Call for Decentralized, Autonomous May Day Actions!

A flyer of white background with black text. Text reads: "Decentralized & Autonomous Action. Against Displacement, Police, & Property. Find your COVID Pods, Affinity Groups, or Vaccinated Friends. Act Together. May Day 2021. Center of the flyer has a black & white photo of someone dancing in frot of a burning car during a protest.

An Anonymous Transmission

The Message

More than a year and a half into a set of escalating crises–a global pandemic that has bled the poor and working classes dry while enriching the ruling classes, a globalizing insurrection against anti-Black police violence, a State whose violence has not ceased with a simple change in the figurehead–we remain at a crossroads. The way things are is not sustainable. We feel this deeply in every aspect of our lives: physical, spiritual, social, emotional. We reject the tyranny of working long hours to barely meet our basic needs. We denounce the extraction, exploitation, and hoarding of the land’s precious gifts. We deny the manufactured necessity of police, prisons, and surveillance.

The experiences and struggles of the past year–from mutual aid networks & rent strikes to riots & autonomous zones–have fundamentally transformed us and our local conditions. One the one hand, the growth of local organizing networks and the explosion of insurgent strategies has expanded the window of possibility for autonomous activity in the city. On the other hand, the weight of over a year of furious organizing, the heigtening of internal contradictions and conflict amongst organizations, and the slowing down of the waves of local insurgency have sapped much of the energy that propelled us last year. Finally, we look ahead to an oncoming struggle around multiple proposals to criminalize homelessness, heigtening antagonism to the police and the regime of property they serve, and a summer which many predict will be hot and riotous. It is amidst these conditions that we offer this proposal for May 1st.

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Black Sovereign Nation Calls for Boycott of Austin Public Libraries

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.

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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.

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Words from Texas Prisoners: Excerpt from “Prisons are Plantations”

Austin Anarchist Black Cross demo in solidarity with striking prisoners in 2016

Anonymously published document. Full document here. Originally spotted on Revolutionary Horizon‘s facebook page.

 We are republishing a collection of excerpts from a larger piece composed of interviews with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks from Texas, Illinois, and Florida. The original document uses interviews and case studies with prisoners, guards, and historical analysis to demonstrate how prisons are extensions of the plantation system and mirror pre-1865 slave codes. We’ve highlighted passages that reflect the experiences and conditions of inmates in Texas prisons. We hope this will give students and other non-incarcerated folks a better idea of the conditions and struggles of prisoners, and expose students to some of the worlds that we are isolated from. In particular, students should recognize the complicity of their own schools in this system. UT’s Investment Management Corporation indirectly invests in two of the largest private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO group [1]. The prison has long been the hidden underside of the University. While the University produces new citizens & professionals, the prison strips away citizenship and produces captivity. We hope the following excerpts will inspire greater awareness and energy for anti-prison organizing.

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