Revenge of the Farmers

The struggle over the Gill Tract off San Pablo Ave in Albany reignited this past week with a successful land occupation that established a new community farm and liberated zone in an empty section of the land. The tract is owned by UC Berkeley which has plans to develop this island of agricultural land surrounded by the urban sprawl of the East Bay into parking lots, a super market and a genetically modified agriculture laboratory. The new land occupation comes on the anniversary of the first occupation on the tract last spring which successfully held the zone for weeks. Early Monday morning, UC Police again raided the zone, evicting the new wave of farmers and occupiers and brought in heavy equipment to destroy the thousands of crops planted over the previous days. In the ensuing standoff, four comrades were arrested including two who broke through the police perimeter and led the pigs on a chase through the fields in an awesome scene reminiscent of a cartoon. See the video below:

 

Later in the evening, a medium sized crowd regrouped and crossed police lines back onto the land to reestablish the farm and begin cleaning up the destruction left after the raid. A call has gone out for a reconvergence on the land this coming Saturday:

LIBERATE THE GILL TRACT! OCCUPY THE FARM! FREE OUR COMRADES!
• Reconvergence at the Gill Tract – Saturday May 18, 2013 @ 11am
• meet near the corner of San Pablo and Monroe in Albany

more info: http://occupythefarm.org

On the Eve of Our Repression: Communiqué on The Squatting Struggle in Oakland 2/10/13

From IndyBay

Communique on Immanent Squat Evictions in Oakland

Anti-Police Tension Builds Across Oakland on Eve of Bratton Decision

All out to City Hall tonight at 5pm!

As the full Oakland City Council prepares to make a decision this evening on the hiring of Bratton as a consultant for the Oakland Police Department, a series of tense standoffs with OPD have unfolded across the city in the past day.

On Monday afternoon during the Martin Luther King holiday, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. son of slain revolutionary Fred Hampton Sr. of the Black Panther Party was detained and intimidated by OPD swine during his visit to Oakland. Fred Hampton Jr has been in town these past days to help coordinate with those organizing locally against the police. While driving through neighboring Emeryville, Fred and the other passengers in his car were pulled over by seven or more Oakland and Emeryville police cruisers and ordered to put their hands in the air as pigs approached the car with guns drawn. All those in the car were handcuffed and detained for three hours during which time police asked questions that revealed they were directly targeting and intimidating Fred. At the end of the ordeal, Fred and the others were released and the police left as if nothing had happened citing some unsubstantiated claim that they were investigating the case of a stolen cell phone.

Later that evening across town in East Oakland, an undercover officer patrolling the 1700 block of Seminary Avenue was allegedly confronted in the street and shot in the arm by a group of people. OPD’s immediate response was indicative of their role as a militarized state-sponsored gang on a campaign of repression and containment in the flatland neighborhoods of Oakland. Military-style SWAT patrols blanketed the neighborhood in a series of house raids and door to door searches while snipers with assault rifles patrolled the streets perched out of armored personal carriers. As of this writing, the patrols and raids continue in the neighborhood.

This has all unfolded in the past 24 hours as the city prepares for another tense night in City Hall as the council finalizes its decision to hire William Bratton, the stop and frisk enthusiast, Pig consultant who has made a career out of helping cities across the country transform into heavily controlled police states. Once again, calls have gone out to swarm city hall in a 5pm rally before the meeting and to pack the chambers throughout the deliberations.

The Oakland Tribune has issued its own call for Oakland’s “silent majority” to “take back the city” from the “anti-police mob”. The paper is working along with council member Kernighan to encourage law and order and business minded defenders of OPD to counter the anti-police presence at the meeting this evening.

Should be an interesting night. Make sure you get to City Hall at 5pm sharp! It’s gonna be crowded!

MORE INFO:

• OPD harassment of Fred Hampton Jr
• Oakland Tribune: Residents must Take Back the City
• Critical Resistance Call for 1/22 Mobilization at City Hall
• CBS: OPD undercover shot, SWAT raids follow

“Welcome” Bill Bratton to Oakland at City Council this Tuesday.

Come to this week’s city council meeting to “welcome” Bill Bratton to Oakland in Solidarity with Alan Blueford’s family and all others against policing. Banners and all other forms of creative propaganda encouraged.

Tuesday, January 15th, 5pm-8pm.

Sure, Bratton is an innovative, evil super-cop. He alone threatens to stomp out “crime”, “blight” and “violent protests.” But it must be clear that Bratton is merely a trophy addition to an ongoing project of counter-insurgency perpetrated by the City of Oakland altogether.
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Statement regarding January 8 courtroom chaos

for comrade Jack
video of courtroom melee below, statement follows…

This past Tuesday morning, nearly 100 people gathered at Oscar Grant Plaza to say goodbye to Jack. Jack was arrested on January 7, 2012 during the very first FTP march in downtown Oakland. This march was called as a response to OPD and the local Oakland state apparatus’ repression of all rebellious elements in Oakland with brute force in the wake of Occupy Oakland. After clearing the encampment at Oscar Grant Plaza twice, a struggle over territory in Oakland’s downtown became a near daily event. Some would try to hold on to Oscar Grant Plaza as a zone where struggles could be coordinated and actions organized. A twenty four hour vigil continued even as the camp was gone. After many brutal arrests and regular brawls with pigs over control of downtown turf, a Fuck the Police march, that ended up becoming a weekly tradition for months, was called for the first Saturday of January. It was at this demonstration on January 7 that Jack was arrested and given bullshit charges – multiple felonies for assaulting a police officer and a made up “possession of an explosive device” charge that would eventually be dropped due to lack of any evidence. A year long court battle eventually resulted in Jack taking a plea deal: 1 year at Santa Rita Jail (though with “half-time” and “good behavior” he’ll be out in six months) and multiple years of probation.

Together with our comrade and his family leading the way we walked quietly in the street some eight blocks to the court house. About 50 of us somberly filed into the courtroom. Jack was called before judge Carrie Panetta (daughter in law of former CIA director Leon Panetta) who rambled about the length of his sentence. She banned our friend from ever making contacts with “his victims” (as though pigs can be victims!) otherwise known as officers of the Oakland Police Department. After agreeing to the year long sentence, with only half to be served, the judge ordered the bailiffs take Jack into custody. Almost immediately dozens of people were clapping and hissing. Screams filled the air.  “Burn the prisons!” “Fuck the police!” “Death to pigs!” “Hang the Judges!”  “Pig Fuckers!”“Brick by brick, tear this court to the ground!” People stomped on the ground, cursed the judged, and brought smiles to the dozen or so inmates being sentenced that day. It was a modest yet appropriate response to a system that tears loved ones away from each other and reproduces the laws that defend the horrors in this world Jack was resisting in the first place. (more…)

SF Greek Consulate Paint Bombed

from indybay

Fight fascism! Spread anarchy!

On the night of January 9th, we paint bombed the facade and crest of the Greek consulate in San Francisco. We would have done more, but unfortunately there is an apartment above the consulate. This concern for life is something our fascist enemies do not share.

Earlier that morning, under the direction of right-wing PM Samaras and his Minister of Public Order, the Greek police evicted the re-occupation of the Villa Amalias squat and then evicted the Skaramaga squat. This was enough to arouse our anger and this modest action is to show solidarity with our distant comrades. There is enough documentation of the collaboration between the Greek government and the fascist party Golden Dawn. Villa Amalias was evicted because of its specific location in Athens on the border between fascist and immigrant territory. It is imperative that the struggle against fascism intensifies in the face of this onslaught.

This action took three hours of our lives. We understand people feel sad and hopeless, but we want to remind you it is easy to act. Rage can be released, sadness can turn to joy. We encourage people to plan demos against the Greek consulates and embassies, target Greek companies and assets, and generally go wild on whatever target they feel is worthy of assault. Do more than us, do better than us, and fight all the way.

1, 100, 1000 Villa Amalias! Defend all squats!

Long live anarchy!

-Brigada Maricones

PS: We’re hella weak in the US, but we’re trying not to be =)

Video from Oakland’s Noise Demo 2013, the Tradition Continues…

Here is a video that was taken on New Years in Oakland. You can read the call out for the demo here that was “organized by fed up people of color.”

200+ people showed up to ring in the New Year in solidarity with those inside as people shot off fireworks and chanted outside the jail.

“We are not calling for reform, we are fighting for abolition.”

New Years Eve Block Party!

from indybay:

New Years Eve Block Party
Monday, December 31
10:00 PM – 11:30 PM

This New Years Eve, lets party with the prisoners. Too many loved ones from our communities have been caught up by this RACIST PRISON SYSTEM. During this night of celebration, we make sure they know they are not forgotten by celebrating RESISTANCE, STRENGTH and SURVIVAL.

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Stay Calm: some tips for keeping safe in times of state repression

pdfs for printing and viewing below

The spectre of state repression has been growing over Bay Area radical milieus. Grand juries in the Pacific Northwest and in Santa Cruz, threats by police of using gang enhancements against activists, the recent string of mass arrests, the profusion of political divisions and threats, abundant conspiracy theories, surveillance of our social spaces, FOIA paperwork that references a confidential informer–The list goes on and on and on.

Murmurs of imminent repression can be heard everywhere. Even though everything we hear cannot be entirely proven or disproven, recent events underscore the importance of preparing for a possible crackdown. The state seeks to isolate us with repression, as individuals and within our tendencies. Against that, we can prepare together, support each other and continue actively struggling against the oppression and misery of this world.

Repression always exists and now is the time to take security very seriously. Without knowing the exact form repression will take, there are some likely scenarios to prepare for, as well as some precautions that can be taken to reduce the ability of the feds and police agencies to monitor, divide and prosecute our networks. (more…)

Oakland is for Burning? Beyond a Critique of Gentrification

I’m not a nihilist, but I wish they would burn every fucking thing down except for the houses. So that people would begin to understand that we don’t need this system.
- Bella Eiko, speaking to the Oakland City Council, during a vote called to ban “tools of violence” at political demonstrations, 2012

During the Summer [of 1966], there were rumors in the Oakland ghetto that Molotov cocktails were being manufactured in empty garages; that arms caches had been discovered; and that new tactics based on a study of Watts were being taught to young Negro militants, stressing the folly of burning their own homes and shops in the ghetto, and urging that their protest would be more effective if they burned City Hall, the business district, and the homes of the Whites on the hillside.
-Amory Bradford, Oakland’s not for Burning, 1968

*    *    *

Make no mistake: Oakland has changed drastically over the last few years. More and more trendy boutiques and cafes sink their roots into the Telegraph corridor and downtown streets. The deserted center of Oakland of the early 2000′s has been replaced by a young and artsy street life. Recently, Forbes magazine rated Uptown Oakland the 9th hippest neighborhood in the United States. Almost simultaneously, in 2010, Oakland had the highest per-capita violent crime rate in all of California. This dissonance between the violence of Oakland’s failed economy and the recent influx of “culture” and financial capital has come to define Oakland in the present moment.

This piece is written as a friendly challenge to the narrative of gentrification as it exists within radical milieus. True or not, radicals in Oakland often view themselves, with no small amount of guilt, as “foot soldiers” or, more jokingly, the “vanguard” of gentrifying processes. The narrative goes: mostly white radicals move to Oakland because of their interest in the social conflicts here, and with the radicals comes their race and class privileges that feed the mechanisms of gentrification. As a result of this gentrification, historically black neighborhoods are whitening and rental prices are pushing out the working class elements. In its broad strokes, this narrative might be indisputable; there is some truth to everything it describes. Here, the effort will be spent to clarify specific parts of this process, identifying possible points of activity and intervention. An argument will be made here for wholly clarifying the confused and recuperated narrative of gentrification with a nuanced and localized understanding of the processes at work. (more…)