in Ukraine.

“Whether it’s climate, trade, health crises or seeking peaceful solutions to war and conflict, New Zealand has always been a believer in multilateral tools,” Ardern told the assembly, adding that “without reform, we risk irrelevancy.”

“There is perhaps no greater example of this than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Ardern said. “Let us all be clear: Russia’s war is illegal. It is immoral. It is a direct attack on the UN charter, and the international rules-based system and everything that this community should stand for. Putin’s suggestion that it could at any point deploy further weapons that it has at their disposal reveals the false narrative that they have based their invasion on. What country who claims to be a liberator, threatens to annihilate the very civilians they claim to liberate? This war is based on a lie.”

Later in her speech, Ardern returns to the theme that Russia’s war is “based on a lie” to argue for the censorship of online speech which supports the idea that Russia is fighting for legitimate reasons in Ukraine.

Using the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack as a segue to talk about the perils of online radicalization, Ardern then smoothly transitions to the subject of “mis- and disinformation” on the internet.

“This will also be important in understanding more about mis- and disinformation online: a challenge that we must as leaders address,” Ardern said.

“As leaders, we are rightly concerned that even those most light-touch approaches to disinformation could be misinterpreted as being hostile to the values of free speech we value so highly,” Ardern added, an acknowledgement of the grave human rights concerns inherent in having ‘leaders’ participate in the regulation of public speech. “But while I cannot tell you today what the answer is to this challenge, I can say with complete certainty that we cannot ignore it. To do so poses an equal threat to the norms we all value.”

Then it gets even creepier.

“After all, how do you successfully end a war if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not only legal but noble?” asks the prime minister. “How do you tackle climate change if people do not believe it exists? How do you ensure the human rights of others are upheld, when they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology? The weapons may be different, but the goals of those who perpetuate them is often the same. To cause chaos and reduce the ability of others to defend themselves. To disband communities. To collapse the collective strength of countries who work together. But we have an opportunity here to ensure that these particular weapons of war do not become an established part of warfare.”

Ardern’s remarks are currently getting a lot of criticism in right-wing circles due largely to her suggestion that online discourse about climate change needs to be regulated so that the issue can be properly addressed. And to be sure that is an absolutely insane thing for her to say; I believe climate change is real and anthropogenic and I find the idea of silencing people who disagree with me about that unthinkably nightmarish. This is a line of thinking that can only arise from a profoundly tyrannical mind.

But what isn’t getting enough attention at this time is the fact that Ardern is calling for an increase in the already outrageous amount of online censorship we are seeing with regard to the war in Ukraine. She explicitly said the war is “based on a lie”, and then went on to argue that people need to be stopped from circulating speech which lends credibility to that lie, even if such freakishly authoritarian measures may be “misinterpreted” as being hostile to free speech.

Ardern argues that online speech claiming that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is legal and noble makes it harder to attain peace, but of course she doesn’t really believe that, and neither does anyone else. The idea that free speech about the war could somehow hamper peace negotiations between governments is self-evidently absurd and completely nonsensical.

In reality, this war is just the latest in a string of excuses we’ve been given by the western political/media class to censor the internet, with earlier justifications including Covid-19, election security, domestic extremism, and Russian propaganda again after the 2016 US election. But asserting that it’s important to stop people from thinking wrong thoughts about a war is a major escalation from all those other justifications, because they’re no longer pretending that it’s being done for our own good. Our wrongthink is the justification, in and of itself.

Which is a problem, because this is in fact an extremely dangerous proxy war being waged against Russia by the US and its imperial member states. It was absolutely deliberately provoked, it’s showing no sign of ending anytime soon, and its continual escalation threatens the life of everyone on this planet. The US has lied about every war it has ever been involved in, and if ever there was a war to bring scrutiny and skepticism to, it’s the one that is bringing us closer to a nuclear exchange than at any other time in history.

This notion that it is the job of “leaders” to involve themselves in regulating the ideas and information we’re allowed to share with each other online needs to be stomped out, dissolved in acid, and flushed down the toilet. That’s not their place. They shouldn’t even be looking in that direction, much less talking amongst themselves at the United Nations about how best they can go about doing it. It’s a profoundly dangerous notion that needs to be rejected with unadulterated aggression.

Free speech is not a “weapon of war”. It’s free speech. Either let us have it or stop pretending you value it.

______________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, buying an issue of my monthly zine, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/29/new-zealands-pm-wants-more-online-censorship-for-the-war-in-ukraine/
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At the Threshold of the Empire: Border Crossings, Government Harassment, and How to Protect Yourself

The Austin Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) looks at political repression and harassment at the border and how to best approach crossings.

Last weekend, an activist from Austin was detained at the Austin airport by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon reentry to the U.S. after traveling abroad. They were held for about 3 hours and questioned about their political beliefs and associations and their protest activities. CBP also searched their phone and likely copied the entire contents of the phone for later analysis.

We are releasing this statement to shed light on this aspect of government surveillance, harassment, and repression, and to provide important lessons for other activists to better protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities in the future. CBP is a large but seldom discussed federal law enforcement agency with broad powers at the border and ports of entry, including all international airports. The more notorious Border Patrol is a division within CBP, whereas ICE is a separate agency.

The Austin activist who was detained was initially directed to a side area for secondary screening when their passport triggered an alert at passport control. Once in secondary screening, CBP did not allow them to use their phone to communicate with anyone. CBP began by searching the person’s luggage and asking generic questions about drugs and other contraband. After finding souvenirs and other items of a left-wing political nature, including items that had antifascist and circle A logos, the questioning took a more political turn. CBP asked if they were a “member of antifa” and if they knew “members of antifa” or where such people meet. CBP asked their opinions about the government and police, whether and why they had been involved in protests, and other questions about their political beliefs.

During this detention, CBP consistently lied about what legal rights they have and used a variety of intimidation and manipulation tactics to coax and coerce compliance. CBP officers read their personal journals, viewed intimate photos, and plowed callously through the most private contents of their life. To call it a crass invasion of privacy would be an understatement. The whole ordeal was deeply frightening, unsettling and traumatizing. This person has been connected with legal support, resources to help re-secure their digital life, and community support.

Unfortunately, this type of government activity is as unexceptional as it is disturbing. In the context of political repression and counterinsurgency, information gathering activity like this is not just directed at specific discreet criminal investigations. It is also geared toward intimidation, intelligence gathering, social mapping communities, and informing larger campaigns of neutralization (whether through cooptation, management, or violence).

In light of this, the question about whether a particular person does or does not have “something to hide,” misses the point entirely. Simply being part of a movement or community in resistance and radical opposition to the status quo means you have everything to hide. Therefore, practicing good information and digital security is an act of care for yourself and everyone in your life.

While many resources exist to advise people about their rights and how to deal with police investigations and interactions inside the U.S. (for example, these excellent guides from It’s Going Down, CrimethInc, and The Center for Constitutional Rights), few of these resources address the issue of border crossings in much detail. Towards this goal, we offer the following guide to understanding your limited legal rights when crossing the border into the United States, and some recommendations for how you can protect yourself, your loved ones, and your entire movement and community when interacting with these borders and their government enforcers.

For a much more comprehensive discussion of digital security at the border, we recommend this report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and their Surveillance Self-Defense resources, as well as the Civil Liberties Defense Center’s Digital Security resource page.

Your Limited Rights at the Border

It has become common knowledge that our legal rights are severely curtailed at border crossings, but it’s important to understand what rights you still have, and what rights you don’t.

At the very least, all entrants are subject to screening and must answer questions and provide documentation sufficient to prove your citizenship or immigration status.

If you are a US citizen:

  • You must be admitted into the United States. This doesn’t mean that they can’t detain you and delay your entry, but ultimately they must let you enter. Everything we’ve read suggests that most detentions only last several hours, and up to a day at most. (There are some exceptions when they are questioning the person’s citizenship status.)
  • You have the right to remain silent and the right to have a lawyer present during questioning. CBP will often try to convince you that you don’t have these rights or intimidate you into giving them up. These are just pig games. Insist on having a lawyer present. Refuse to answer questions. Be stubborn and confident. (It’s often common to answer general inquiries at primary screening, but as soon as you are sent to secondary screening or get the sense that questioning has progressed beyond general inquiries, it’s best to stfu.)
  • CBP can search your vehicle (if driving), luggage, and physical belongings. This is pretty obvious.
  • CBP can search your phone, computer, and other digital devices. This can include directly looking through the contents of the device, downloading certain files, or making a digital copy of the complete contents of the device. Recent reporting has explored the full extent of CBP mass data collection and courts are divided on what level of searching is permissible without a warrant. But if you consent to a search by unlocking your phone, you’ve waived any legal rights to privacy you might have.
  • You can refuse to unlock your digital device, or refuse to give your social media information, and you must still be granted entry. However, if you don’t unlock your device, CBP can seize it. They are supposed to return the device within 5 days, but that doesn’t always happen and 5 days might as well be forever.

If you are a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR, or Green Card holder) you must usually be granted entry to the U.S. as well, but there are some exceptions, like if you were out of the U.S. for a year or more.

If you are not a U.S. citizen, your rights are even more curtailed:

  • You do not have to answer questions, but refusing to do so will likely result in being denied entry (unless you are an LPR).
  • You do not have a right to a lawyer, unless questioning turns to subjects unrelated to your immigration status and admissibility to the U.S.
  • CBP can search your vehicle (if driving), luggage, and physical belongings.
  • CBP can search your phone, computer, and other digital devices. Refusing to unlock or provide access to your devices, or refusing to provide social media information, can result in denial of entry.
  • If you are refused entry, but you fear persecution or torture if sent back to the country you came from, you may ask for asylum from the officer who is detaining or refusing you.

Preparing for Border Crossings Ahead of Time

The moments before you reach a border crossing or checkpoint are the wrong time to start thinking about your information and digital security. Maybe you can take some hasty last minute precautions, but maybe it’s too late. For example, it’s not uncommon for CBP officers to be waiting for people in the jetway, so anything you plan to do better be done before you get off the plane.

Ideally, planning your safe passage through the border will begin as soon as you start thinking about taking a trip. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.

  • Don’t bring your regular devices. Get a second phone, computer, tablet, whatever. Sadly, the world is saturated with digital devices now, so getting a used or refurbished one is relatively cheap, and may be nearly as good as your primary device (but whatever limitations it has are surely preferrable to handing your entire primary device over to the feds). Friends might have an old device you can borrow so ask around. Make sure the device has been wiped and reset completely (god forbid you get busted for someone else’s digital misadventures!). Leave your primary device at home. Its good to have something to look forward to on your return anyway.
  • Minimize what information and data is on the devices. Load only the information that you need for your trip on your travel device. You don’t need every contact or every app. At the end of your trip, log out of any social media or email accounts and delete the apps. Clear your browser history. Delete your text messages (the ones that haven’t already automatically disappeared that is!) and uninstall Signal and similar apps. Photos and files can be uploaded to a cloud-based service and removed from the local disk (but think about the risks of various cloud-based storage options as well–digital security is all about tradeoffs and balancing). Be aware that deleted files may still leave copies that can be recovered by forensic scans of your device (assuming they can bypass the encryption). Hell, if you’ve backed up everything you need to the cloud, just do a full factory reset of the device and throw it in river as you walk over the bridge to the port of entry! (Probably not actually advisable to throw devices into bodies of water, both for the water’s sake, and your own, since the border cops are watching with a suspicious eye).
  • Secure your devices as much as possible. Full disk encryption is standard on iOS and Android devices now, but you still need a secure password (numbers and letters, the more the better). Drawing patterns and biometric shit like thumbprints and facial recognition is not secure when your phone might get seized by the pigs. Full disk encryption gets more complicated when it comes to laptops, but a number of guides are available online. To ensure that none of your data is unencrypted while in use during your crossing, power your device all the way off at least 5 minutes before reaching the border.
  • Avoid carrying physical items that will raise suspicions. All that really cool anarchist memorabilia you picked up at the social center/squat/conference? It’s going to raise some–er–red flags with CBP. Spend a few bucks to pack it up and mail it to yourself.
  • Notify people to call a lawyer if you don’t check in. Have a plan set up, same as you would going to a demo. Text someone as soon as you land–but still on the plane–so they know when to expect to hear from you, and what to do if they don’t hear from you. They could contact a lawyer for you, call CBP themselves to ask about your whereabouts, alert your friends and comrades about the situation, and more.

When You’re Detained

Detention at the border is especially insidious because you are likely already in a situation of heightened vulnerability. You are probably some degree of exhausted, fatigued, dehydrated, and disoriented from your travels. You are eager to be done traveling and be at your destination. Someone is likely awaiting your arrival. If you were on a long flight, you may have already been incommunicado for many hours before being held incommunicado again in CBP detention. These are all enemies of your good judgment and allies to the CBP gestapo mind games that are to follow.

This section, and especially the last three points, is written primarily for people who are U.S. citizens and guaranteed entry to the United States. Non-citizens will likely have many other considerations that we could not even begin to adequately address here. Particularly for non-citizens, we recommend seeking legal advice about your particular situation.

  • Slow down, don’t panic, and settle in for the ride. There is no easy shortcut; the only way is through. The sooner you come to terms with that, the better position you’ll be in. They want you to feel rush and urgency, because those feelings can produce compliance.
  • Fight the isolation, fear, and fatigue. Think about the people who love and care about you and have your back. Remember that someone knows to start looking for you and to mobilize help if you don’t check in. Remember that you have survived many difficult, scary, and dangerous things before and that you can survive this.
  • Don’t lie. Lying to federal agents can get you prison time, even when you have done nothing else illegal. It’s a common trap, so don’t fall in it. But how do you avoid giving incriminating answers without lying? By not saying anything!
  • Don’t talk. Say you are going to remain silent. Say you want a lawyer. Say nothing else.
  • Be insistent. They will tell you it doesn’t work like that at the border, that you can’t remain silent, that you don’t get a lawyer. They are full of shit. Repeat that you are going to remain silent. Repeat that you want a lawyer. They will tell you it’s faster if you just comply, that you’ll only be held longer for remaining silent. They are still full of shit. Repeat that you are going to remain silent. Repeat that you want a lawyer. Just keep repeating it.
  • Be bored. Don’t take too much interest in what they say, since most of it probably isn’t true. Twiddle your thumbs. Roll your eyes. Stare at the wall. Count the sheep in your head.

Afterward You’re Released

So you made it back into the U.S. after being detained at the border. Our sincerest condolences.

  • Notify your people. Start with the people closest to you; the ones you actively organize with; people who might be at greatest risk of any data breaches; people you were specifically questioned about. Expand out from there.
  • Alert your community and movement by putting out some type of public statement. It’s important for people to know about the type of surveillance and harassment that is going on. Public statements (like this one!) are also helpful for reminding people of security risks and corresponding precautions they should take.
  • Replace your device (and sim card). If your device was ever outside of your direct sight or ever plugged into to anything by CBP (almost certain), it is compromised. There is no way to know if or how it might have been tampered with. You can’t undo what they’ve already seized or looked at, but you can make sure that they can’t keep looking at future content going to or from your device. So just replace it. Crowd fund it. Get a used version. Get a slightly older model. Max out your credit line. Whatever you need to do.
  • Re-secure your accounts. At a minimum, any email, social media, or other account that was logged in or had login information on the device needs the passwords changed. Any passwords that were stored in your device or otherwise accessed by CBP need to be changed on every account they were used on. Depending on your specific risk profile, you might consider abandoning certain accounts (after you re-secure them).
  • Assess other risks. What might be at risk if additional investigation occurs? Are there people that you need to specifically warn and teach what to do in case of door knocks? Is there unnecessary contraband that might be found if your house is subsequently searched?
  • Lawyer up as appropriate. A legal consult is probably a good idea to assess your legal exposure. Better to have a lawyer up to speed and not need them.

photo: CDC via Unsplash


by Austin Anarchist Black Cross via It's Going Down
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Hurricane Ian Devastates Florida Prisons

Fight Toxic Prisons reports on fight to get prisoners in the path of Hurricane Ian evacuated in so-called Florida.

As Hurricane Ian continues striking Florida following landfall as a Category 4 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, over 176,000 people behind prison bars lie directly in the storm’s path. While some units have evacuated, others have gone on lockdown and are short staffed. In such situations, access to needed water, food, and power can be scarce for days to weeks following a hurricane.

The Fight Toxic Prisons Disaster Response Team (FTP) mobilized prior to and during the storm to pressure for evacuations, stockpiling, and mass releases to ensure the horrors that happened at FCI Beaumont during Hurricane Harvey[1] and the disaster Florida prisoners had to endure during Hurricane Michael [2] don’t happen again.

“At every level of the carceral system, there is an extremely dangerous lack of evacuation and safety protocols in place” stated Mei Azaad, a spokesperson for FTP. “The majority of deaths and illness that result from hurricanes don’t happen in the moment of the storm from wind speed or debris but rather from the lack of drinking water in the days following. Those deaths are often unaccounted for”.

In the days prior to the storm, FTP organized a series of mass call-in campaigns to encourage facilities in evacuation zones to take precautions to ensure the safety of incarcerated people. Charlotte County Jail was one of those that refused to evacuate, despite being in a catastrophic storm surge zone. Charlotte CI, another facility in the path of Hurricane Ian, is only partially staffed and is crowding people into a few dorms on lockdown, without explanation. “Partial staffing at locked down facilities are the same conditions that led to deaths at Beaumont after Hurricane Harvey,” stated Sloan, another organizer with FTP.

Azaad explains, “These deaths are preventable. That’s why the work we do in preparation for a storm to get people evacuated is so important. We have seen success this year and in the past as a direct result of our pressure.” For example, on September 27th, the day after FTP organized a mass call-in campaign urging for evacuations at facilities in counties with mandatory evacuation orders, the Public Affairs Office of the Hillsborough Sheriff announced that the Orient Road Jail was evacuated.

However, most facilities in danger of being impacted chose not to evacuate. Jordan Mazurek, spokesperson for the Campain to Fight Toxic Prisons explains the situation at Key West [3]: “We told them to evacuate, they said they were fine at 2 foot surge and didn’t, and now with a 3 foot surge we don’t know the status of this jail or the flood waters that folks inside had to endure. We don’t know if their supplies are okay or if they are now trapped in a flooded jail with no water or food.”

Fight Toxic Prisons is a national collective of abolitionists, environmental justice organizers, formerly and currently incarcerated folks and their loved ones. Since 2018, the FTP Disaster Response Team has been working with incarcerated people to ensure the safety of people incarcerated in facilities impacted by hurricanes.

See our Phone Zap for updates, demands, and ways to support.

Cited Articles:

[1]https://www.democracynow.org/2017/9/8/texas_prisoners_are_facing_horrid_conditions

[2]https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/this-florida-prison-took-in-evacuated-inmates-then-it-was

[3]https://grist.org/extreme-weather/hurricane-ian-storm-surge-fort-myers-florida/

Additional Reading:
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2018/may/17/eye-storm-when-hurricanes-impact-prisons-and-jails/

photo: Torsten Dederichs via Unsplash


by Fight Toxic Prisons via It's Going Down
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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Officials Move to Squash Massive Strike Across Alabama Prisons

Thousands of prisoners have launched a historic work strike across what even the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) is admitting is “most major male facilities,” throwing the system into a form of modified lockdown, as prison authorities attempt to break the strike by bringing in prisoners from other facilities. “This is a huge thing, this is a statewide initiative,” said abolitionist organizer, journalist, and podcast co-host of Millennials are Killing Capitalism, Jared Ware, who sat down with It’s Going Down to talk about the strike.

The Strike Begins

The strikes, which kicked off on Monday, took place alongside protests on the other side of the prison walls in Montgomery, Alabama, which delivered a set of the prisoners’ demands, centered around “broad criminal justice reforms and changes to the state’s prison conditions.” Also central to the prisoners’ demands is the issue of parole. As WAFF-48 reported:

More than four years ago, Alabama prisons were overcrowded to the point of being unconstitutional, according to federal court judges. Now, new data shows fewer paroles may be compounding that problem. In just four years, parole denials in Alabama nearly doubled.

That’s according to data from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles compiled by the ACLU. That data shows the parole board denied 46% of applications in 2017. In 2021, 84% of parole applications were denied.

This crisis also has a racial dynamic, as the ACLU argued in a recent report:

The rate of parole denial is even more severe for black people in Alabama prisons. The current parole board has granted relief to white candidates at more than double the rate of black candidates. So far in FY 2022, 93 percent of black parole candidates have been denied, while 84 percent of white candidates have been denied. Black candidates saw a grant rate of just 7 percent compared to white candidates at 16 percent. The board has provided no explanation for this disparity.

For years, prisoners have been arguing that incarcerated workers could make changes by bringing the prison system to its knees through coordinated strikes. In the text, Let the Crops Rot in the Field, the Free Alabama Movement wrote:

Just like the Institution of Chattel Slavery, Mass Incarceration is in essence an Economic System which uses human beings as its nuts and bolts. Therefore, our new approach must be Economically based, and must be focused on the factors of production- the people being forced into this slave labor.

If we are to end Mass Incarceration and Prison Slavery, which only those caught up in the slave system can do, then we must Unify nationwide from inside of these prisons and we must stop our labor and LET THE CROPS ROT IN THE FIELD.

“I think if we look at the prison movement from 2010, if you look at that phase of prison organizing until now, its one of the more remarkable movements in this county, in terms of prisoners theorizing and testing out their theories in practice, in struggle,” argued Ware, noting prison strikes in Georgia in 2010, Texas in 2016, and the nationwide prison strikes that took place in 2016 and 2018. Prisoners in Alabama, by the thousands, are now carrying the torch forward, by refusing their labor on a state wide level. “What’s impressive about this strike is that they managed to organize all of the workers,” noted Ware, which includes many prisoners who have worked their jobs on the inside for decades.

In response, prison officials are having to keep prisons on a form of modified lock-down and do some of the work usually done by prisoners themselves. “Staffing levels are so low, they need a lot of prison labor to run the facilities. [Prisoners] refusing to cook and clean are the two most important aspects…it keeps the guards busy,” Ware stated. One prisoner even posted to social media commenting, “Warden and officers are working in the kitchen…very aggravated trying to perform kitchen duties…”

On social media, prisoners, journalists, and supporters are also posting photos of thrown together lunches, made up of unheated hot dogs and cheese sandwiches. One researcher posted a photo of pieces of bread with slices of cheese being served to prisoners, stating, “This is breakfast at Bibb prison today, one of two cold meals they’ll likely be served today. ADOC seems to be attempting to starve an end to the prison worker strike.”

In response to the photos of these meals going viral, ADOC issued a press release stating:

…these work stoppages have affected food services given that inmate workers work up a large part of the facility support workforce. Facilities have been on a holiday meal schedule since Monday…This is not a retaliatory measure but logistically necessary to ensure that other critical services are being provided.

But prisoners also report that ADOC officials are attempting to break the strike in other ways: either through repression, or by bringing in other prisoners, or by threatening strikers with being transferred. On Twitter, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak wrote:

The Comrades in Alabama prisons report in that more people have joined the ongoing strike. Alabama prisoncrats are now moving in lower security prisoners to do the work higher security prisoners are refusing to.

A video posted by the Free Alabama Movement features an interview with a prisoner, stating:

Alabama prison officials are forcing men at work release facilities to prepare meals for striking prisons. This man secreted himself from the kitchen to give this interview. He feared for his safety and wanted to get the word out.

Fighting Against Horrific Conditions

For years, prisoners in Alabama have been fighting, organizing, and striking to improve conditions – and for good reason. In 2021, “people incarcerated in Alabama prisons died from violence and drugs in record numbers,” despite a “U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit filed against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) one year [before].”

As Common Dreams wrote:

Organizers circulated a “message from the inside” saying the roughly 25,000 incarcerated people in the state are “in the midst of a humanitarian crisis due to Eighth Amendment violations.” This crisis has occurred as a result of antiquated sentencing laws that led to overcrowding, numerous deaths, [and] severe physical injury, as well as mental anguish to incarcerated individuals,” said the inmates. Along with the overcrowding and chronic understaffing, inmates face the use of solitary confinement as a “protection” measure, “a high level of violence” including rape, a failure by officials to separate sexually violent offenders from vulnerable inmates, and a lack of “safe and sanitary” living conditions which have reportedly included open sewage, mold, and toxic fumes in kitchen areas.

As the New York Times reported:

The Alabama corrections system has drawn the ire of the Justice Department, which released a report in 2019 that outlined “severe, systemic” conditions across the state’s prisons that violated constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment because they were in danger of being raped or murdered. The report found that major prisons were at 182 percent of capacity, and that prisoners in the Alabama system endured some of the highest rates of homicide and rape in the country.

In response to the strike, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey simply doubled down on a “law and order” message, stating in a press release, “These “demands” – as the protestors refer to them – are unreasonable and would flat out not be welcomed in Alabama.”

Prisoners Remain Committed to the Strike

But prisoners remain stead fast. In a statement posted to the Free Alabama Movement website, one prisoner wrote:

September 26th, 2022 is a historical and unprecedented day with the success of ALL major prison facilities going on a labor strike. Not one incarcerated citizen reported to their slave jobs which was confirmed by the ADOC Commissioners office. Every incarcerated citizen in ADOC who made this happen should be proud of this accomplishment. You have proven to yourself, the state of Alabama, and the world that over 10,000 men and women “can” stand together where it’s always said it can’t be done.

Gov. Kay Ivey’s response is not shocking at all. None of Alabama’s taxpayers will ever agree that Ivey is the brightest crayon in the box.
It’s time that we ALL understand that public safety is entwined with what takes place in our prisons and our court rooms. It is entwined with what kind of individual we are releasing back to society.

Is time we are given an opportunity to discuss changes in current Alabama laws that have played a significant role in the current issues surrounding the inhumane conditions writhing ADOC. it’s time the lawmakers give us an opportunity to be heard and present solutions. And yes, it’s time Alabama stops telling those who are within the prison system nothing will change.

Another prisoner stated:

Today across the state, incarcerated individuals and their families are banning together as one in a show of solidarity against the inhumane and unjust treatment of them all. No matter what role you play in this state you have influence, a voice and a choice. It is past time for something to be done in this state and we, the people of Alabama, are tired of standing back and waiting for change to come. Today we start the strongest and hardest fight against the state of Alabama to do what is right for these individuals. No man or woman deserves to be treated as less than animals, we all have basic human rights which you are not allowing. The more harm that comes to these men and women at the hands of Alabama the harder we will fight, we’re not backing down.

News of the strike continues to grow, both in the national press and on local news outlets, with prisoners continuing to post on social media, sharing news, updates, and messages of solidarity with each other. As one prisoner on the Free Alabama Movement website wrote on the historic importance of the strike, “I don’t know how many people are truly paying attention to the revolution taking place right under your noses.” One thing is true, as more prisoners and their supporters find out, its possible that the strike may indeed spread.

photo: Ed Hinchliffe via Unsplash


by It's Going Down via It's Going Down
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Nobody Who Supports NATO Is A Moderate: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Listen to a reading of this article:

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Someone who believes the US or its proxies sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines can tell you exactly what they’d stand to gain from it and how little it would cost them. Someone who believes it was Russia has to perform weird mental contortions about Moscow sending some kind of message to the world and Putin being insane, or entertain the absurd notion that Russia could only stop Europe from obtaining Russian natural gas by destroying Russian pipelines. This says a lot about whose arguments are stronger.

The west has blamed Russia for bad presidents, for western racism, for western political divisions, for inflation, for pretty much every bad thing western power structures are responsible for, but blaming Russia for attacks on Russian pipelines is probably going to take the cake.

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The Wolfowitz Doctrine, penned after the fall of the USSR, describes the US policy of ensuring that no other power develops which could challenge US supremacy. It’s important to understand that this wouldn’t just apply to nations like Russia and China, but to the EU as well.

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Nobody who supports NATO is a moderate.

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Being an American liberal means wearing a “Punch Nazis” t-shirt while cheering Biden as he arms Nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine and Hillary Clinton as she praises Italy’s election of a fascist prime minister.

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Looking forward to when things heat up with China so we can find out whether Australia is going to be Washington’s next Europe or its next Ukraine.

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Both sides of the Ukraine proxy war are threatening to use nukes. Both Russia and NATO 100 percent understand that nukes may be used by either side and their use is never off the table. The mutual nuclear threat is always there, regardless of what mouth noises either side is making about them. It’s weird how many people I’m running into who don’t get this.

This conflict doesn’t magically get dangerous because of what some Russian official happens to be saying on a given day. It would be just as dangerous if nobody was saying anything about nukes. The threat is there regardless of what anyone says, and it’s rapidly escalating.

❖

It sure was nice of governments to assign themselves the responsibility of regulating how we talk to each other online. I don’t remember anyone asking them to do this, and it sure sounds like a lot of work, but by golly they’ve volunteered for the job anyway:

“How do you successfully end a war if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not only legal but noble?”

I keep tripping on this part. She’s saying people should be forbidden to say certain things about a war, on the absurd grounds that free speech can prevent peace. Even if you ignore the tyrannical mentality from which this claim arises, it also just makes zero logical sense. People saying online that a war is justified prevents that war from being ended? What? How? How could that possibly even happen? What the fuck are you talking about?

❖

If someone criticizing nuclear fucking brinkmanship looks like adoration for Putin or Russian propaganda to you, it’s because you’ve been so brainwashed by western propaganda that the most normal thing imaginable looks freakish and sinister in your eyes. Criticizing your government is normal. Criticizing agendas of unparalleled existential importance is normal. Criticizing the most powerful government in the world is normal. Only by tremendous amounts of propaganda are these extremely normal things made to look abnormal.

Online discourse is crawling with people who really, truly, sincerely believe that if someone doesn’t fully support their government’s foreign policy with Russia and believe 100 percent of what their government says about it, it means they love Vladimir Putin and support everything he does. You either believe Putin invaded Ukraine solely because he is evil and hates freedom and support your government’s actions against Russia no matter how much it costs or how much it risks, or you love the Kremlin and think Putin is a saint. Those are the only two possibilities.

If you can propagandize someone into believing their government is pure and virtuous, they will necessarily see any opposition to that government as evil and malicious. That’s why anyone questioning official narratives about Russia can only be an evil tankie who hates democracy.

Someone who tells you that you love Putin and believe he’s perfect is really telling you that they love their own government and think it’s perfect. They see their government as pure and virtuous and worthy of blind obedience, so failure to do so is indicative of nefariousness.

____________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, buying an issue of my monthly zine, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/29/nobody-who-supports-nato-is-a-moderate-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
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Canadian Tire Fire #45: Drilling Begins Under Wedzin Kwa, An End To Migrant Detention in Nova Scotia Prisons

cover photo: @critcim

On September 19th, the day of a national commemorative ceremony for Queen Elizabeth, folks on the west coast held a lively anti-colonial counter-gathering calling for the abolishment of the monarchy.

To update a story from our last column, Innu protesters ended their blockade of an industry rail line in Northern Quebec on September 16th, after 10 days.

Our stories this week cover the developments in Wet’suwet’en territory, where the drilling under Wedzin Kwa has begun, but the fight is far from over. We’ve also got an explanation of Nova Scotia’s announcement to end migrant detention in their provincial prisons. In news from Vancouver’s downtown eastside: cops drove right into a resident and injured them, and another SRO fire threatens to displace more people from their homes.

Read on for the full stories!

Drilling Begins Under Wedzin Kwa, The Fight Is Not Over

In Wet’suwet’en territory,  Coastal Gaslink and the cops have succeeded in getting the drill in place on the yintah to begin the work of tunneling under Wedzin Kwa. Wet’suwet’en and their supporters’ years of resistance on the yintah, including months of occupation of the drill pad by Coyote Camp, evictions of police and industry, blockades, and more, have delayed the drilling significantly. Solidarity actions including rail blockades, RBC targeting, and everything in between, have contributed to the struggle from coast to coast. In February, an unclaimed attack on equipment at the drill site caused millions of dollars of damage and more delays. While the drill’s arrival is a horrible and heartwrenching development, Wet’suwet’en on the front line have been unambiguous: the fight is not over.

In an interview in the immediate aftermath of the drill’s arrival, Sleydo’ doubled down that Gidimt’en will not give up. No pipe has been laid in Gidimt’en territory, section 7 of the pipeline. The pipeline will never be put into service.

The beginning of drilling comes in the context of yet another reveal that CGL has received more than 50 notices of environmental violations during pipeline construction so far. And while the environmental destruction continues and begins to more immediately threaten Wedzin Kwa, the repression of land defenders rages on as well.

On and off the yintah, people refuse to give up. Activists continue to target RBC for funding the pipeline, with an uptick of symbolic actions by groups such as Decolonial Solidarity. There was also a clear presence of opponents to the project at September 23rd’s climate strike demonstrations.

And the importance of this moment even has representatives of environmental NGOs aware of the need to pull out all the stops and escalate opposition to the project: “People are becoming aware this is a critical time in a decade-long resistance fight, and so the next things that come through, I would just assume that all tactics are on the table.”

We’ll be keeping an eye out for how things develop. Solidarity with everyone on the front lines and those supporting them from afar!

Nova Scotia Announces End To Migrant Detention in Provincial Prisons

The Province of Nova Scotia announced last week that migrants will no longer be held in its provincial prisons. The province has given Canada Border Services Agency, a branch of the federal government, a years’ notice for the termination of their contract, after which time the province will no longer hold migrants in its prisons. Nova Scotia is the second province to make this move, after B.C. made a similar announcement in July of this year.

The practice of migrant detention is widespread across Canada. The number of migrants incarcerated reached its highest rate ever in 2020, with nearly 9,000 people locked up in migrant detention centers or provincial prisons. CBSA has the discretion to detain immigrants and refugee claimants indefinitely on a variety of grounds. Some detainees are held in dedicated migrant detention centers, while others are held in prisons through contracts with provincial governments.

Migrant rights advocates have celebrated this announcement as a human rights victory. The ultimate implications of the announcement remain unclear – the onus has been put back on the federal government to determine what to do with people who had been locked up in Nova Scotia. They may move those people to be detained in another province, expand federal migrant detention capacity in Nova Scotia, or attempt to re-negotiate with the province. Ideally, this announcement will push the federal government to move away from migrant detention and re-dedicate resources to supporting migrants and refugee claimants in their communities. The chances for this outcome will likely increase if more provinces follow suit in moving away from facilitating migrant detention. Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are pushing for similar changes in other provinces, particularly Ontario, where nearly half of all immigrant detainees in Canada are currently held.

News from Vancouver’s DTES

Vancouver Police are once again facing public criticism for brutality against Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents. On September 20th, a Vancouver Police vehicle rammed into a man standing in the roadway at high speed. Camera footage from the area showed that the man had been standing in the road for a few minutes, and had been avoided by other vehicles before being hit by the police car. More footage then shows that police officers swarmed the scene, one knocking a first responder to the ground and about 25-30 officers surrounding the site for the next two hours. The man who was hit was later released from the hospital. This incident comes a month after Vancouver Police killed a man in the DTES by shooting him multiple times with a bean gun.

In other news from the DTES, a fire in a single-room occupancy building caused more than 50 people to be evacuated from their homes on Saturday, September 24th. No one was injured and most of the residents are expected to be able to return to their homes by Monday. This is at least the fourth fire in a DTES SRO building in just over a month. Community members are calling for more attention to and enforcement of fire code violations by SRO operators.


by Canadian Tire Fire via It's Going Down
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