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Monthly Archives: January 2014
Events Page Updated
Complete with events at The Cusp in Olympia, 38 Blood Alley in Vancouver B.C., Black Coffee Co-Op in Seattle, and Rod Coronado’s speaking tour dates.
Rod Coronado NW Speaking Tour January/February
from anarchistnews
In January/February 2014 The Hunt Saboteurs and Resistance Ecology will be holding a speaking tour with Rod Coronado. The tour is to raise awareness on the Wolf Hunts, Hunt Saboteurs and other topics happening now.
* Thursday January 30th Denver Co 7pm- Location TBA (contact NOOCH Vegan grocery for location details)
* Friday January 31st Seattle WA 7pm- Black Coffee Co-op
* February 1st Portland OR 7pm-PSU Room number 238.
* Sunday February 2nd Eugene OR 7pm- UO, McKenzie 221
We’re asking for donations at the door to help with the cost of this tour, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
We ask that anyone planning to video or record the presentations please make that known and get it cleared first.
Some background on Rod Coronado:
In 1986, Rod and another activist, David Howitt, sank two ships, the Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7, accounting for half of Iceland’s whaling fleet. Before scuttling the ships, Coronado and Howitt caused $2 million worth of damage to the Icelandic whaling station.
In 1995 Rod Coronado was convicted on felony charges for an arson attack on a Michigan State University animal research facility, part of a string of facilities targeted by the ALF in their campaign duly titled “Operation Bite-Back.” He was sentenced with 56 months but the damages to the fur industry were substantial. Aside from the direct impacts of the action he was imprisoned for, he has been credited for research and inspiration which lead to many more actions, freeing thousands of animals—mink, fox, coyotes—who actually have a fighting chance to re-wild themselves and survive upon release. Not to mention millions of dollars lost to economic sabotage, dealing a crippling blow to the whole industry.
In 2001, Coronado visited the site of the Little Bighorn battle in Montana and stole a cavalryman’s journal during his visit, a defiant act in retaliation for the theft of hundreds of indigenous histories throughout the West and as, in his own word, “a reminder of indigenous discontentment with the treatment of our heritage and culture by the u.s. [lowercase his] government.”
In 2004, he was indicted on felony charges for an Earth First! hunt-sab in Sabino Canyon just outside of Tucson where he dismantled a lion trap, spread lion urine to confuse the hunting dogs, and was found guilty of felony conspiracy to disrupt a forest officer. He got 8 months for that.
He was a crew member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and a member of the editorial collective of the Earth First! Journal.
Call For International Solidarity For Three Anarchist Comrades Arrested in Mexico City
from anarchist news
On the night of January 5th, Carlos – a comrade from Mexico, and Amelie and Fallon – two comrades from Canada, were arrested in relation to a Molotov attack on the Ministry of Communication and Transportation and a Nissan dealership in Mexico City. The three have since been held in detention and have limited contact with anyone, including their lawyer, and Amelie and Fallon have also been visited by the Canadian consulate. Though they were initially accused of property destruction, the three may now face additional charges of sabotage, organized crime, and terrorism. If these charges are brought forward, bail will not be possible and deportation for the two from Canada is highly unlikely. All three would then be held until trial without the possibility of release. Due to the possibility of their charges falling under the anti-terrorism law, there is a 48-hour extension to how long the comrades can be held by the Mexican Central Investigative Agency before their charges must be finalized – this extension has already been granted, and can be renewed several times.
These charges come at a time of intense crackdown by the Mexican state on anarchists; from attacks on demonstrations, torture of arrested comrades – including the torture and deportation of Gustavo Rodriguez, and barring the entry of Alfredo Bonanno. The state is now attempting to spin a narrative of foreigners coming in and causing disruption, thus ignoring and even erasing the rich history of anarchist struggle against the state in Mexico. Over the past few years in Mexico City, an insurrectionary anarchist struggle has intensified. Bombings of banks and churches, among other institutions of domination, have taken place frequently, and solidarity with insurrectionary anarchists in Mexico and worldwide has been central to these actions. We must recognize that the repression and penalization that comrades are facing now occurs in this context.
Regardless of the guilt or innocence of these specific comrades, we want to express solidarity, complicity, and a strong desire to see attacks on the state and capital continue and spread. In reality, the Canadians causing disruption in Mexico are the mining companies and military technologies; the same ones that exploit unceded Indigenous land in Canada and elsewhere around the world. Given that capitalist exploitation and misery knows no borders, the struggle against capitalism and the state apparatus must not stop at national borders. Our strength lies in our capacity to recognize the commonalities of our struggles so that they may spread, and to act in solidarity so that the struggles of our incarcerated comrades may continue.
We write this statement to express our deep solidarity with and love for our friends and comrades – Carlos, Amelie and Fallon. Although we are writing from a different context, it is critical that our solidarity is also with the struggle in which this action occurred. Our friends and comrades facing these charges are experiencing the intensity of repression. Our solidarity must meet that intensity with respect for where they stand, admiration for their strength, and a continuation of the struggle in Canada, Mexico, and globally.
Love and freedom to the 5e three, Prisoners to the streets, For freedom and anarchy, -Friends in struggle
update on the case here: http://anarchistnews.org/content/update-about-5e3-anarchists-arrested-mexico-city
Bank Fire-Bombed In Solidarity With Imprisoned Comrades In Mexico (Vancouver BC)
from anarchist news
On the 9th of January, we answered a call for solidarity with stolen anarchist comrades in Mexico City, Fallon Poisson, Amelie Pillierst and Carlos López Mart. We crept up to a HSBC bank on East Hastings, in occupied Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC), and lit an incendiary device in the ATM area causing a massive fire ball. HSBC is a symbol of capitalism, oppression and domination. So it’s a perfect target for our rage.
This also comes in a time where Canada’s justice minister Peter Mackay is warning activists to not commit illegal actions toward stopping the pipelines. Mackay you can shove your warnings up your fucking ass. The state’s and corporations dreams of massive resource extraction will go up in flames of revolt from the streets to late night sabotage and destruction. The need for freedom, anarchy and liberation will destroy this colonial state. Our acts of sabotage are uncontrollable, strategic and successful. This attack on HSBC is only the beginning of sabotage the will and is occurring. We are also in solidarity with Miq’maq warriors and other protesters still facing charges and harassment by the RCMP pigs and the Canadian state from anti-fracking protests in Elsipogtog.
SOLIDARITY WITH COMRADES FACING IMPRISONMENT IN MEXICO CITY!
SOLIDARITY WITH ALL LAND DEFENDERS AND ANARCHIST COMRADES!
SABOTAGE THE SYSTEMS OF SOCIAL CONTROL, DOMINATION, PATRIARCHY AND OPPRESSION!
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!
Trooper fires into car after chase near Olympia
from mainstream media
About 8:45 p.m. Sunday, the 27-year-old Lacey man was southbound on Interstate 5 at milepost 115, driving well over 100 miles per hour, Gill said, when he failed to yield for a traffic stop. He then exited at milepost 114, lost control of his car and crashed into another vehicle.
The driver of that vehicle — a 59-year-old Powell River man — was not injured. His 62-year-old passenger also was not injured.
The 27-year-old Lacey man — now stopped at the off ramp to Nisqually with his car facing the guardrail — put the car in reverse. He brushed the trooper as he backed up and then brushed the trooper again as he sped off, the tires spinning, Gill said.
The driver also refused to comply with several verbal commands to get out of the vehicle, he said.
The trooper, a 22-year veteran of the state patrol who was facing a life-threatening situation, Gill said, fired one round and struck the vehicle.
The 27-year-old Lacey man then continued southbound on Martin Way, attempted to make a left turn onto Marvin Road and crashed into another vehicle. The 42-year-old Olympia man driving that vehicle was not injured
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2014/01/06/2917243/trooper-fires-into-car-after-chase.html#storylink=cpy
Bank Robbery in Seattle on Roosevelt Way
from the pig’s mouth
Seattle police are looking for a man who robbed a Roosevelt bank Thursday afternoon.
At about 3:45 pm, the suspect walked into a Umpqua Bank in the 6400 block of Roosevelt Way NE, demanded cash from a teller and fled the bank.
Police searched the area for the suspect, but weren’t able to find the man
Another Reportback from the Seattle NYE Noise Demo
submitted anonymously via email
After a long period of inactivity and darkness, some of us in the Pacific Northwest ended 2013 with a bang. A call-out was issued in late November for a noise demo at the youth jail at 12th and Alder, and fliers were wheatpasted all over Seattle and downtown Olympia.
Autonomous individuals and affinity groups converged at the jail at around 8pm before starting a rowdy march that circled the prison block. Fliers containing the following text were widely distributed:
“The City of Seattle is currently in the planning stages of a new ‘Children and Family Justice Center’ to replace the current jail at 12th and Alder. While this new jail is proposed to have fewer beds, it integrates seamlessly with new methods of soft policing and diffuse control. When the alternatives to incarceration are ankle bracelets, a praole officer and mandated social services, the jail is not shrinking, but simply expanding its boundaries outside the prison walls. The prison before us is quickly becoming the social prison that surrounds us. Let’s destroy this world of domination instead of dressing it up in new clothing.”
Momentum gathered as people in black bloc, a marching band, and others made as much noise as possible. After about 30 minutes of standing in one spot and making noise, we began marching around the jail. Smoke bombs and fireworks were set off (on that note, people should be more careful of friendly-fire in the future!) Paint bombs were thrown at the jail and at athe police cruisers tailing the march. Graffiti was spraypainted in the area around the building. We circled the jail three times and spent a significant amount of time in the street, the whole time being followed by many pig cars, sirens wailing. The excitement in the street was palpable; the march turned into the rowdiest conflict anarchists in Seattle had incited in some time.
We left the site of the jail to march along 12th street. At this point fireworks were fired directly at pig cars as the tone of the moment intensified. A banner was used strategically to keep the cruisers back from people in the march. Dumpsters, newspaper boxes, trash cans, road signs, and other objects were dragged into the street in an attempt to block the trailing swine. Rocks and paint bombs were thrown at marked and unmarked SPD cars as the march thinned.
Eventually the cops attacked the demonstration. Many people fled down side streets and into Seattle University (unfortunately into the paths of many university pigs on bikes and segways!). Five people were arrested in total, all but one of whom have been released.
New Year’s Eve marked a new form of coherence among anarchists from different cities in the PNW. As the new year progresses, we mean to continue this momentum towards an intentional and informal network of anarchist conflict against prisons and the society which constructs them.
Yakima Police Officer Shoots, Kills Man
from mainstream media
A Yakima police spokesman says an officer checking on a suspicious vehicle early Saturday shot and killed a 23-year-old man.
Sgt. Tim Bardwell says the officer was checking on a car parked at a car wash at about 3 a.m. He says during the police contact the officer shot the man, who was the only one in the car.
Yakima County Coroner Jack Hawkins tells the Yakima Herald-Republic (http://is.gd/mBXwf0r ) an autopsy is planned Monday.
The officer has been on the force for 14 months.
Detectives are investigating.
Fires Damage 2 Olympia Schools, Another Burglarized
from mainstream media
Olympia police say they’re investigating attempted arsons after fires were set at
two schools.
Deputy Fire Chief Greg Wright says a bale of hay at Pioneer Elementary and a trash
can at the private Nova School were set on fire either late Friday or Saturday
morning. Reeves Middle School was also burglarized.
Both blazes were just about out when fire crews arrived on scene.
Wright says the damage at both schools was estimated at $15,000. No one was inside
the buildings when the fires occurred.
Olympia police spokeswoman Laura Wohl says there are no suspects at this time.