Communique 011: Human Tater Tots of the Alt-Right

Stream or download on SoundCloud or iTunes.

Another bullshit week in suck city with Elias and Athena.

Talking Points: Starting on time is weird; maker space? I barely even know her space!; DIY stab vests; Athena enlists in the Pride military; the top of my nose; disingenuity; LAN party politics; Mother-Daughter Forklift Race 2017; National Mamas Bailout Day; FRIT ain’t SHIT; Wake Up the Earth; Reportback: Rally Boston to Stand Against Hate; the human tater tots of the alt-right; Comey sent homey; Spicer beats around the bush; once, twice, three times *totally not* under investigation; comrade Trump?!; community engagement; Rate! That! Praxis!; interesting reads; the return of Hoagy Carmichael.

Related Links:
Black Lives Matter is bailing out women for Mother’s Day (Brandon E. Patterson, Mother Jones)
Somerville Got Astroturfed (Matt Lavallee, Medium)
A free speech clash on the Common (Nicole Fleming, The Boston Globe)
Drinking From the Cup of Fascist Tears: Boston Report Back (It’s Going Down)
After James Comey’s Firing, Who Will Stop Trump’s Tinpot Dictatorship? (Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept)
After Trump fired Comey, White House staff scrambled to explain why (Jenna Johnson, The Washington Post)
Trump to send arms to Kurdish YPG in Syria (Al Jazeera)
Richard Spencer Was My High-School Classmate (Graeme Wood. The Atlantic)
French workers protest by ‘booby-trapping’ plant (Al Jazeera)

 

Communique 009: It’s Gonna Be May Day

HAPPY MAY DAY! Elias and Athena bring you a brief history of May Day in Massachusetts and beyond, and discuss state efforts to subvert the holiday, the Janarchists of Fyre Festival, prank calling ICE, gay frog week, another awful beverage ad, and more!

Stream or download on SoundCloud or iTunes.

Talking points: Untouched by an angel; that little guy? I wouldn’t worry about that little guy; a-Maying grace; moderation is involved; open yr fresh can; Athena doesn’t like it; the Duke of Fuck-You vs Lord I-Do-What-I-Want; feedin’ the cedar meter; Puritans HATE him–click to see why!; the storied Malorkus’s of Braintree; the “Haymarket thing;” 1919: Boston PD become Hot Cops; kill Mayor Whitey; gargling foie gras; the Albert Parsons Project (oy); Loyalty Day, Law Day, and Labor Day; it’s okay if you keep laboring thaaanks; live every week like it’s #gayfrogweek; Rise of the Janarchists, climb in a megafauna and sautee a mouse in yr pee; spam on ICE; somebody’s Heiney is crowding my nice talks; Family Double Dare in a warehouse with alcohol and racists; literally “hold my beer;” painting Chase Bank on fire is not a crime; elaborate heist maps; Dali the chrono-terrorist; M’aidez Rhonda.

Relevant Links:
The incomplete, true, authentic and wonderful history of May Day (Peter Linebaugh, LibCom.org)
May Day 2017: Nothing is Over, Forward We Continue (It’s Going Down)
The Next 100 Days: May Day and Worker Resistance Under Trump / Los Próximos 100 Días: El Primero De Mayo Y La Resistencia Obrera Bajo Trump (Black Rose Federation/Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra)
Not to be a downer, but here’s a reality check on ‘Loyalty Day’ (The Los Angeles Times)
Activists stage sit-in to protest detention of immigrants (Lisa Wangsness, The Boston Globe)
Lizard People of NY and TruthBang.net
I Worked at Fyre Festival. It Was Always Going to Be a Disaster. (Chloe Gordon, New York Magazine)
$12,000 luxury Fyre Festival is basically a disaster zone (Alex Young, Consequence of Sound)
The Heineken Ad Is Worse Than The Pepsi Ad, You’re Just Too Stupid To Know It (DiDi Delgado, Medium)
Of Mead And Molotov (Rhyd Wildermuth, Gods and Radicals)
Alex Schaefer’s Paintings Of Burning Banks From His ‘Disaster Capitalism’ Series (Mutant Space)
Paganism, Anarchism and May Day (The Final Straw Radio)
The History of May Day (Resonance: An Anarchist Audio Distro)

Events & Actions: Monday 3/20-Sunday 3/26


(Photo credit: FANG Collective)

Monday, March 20th

  • 5:30-7:00 p.m. – City Council meeting for Cambridge at City Hall–there will be a vote on including more affordable housing in future development plans.
  • 6:00-7:00 p.m. – Know Your Rights Training for Immigrants at The Parenting Journey (366 Somerville Ave). The Political Asylum/ Immigration Representation Project – PAIR is co-hosting this event for immigrants and supporters. There will be interpretation in Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. RSVP to info@parentingjourney.org
  • 6:30 p.m. – Community meeting with Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez on the 6th floor of MCPHS University (670 Huntington Ave.) in Boston
  • 7:00 p.m. – The Community Church of Boston (565 Boylston Street, Boston) is showing “Thirty Seconds to Midnight,” a movie which covers three threats to all life on this planet: nuclear weapons, nuclear war, and the ongoing climate catastrophe. It features interviews with activists and authors as Dr. Helen Caldicott; Ray McGovern; Chris Hedges; Ann Wright; Peter Kuznick; and David Vine.  Regis Tremblay, the director, will be at the showing.

Tuesday, March 21st

Wednesday, March 22nd

  • 6:00 p.m. – Future City Building Projects & Net Zero Goals at Somerville High School (tentative)
  • 6:00-9:30 p.m. – Intro to NVDA for POC, presented by the FANG Collective at their office in Pawtucket, RI (545 Pawtucket Ave – Park in the lot and enter building through lots entrance and follow the wolf signs!). This is a brief workshop for People of Color ONLY that offers an introduction to the history of Nonviolent Direct Action and its implementation as well as examples of intersectionality within our community/movements, affinity groups and their formation, consensus decision making, and a discussion on self-care and community care. Register here: https://goo.gl/forms/QuTsyfLkPG5q3S4U2 and contact Sherrie for any childcare/accessibility needs.
  • 6:30-8:30 p.m. – Boston CosechAllies monthly meeting at 120 Boylston St, 10th Floor. If you’d like to join or start a circle but don’t know where to start, this is the meeting for you! IMPORTANT: For this location, we’ll need an RSVP list for the building, so definitely let them know if you can make it & they’ll add you!
  • 7:00-8:00 p.m. – DSA electoral group meeting at 1370 Cambridge Street in Cambridge w/ Mike Sylvester, DSA member and Maine State Senator, speaking about his experience running for office.
  • 7:00-8:30 p.m. – Commission on Energy Use and Sustainability meeting (every two weeks on Wednesday) at 167 Holland St, Somerville
  • 7:00-9:00 p.m. – Boston Food Not Bombs has its weekly planning meeting during this time at Encuentro 5 (9 Hamilton Pl Suite 2a) in Boston. This is, of course, the long-running, non-sectarian, but definitely radical free food organizations that’s been serving in MA for decades now.
  • 7:00-9:00 p.m. Black & Pink has weekly volunteer drop-in hours on Wednesdays, as well. They’re at First Baptist Church (633 Centre St) in Jamaica Plain. “Bring a laptop, if you can. If not, you can help write birthday cards!”

Thursday, March 23rd

  • 12:00 p.m. – Boston City Councilor Andrea J. Campbell & Prisoners’ Legal Services Present: Mariposa & the Saint, a play about ending prolonged solitary confinement written by longtime friends and current collaborators, Sara (Mariposa) Fonseca and Julia Steele Allen, through the prison wall, crafted only by letter over the course of three years. The play will be presented in the Ianella Chamber on the 5th Floor of City Hall (1 City Hall Square, Boston).
  • 6:30 p.m. – Community meeting with Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez at First Baptist Church (633 Centre St.) in Jamaica Plain.
  • 6:30-7:30 p.m. – Healthcare 101 – Teach-In for Single Payer and how to make a difference presented by Mass-Care at their office (9A Hamilton St) in Boston. Learn about  the History of Single Payer, Republican health reform plans, Speaker training, Questions to ask at Town Halls, Volunteer opportunities with Mass-Care.
  • 7:00 p.m. – Educational Forum on Immigration at Greater Framingham Community Church (44 Franklin St.): a forum on the issues faced by immigrants and refugees in our community and how we can advocate for them. Several community resource partners, including MetroWest Legal Services and MetroWest Workers Center and a representative from Cosecha, will be presenting.
  • 7:00-9:00 p.m. – Somerville Alderman’s Regular Meeting (every 2nd and 4th Thursday) at Somerville City Hall (93 Highland Ave).

Friday, March 24th

  • 5:30-7:00 p.m. – Rally at the State House in Boston to demand that the United States government recognize the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria as a legitimate political unit, and to end all support for the Turkish government and its war on the Kurds. Supported by members of the local Turkish and Kurdish communities and sponsored by the New England Kurdish Association, HDP Boston, and Boston Friends of Rojava and Syria. This is part of the International Michael Israel Week of Action, during which friends remember Michael Israel, a volunteer from the United States fighting alongside the SDF, who was killed in a Turkish airstrike conducted from a warplane provided by the United States.

Saturday, March 25th

  • 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Food Not Bombs cooks for its Saturday Central Square Meal in Cambridge. E-mail us for details.
  • 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. – MassAlliance Grasroots Campaign Training (day one of intensive two-day training). Location TBA (in Greater Boston).
  • 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. – City Life/Vida Urbana volunteer canvassing.
  • 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. – Anti-Trump Rally to Counter-Protest a MAGA Event at 193 Salem St in Boston. Few details have been provided, and while there is a MAGA event listed on Facebook and elsewhere on the internet as happening that day, it is unclear if there are any organizations backing this. While we have no reason to believe the folks who created this event are not sincere in their intentions, please keep your wits about you and scope the scene before joining in.
  • 12:00-3:00 p.m. – Black & Pink holds drop-in volunteer hours at this time each week at Swissbakers (168 Western Ave) in Allston.
  • 12:30-4:00 p.m. – Food Not Bombs’ Central Square Meal is served at this time each week.
  • 6:00-10:00 p.m. – Break the Chains: the semi-monthly, all-ages, all-gender radical dance party hosted by queer riot-folker Evan Greer is happening at Make Shift Boston (549 Columbus Ave). This installment will feature Amor Prohibida, DJ Lady Spindrift, Lady Mariposa, and Absinthe Rose. $10 – 20 sliding scale suggested donation to support touring queer artists. No one turned away. Wheelchair accessible.
  • 6:00-11:00 p.m. – Food Not Bombs’ Haymarket Produce Rescue happens during these hours each Saturday. Volunteers meet up near Faneuil Hall at Haymarket (corner of Blackstone and North, across the street from a Hard Rock Cafe) to rescue and sort produce destined for the compost heap or landfill and deliver it, by car, to shelters in the Boston/Cambridge area to stock them with food. Volunteers with cars are especially needed.

Sunday, March 26th

  • 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. – MassAlliance Grasroots Campaign Training (day two of intensive two-day training). Location TBA (in Greater Boston).
  • 12:00-1:30 p.m – Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee weekly meeting at Encuentro 5 (9A Hamilton Pl in Boston). All are welcome, including people who are currently experiencing or have experienced homelessness. For an idea of what will be discussed, including the proposed agenda, or to be added to their mailing list, please email them.
  • 5:00-6:00 p.m. – Black & Pink Family Dinner at Encuentro 5 (9a Hamilton Pl, Suite 2a) in Boston. Food provided by Food Not Bombs. A monthly dinner (last Sunday of each month) during which volunteers and everyone involved with Black & Pink can meet, talk, and share joys and struggles.

Communique 003: Liberal Snowflakes and New England Blizzards w/ Raechel from Feminist Killjoys, PhD

 

Communique 003 is up for streaming and downloading!

FKJ, NEU, the East Coast Family.

Talking points: Our deepest anarchist sympathies, bourgie in the bubble, confessions of a former liberal, trolls on the fascistbook, commies in the classroom!, Agitate/Educate/Shitpost, namaste outta this, our lifestyle politics determine our movement’s deathstyle :(,  radical xmas in May, a hierarchy of who’s least hierarchical, get off my lawn, strike while it’s hott, supporting Trans Women of Color.

Relevant Links: