Keep Austin Criminal
A listing of major individuals & organizations involved in attempts to terrorize & displace the city’s unhoused population. While Prop B has passed, one could still take action against those who pushed for it, as they are agents in the broader trend of displacement and class war in the city.
Continue reading “Sweeps Contractors & Camping Ban Proponents”
Austin Autonomedia: Keep Austin Criminal
This website and the parent organization it was born from, the Autonomous Student Network, were products of and participants in the wave of anti-fascist/anti-racist struggles that grew in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Some of us got an early start and caught glimpses of the preceding cycle of struggle in Austin–defined largely by the post-Ferguson moment with anti-police & Black Lives Matter movements, but we have little direct context for the depth and complexity of that moment. There is also a disconnect in historical memory between those more recently activated who see white nationalism as a product of the post-Trump moment and those who know the longer history of anti-racist struggles in Austin.
Continue reading “All Lives Matter: White Reaction in Austin, TX (2015)”
Originally published by Stop the Sweeps Austin
For public access and distribution, we are republishing a zine produced by Stop the Sweeps Austin–a local network combating the sweeps and displacement of homeless people in Austin. This zine was produced for distribution at the 2020 Austin Anarchist Bookfair, and features a timeline of events presented through facebook highlights, as well as a statement of principles and vision for the organization. We hope it inspires those locally seeking to join or conspire with these folks, or those near and far looking for inspiring examples of ways to organize themselves. Click the hyperlinks below to access digital and print-imposed PDFs of the zine.
Got a something you need to publish? Send it to us! We take all kinds of radical/revolutionary content, with a special affinity for anarchist/autonomous movements and crews. We specialize in research and strategic intelligence that can inform direct action, but we’ll take art, opinion pieces, and other stuff too! Submit content to austinautonomedia [@] autistici [dot] org.
Autonomous Student Media: Gestures Towards the Ungovernable
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on contracted services, which include everything from IT and technical support to chartered flights and ground transportation. Dozens of companies grow rich from giving ICE the tools they need to surveil, incarcerate, and deport an ever-increasing number of migrants.
ICE also pays individuals for services, and among them is Todd A. Radford. A career cop, Radford is currently the police chief of Lakeway, Texas, an 82% white suburb of Austin with a 3.3% poverty rate. Radford has a combination of criminal justice and business degrees, and makes money on top of his police chief salary from giving lectures. The average salary of a police chief for a town the size of Lakeway is about $90,000/year.
ICE has paid Radford an average of more than $11,000 a year for these lectures. One lecture is billed as “a unique training geared to law enforcement management”, and the other is simply described as “law enforcement training”. One can imagine the pearls of wisdom Radford has gained after 30 years of doing capitalism and nationalism’s dirty work. As the police are given more and more money, discretion, and military equipment, ICE is eager to cozy up behind the thin blue line with them.
People who live near the US/Mexico border and people suffering from poverty alike know how militarized cops of all stripes have become. Collaborations like the one between ICE and this police chief can only further harm migrants, racialized people, and poor people as cops of different stripes become more and more comfortable with sharing knowledge and information. This collaboration between Radford and ICE is above and beyond what the infamous SB4 requires of law enforcement. Radford denounced the law in 2015 while he was running for Travis County Sheriff. Unsurprisingly, he does not actually give a shit about the people he criminalizes.
Close the lines of communication between the pigs and open the borders!
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.
Modified from a series of Facebook posts by Black Sovereign Nation. Read below for background on the #NoSanctuaryForBlackFutures Campaign. Visit BSN’s campaign website for more links, info, & ways to plug in.
From now until August, Black Sovereign Nation’s No Sanctuary for Black Futures Campaign is calling for a boycott of Austin Public Library. We would like to send the library administration and the City of Austin a strong message that our community takes equity very seriously. The library is an amazing space at which Black youth should feel welcome, celebrated, and supported. Unfortunately, APL does not have policy or training that can engender that type of environment. Our ask is simple! Develop stronger policy so that our kids can return to the libraries, where they belong.
Continue reading “Black Sovereign Nation Calls for Boycott of Austin Public Libraries”