March led by Defend Our Hoodz
The heart of every colonized person burns with a single need:
liberation. This reality contains a secondary but equally intense
aspect—revenge. As we watch the barrios overrun with economically
stable, white creative-types and out-of-touch businesses, art galleries,
and high end eateries, we feel the coldness inside of our
neighborhoods, the degradation of culture as it is stolen and then
marketed by-and-for the inheritors of colonialism. The people become
disoriented, momentarily stifled, and recessed. This is only one small
part of a larger struggle and just under the surface a rebellion
germinates and as the people feel it, we wake up. The role of the
communist in these struggles is first to support and then to guide the
masses. Our position must lack compromise with the enemy if we are ever
going to embody the ambitions of the people. On two sides of our stolen
city this weekend we saw acts of rebellion play out in brutal sequence.
Ice out! fuck Trump!
Months back the right-wing fascists and their support base mobilized
to protect a racist cat café owner from the anger of the community and
revolutionary organizations. They threatened organizers and spread
slander and racism, evoking the terrors of Nazi Germany. This is not an
exaggeration or a turn of phrase—literally they promised pogroms for
Mexican American and Chicano people. Emboldened by Trump, those who
have exchanged their Klan robes for dockers shorts and pastel polos have
maliciously pursued antifascists and local activists. The brave
comrades of Defend Our Hoodz do not give into such threats and do not
scare easy. For them as well as for us, the realty of the fascist threat
sits over us daily. This is nothing new, especially for the colonized
people who have suffered since the day this prison house was founded on
their land and who have lived under a nascent terrorist dictatorship
since the first white man landed on these shores. The pain and anger of
the people are the complementary opposites of the joy of rebellion and
the songs of the people unleashed from speakers in the trunk of lowered
cars.
On Saturday (2-11-17) afternoon the people of East Austin gathered
for an unpermitted march against gentrification to mark the two-year
anniversary of the racist demolition of the Jumpolin piñata shop—a
community treasure which was torn down in the early morning to make way
for a cat café. This march was high energy and many people came
together—the vast majority dawned red face masks to show their
commitment to a future where social well-being becomes the measure and
purpose of human production. The leaders inspired the crowd with honest
slogans that did not mince words or beg those in power. As the march
went through community streets it took on a celebratory air, people
joined in from their houses or showed support through opened doors. On
the other hand, when the march proceeded past the condos and avant-garde
housing of the hipsters and yuppies, celebration had room for
confrontation and indignation. When we speak of gentrification we speak
of violence, removal, and eradication, so we must never let this
injustice lose its face. That face is the grinning, dumbfounded, and
usually white gawkers who in their privilege feel safe mocking the
people. Their vacant grins break into fear as the people begin in small
ways show these scum their true power.
Pig attacks protester
The march continued past housing projects where the most militant
masses showed support or joined in the activity to stop briefly at
Martin Middle School, a local school which is underfunded and under
direct threat of demolition. The confrontation-celebration escalated to
the front doors of Blue Cat Café, where Neo-Nazi financed owner Rebecca
Gray collaborates with Christopher Kinlaw (Austin’s most wanted arson
fugitive in 2015!) and racist developers F&F Ventures. Reactionary
camera men from Infowars were already stationed at Blue Cat hoping to
doxx activists and organizers. These soulless creatures writhed in
anger when comrades called to attention the farcical claim that there is
anything supreme at all about their whiteness, that their “master race”
amounts to a whole lot of garbage. The Cat Café was not protected by
these white knights or their pig friends, from wall to wall the peoples
voices rang out, trash cans were overturned, and the décor was converted
to match the reality of the establishment—filth, trash, and loss. Blue
Cat got off easy though and we are committed to the kind of future where
it and every establishment like it is eradicated and replaced with
venues that actually serve the people.
Officer down!
The march continued up the street when the pigs began to itch for
some state-sanctioned violence. They attempted to pick people out of the
crowd like vultures in waiting. The crowd was alerted to this activity
and quickly consolidated. Frustrated by this act of solidarity, the pigs
rode mountain bikes full speed into the crowd of demonstrators, hitting
anyone in their path (including those with disabilities). This is the
behavior not of a human being but a shameless pig. We know full well
from past confrontations that these same pigs will hit you maliciously
and then charge you with assault if they so much as stub a toe. The pigs
used the bicycles to split the crowd at the same moment they rushed in
on foot, swinging batons and spraying pepper spray into the crowd. This
whole maneuver was an effort to isolate a black woman organizer who is
cherished by the movement. The people themselves, with the support of
revolutionaries, began to fight back and found themselves in direct and
physical contradiction with the pigs. During this assault the pigs shot
pepper pellets into the faces of unarmed pre-teen youth. They responded
with brave confrontations, fought back, and escaped the clutches of the
pig. These young men are our heroes and they will be the inheritors of
the revolution. Our medics responded immediately and treated half a
dozen or more people, offering relief from the wounds inflicted by the
police. The revolutionaries and the people fought but were unable to
save our comrade from the clutches of the pigs.
It is never ok to talk to the pigs. We see you
There are those in our movement who take a centrist or rightist
position and become opportunists in their attempt to stride the line
between radical and liberal methods of organization. It was one such
centrists who attempted, at this moment, to split the march and abandon
the confrontation with the pigs, continuing on business as she
regurgitated pig lies to the crowd which only further criminalized our
comrade. To criminalize a black woman comrade who has been targeted by
the pigs is nothing short of racism that encourages state violence and
repression to snuff out black leaders. This will not be tolerated. The
revolutionaries and students wasted no time rushing to block the street
from the pig paddy wagon which contained our comrade. They faced off the
pigs with sticks and attempted to block the vehicle from passing
through; this would have been successful had it not been for the
splitting efforts of the centrist organizer. The numbers were too small
to prevent the paddy wagon from leaving, but to asses our successes and
failures we must keep in mind that anything which strengthens the
fighting spirit of the people is in one aspect a success. There was fear
in the eyes of police as our fighters squared up with theirs and
comrades pounded furiously on the side of the vehicle. Our comrade
inside could hear our cries and know that she is not alone.
Rebels Block Pig wagon
As the fragmented march consolidated again to proceed, the pigs tried
to target another comrade who was immediately surrounded by the people
forming a human wall which the cops could not break through. The
centrist cried out to allow this comrade to fall into the clutches of
the pigs but rebels have no faith in liberalism and refused the order.
No more arrests were made and the pig’s efforts were thwarted. All
things are about power and the pigs will exercise every
bit of their power to protect gentrification and white supremacy unless
they are forced back by the power of the people. This
holds true on both the large scale and the small scale, whether we are
protecting a targeted comrade or taking state power, it is the masses
and not the pigs that will make history. The APD took off their
liberal, tolerant mask and showed the fangs of old-fashioned southern
white racism that day.
Rundberg and Lamar
As the sun fell on the East Side and the confrontation-celebration
mobilized at the jail to support our kidnapped comrade, the masses of
North Austin in the East Rundberg neighborhood erupted in a second night
of militant demonstrations, with Maoists and members of revolutionary
mass organizations among them. The liberal and legal-left is always in
the dust of the masses; while careerist sellouts like One Resistance
hide behind the idea that rebellion places the undocumented at risk, it
is the undocumented masses themselves who are the most willing to fight
back. The first night of demonstrations was sparked by a small number of
protesters assembled at the intersection of Rundberg and Lamar, and
from there it snowballed organically into one of the larger and more
militant actions the city has seen in many years. This was all in
response to a couple being targeted by ICE and APD in a very public
location earlier in the day the day before. The protests continued into
the second night. Unlike the travesty that One Resistance fluffs up and
calls protest, the masses wasted no time in illegally shutting down
streets and making noise, people took to the roofs of cars and blasted
music from speakers. The police eventually moved in to drive the crowd
onto a sidewalk which was far too small to contain them. The pigs then
drove cars straight for the crowd of people to force them back,
confronting them with riot cops armed with shotguns. Against the pig’s
cars, a line of people’s cars took to the front and blocked off the
police. Water bottles and flaming trash were lobbed at the riot police
and the people refused to back down or budge another inch. This goes to
show that with repression comes resistance and that there is not greater
force than the masses. Our small organizations are targeted and beaten
while liberals use false concern to manipulate and distort the situation
and the people themselves confront, confront, and confront.
At the writing of this report our comrade remains in the dungeons of
the pig state [UPDATE: she has been released now, but is still facing
charges] and she is in urgent need of support. The arrest was made
specifically to target her on trumped up charges in order to isolate her
from the movement. During this isolation she received a visit from FBI
agents who attempted to question her without her attorney being present.
The pigs on the local and federal level should know well by now that
true revolutionaries don’t talk to pigs and we never will. This whole
arrest was most likely a ploy to be able to conduct this vile method of
questioning. At the same time comrades in Serve The People-Austin were
harassed by a uniformed pig during their weekly free grocery and food
distribution. We ask for your support for the Austin revolutionary left
now more than ever, we need the enemy to know that when they attempt to
snuff out one prairie fire others will rise up in other cities. We also
are in dire needs of material support in the form of donations so that
we can continue providing legal defense and on the ground support for
the peoples’ struggles and our captured comrades. The state and local
police will continue to target organizers, revolutionaries, and servants
of the people in order to isolate them and prevent them from their
work. This must not go down without a struggle and we intend to struggle
to the best of our ability, with the masses we are invincible and will
only grow and we are stronger with your support behind us. The days of
this system are numbered and communists must fulfill their goal of
building the revolutionary party, the people’s army, and the united
front.
Please donate to our fundraiser here: http://fundrazr.com/f1CyU4?ref=sh_16Szs4 -Red Guards Austin February 13th 2017
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