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No Platform For Feds!

An Anonymous Submission

This week, job recruiters from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will speak to students with disabilities and student veterans. According to the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) website, CIA recruiters will offer informational sessions and one-on-one advisory sessions for interested applicants. Concerned students will wonder why the CIA is openly recruiting on a bustling college campus. In fact, colleges have become prime poaching grounds for federal agencies looking to bolster the surveillance state that is now commonplace in the so-called United States and beyond.

College campuses were once radical nerve centers that led disruptive actions against the Vietnam War and other atrocities. Post 9/11, they have been tamed by predatory organizations such as the CIA and the US military. Colleges feature a steady flow of international intellectuals, malleable minds, and relative anonymity. The intellectuals provide key information about the health and strength of rival states. Flexible and eager students, especially younger ones away from family for the first time, are vulnerable to manipulation by ruthlessly trained recruiters. And at a campus like UT Austin, a probing face in the crowd can do a lot of damage.

The presence of the state’s eyes and ears makes everyone less safe. Far from friendly, and even further from scrupulous, CIA agents are responsible for massive destabilization campaigns across the world. And under the vaunted liberal values of diversity and inclusion, the CIA is not only allowed but encouraged to recruit from various student communities, such as those receiving services from SSD. Apparently, they need more token members to prop up their reputation.

UT members concerned about autonomy and freedom from the state’s apparatus of surveillance and murder should be gravely concerned about the CIA’s presence on campus. It is up to us to send the message that feds and their ilk are NOT WELCOME in any capacity.

Editor’s note: The recruitment session described above will occur on September 27th in the Student Services Building.

Got a story you need to tell? Publish it with us! Send us your opinion pieces, art, zines, reviews, news, statements, report-backs, or anything else you wanna see put out in the world. We take all kinds of content, with an eye towards marginalized perspectives and news about movements & revolutionary organizations. Submit content to austinautonomedia [@] autistici [dot] org.

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What Starts Here: Islamophobia, Fascist Crybabies, & Mapache Deported

Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable

This is the first edition of what we hope will be a regular column. Here’s a roundup of the shit that went down recently that we think is relevant (plus some radical reflections on those events). This week features news about Central Texas political prisoner & anti-borders activist Mapache, a climate of Islamophobia and recent attacks in Austin, & a pathetic “Free Alex Jones Rally,” that occurred over the weekend.

Continue reading “What Starts Here: Islamophobia, Fascist Crybabies, & Mapache Deported”

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Open the Windows!

A rant by Saoirse Ní Mhaille

UT Austin hates me and doesn’t want me to breathe in that good stormy air. $25 to open a window. Yes, I could just run outside, but what if I want to enjoy the storm from the safety of my room? What if I’m doing homework and can’t get my laptop wet? What if I want to go to sleep to the sound of the rain? What if I just farted and it really stinks? Hmmm??? What then???

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Leaked Audio Reveals Militia’s Plans to Attack Houston Protesters

Anonymous submission originally posted to It’s Going Down. Listen to the full audio on Youtube. Read one for highlights & analysis.

On September 1st and 2nd, far-Right groups, white nationalists, and Proud Boys, all associated with the The Texas Patriot Network, a front group for the Soldier o Odin, protested outside the 55th annual Islamic Society of North America convention.
Antifascist groups were also on hand to provide community defense. The following report, which includes leaked audio communications (from September 2nd) from the side of the far-Right, shows their failed attempt to ambush counter-protesters.

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Caught Between Borders: An Interview With Mapache

Interview originally posted on It’s Going Down. Check out this original poem written by Mapache during his incarceration
 

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Mapache has lived through a nightmare many people can’t even imagine. In late July, Mapache spoke with It’s Going Down on This Is America, reporting on an ongoing encampment protesting ICE deportations, forced child separations, an mass roundups. About a week after our interview, Mapache was picked up by ICE officials, as they knew his DACA was up. Upon being arrested, he was visited by the FBI, who gave him a choice of either informing on his comrades who were simply involved in protesting ICE, or staying locked inside a detention facility – he chose the later.

As The Intercept wrote:

After Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a longtime U.S. resident protesting against ICE in San Antonio, Texas, the FBI stepped in for an interrogation, telling the resident, 18-year-old Sergio Salazar, that his immigration status had been revoked because he was a “bad person.” The FBI agents asked him to inform on fellow protesters and said if he did so it could help his immigration case.

“It seems evident that he was targeted here because of his involvement in the anti-ICE protests,” said Jonathan Ryan, Salazar’s lawyer from RAICES Texas, an immigrant advocacy group. “We’re very concerned about how directed and targeted and aggressive and quick this was.”

Despite having no record, authorities used Mapache’s involvement in the protest as a pretext for his repression. After refusing to talk to the FBI, Mapache was then moved to another detention center run by a private corporation several hours away. Here, with hundreds of others, he remained for about a month. During our conversation, we talk about the conditions within the facility, the people within it and their stories, and the impact of the Abolish ICE movement.

Finally, after about 40 days, Mapache decided to opt to be deported to Mexico. While this means that he left the prison behind him, it also meant that for 10 years he is banned from returning to the United States, where he has lived almost his entire life.

In this emotional and heartfelt discussion, we talk about the arbitrary and violent nature of the deportation machine, the irony of a system that represses migrants yet depends on their labor, the struggles and humanity of those locked inside detention centers, and the brutality and psychosis of those that don badges to uphold the racial order.

More Info: Get at Mapache on Twitter and donate here.

 

Got a story you need to tell? Publish it with us! Send us your opinion pieces, art, zines, reviews, news, statements, report-backs, or anything else you wanna see put out in the world. We take all kinds of content, with an eye towards marginalized perspectives and news about movements & revolutionary organizations. Submit content to austinautonomedia [@] autistici [dot] org.

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Hell’s Walls–A Poem From Mapache

 Submission from Mapache, a community activist incarcerated by ICE.

It has been over one month since ICE kidnapped community activist Sergio Salazar aka Mapache. On September 14th, he was deported–a decision chosen by Mapache in order to get out of the cage faster, and a result of the corner he had been backed into by the feds. Through his friends in the (now de-camped) Abolish ICE SATX camp, we have received and are republishing this poem he wrote while being held in the Webb Detention Center. We look forward to publishing more works from Mapache soon. We also encourage you to attend the upcoming letter writing night for Mapache & Red Fawn, being hosted by the Austin Anarchist Black Cross and the Autonomous Student Network.

Continue reading “Hell’s Walls–A Poem From Mapache”

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Justice For Andres: Abuse, Mistreatment, and Retaliation by ICE

Submission from participants in Abolish ICE SATX. If you read this story, we ask that you please donate to help Andres and Margaret get back on their feet!

About two weeks ago, Andres Mancilla was deported without warning. Andres, a permanent resident, was detained by ICE about a year ago and subject to horrific mistreatment and neglect. His fiance, Margarita (aka Margaret), dropped everything to follow Andres as he was moved throughout the immigration prison system. This brought both of them to San Antonio, where Margaret came into contact with local activists. Together, they followed Andres to the processing facility at 3523 Crosspoint Drive, from where he was then sent by bus to be held at the Pearsall Detention Facility. It is because of Andres and Margaret that we even know of the Crosspoint facility’s existence. Andres’ story and Margaret’s energy helped lay the foundation for Camp Cicada.

Continue reading “Justice For Andres: Abuse, Mistreatment, and Retaliation by ICE”

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Austin Goes #AllOut: Autonomous Antifascists Assemble

Submission from a few black flags

#AllOutATX was the final act in a month of struggle against fascism in central Texas. While the ongoing Occupy ICE San Antonio encampment faced attacks from Patriot Front, local police, and the FBI,this marked the final event of #AllOutAugust, which had been a series of successes from Portland to D.C. in which antifascists defeated far-right forces, often facing brutal clashes with the police who defend them. On the 18th, attention from across the nation was on Austin. Jennilyn Kae Lohmer-Salinas, one of the main organizers of the nationwide marches “against far-left violence,” hails from the area, and Austin was one of the first cities to announce such a rally. In the days leading up to the event, the doxxing of some supporters by an independently set-up honeypot site along with internal conflict resulted in the cancellation of multiple rallies and a fracturing of fascist forces. Locally attention was also focused on this event as it promised to be a test of the strength and future potential of both fascist forces and new autonomous antifascist networks in the area. Below is an account of the events of the day and reflections on how we could have conducted ourselves better. 

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SeaSol Backs Tenants Against Mega Landlord

Submission from Seattle Solidarity Network (SeaSol), originally published on their blog.

This article is published in solidarity with comrades in Seattle organizing a tenant campaign against American Campus Communities. As they fight against ACC’s practices in their community, we offer our support and solidarity against the housing monster which lives in our own backyard.

After months of targeting and harassment by the landlord, tenants from American Campus Communities (ACC) have organized an association and executed the first of many visible actions. With help from SeaSol ACC tenants held an informational picket attended by 30 tenants and community supporters on Saturday, June 30th from 11 am to 1 pm in front of ACC’s flagship building Hub in the University District. Tenants from ACC first got in touch with SeaSol in April to seek help in their fight against their massive new landlord. Over the next few months we assisted tenants with door knocking, community outreach, and putting together their first association meeting earlier in June.

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SATX Call To Action: Vigilia Hasta Que Haya Justicia

Submission from Mapache, a member of the Contra Todo Collective in San Antonio
        One important thing has been stolen from the lives of the Chicanx and Latinx people for hundreds of years. From the time colonists arrived and pushed the indigenous peoples out of what is now SouthWest America, to the American takeover of Mexico where those who fought at the Alamo became martyrs of the invasion, and now in the continuation of violence against the people of this land in the form of I.C.E. and detention; there is one thing the brave people of this continent have fought for: justice.
 

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