LA Intifada and Anti-ICE Organizing - A Report Back with an Anonymous Member of People's City Council

We don't want to wait until our people are kidnapped and taken into detention to take action. That's what we do. Community patrols every day in the morning around our communities to try to prevent our people from being kidnapped. And when we say kidnapped, that is the exact word that we need to use because the state is using brutal violence to separate us, to take us against our will from our families, from our homes, from our jobs, and to take us somewhere else. So that by definition is a kidnapping. And that's what we're fighting against because we know that our people are not going to, they're not going to have due process. If lawyers and elected officials aren't being allowed to enter detention facilities to see their conditions, that the people are living in, what makes us think that the people inside are going to have any type of human rights. Welcome to JDPod, where we spell America with three Ks. This is a podcast where we, Joe Manate, discuss current events from a third world as perspective. Okay, so it has been almost two months since we've done an episode. Our last one was on May 19th. Yeah, there's been a lot going on personally, but even more importantly, there's been a lot going on locally and in the world around us. So we're recording this on July 11th, which is 35 days after the eruption of ice raids here in LA, as well as the LA Intifada in response. So this is a report back on these events of the past month. We're going to be sharing a little bit of our own experience, and we also have a anonymous contribution from a member of People City Council Los Angeles, which is an abolitionist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist collective formed around 2020, and they do a lot of really important work engaging in direct action, political education, and community building here in Los Angeles. We will be reading a text of this contribution from a member of People City Council. So we're going to flag that just to make sure you know that when when we're reading from that contribution, it's not coming from our own direct experience or perspective. I wanted to begin with an order of events for what's been happening in Los Angeles specifically, so I won't be including things in the rest of California or the so-called United States. So on Friday, June 6th, ice began raids in the fashion district in Los Angeles, as well as a Home Depot in West Lake. And this began a series of kidnappings across LA over the past 30-ish days. Allegedly, community members tried to stop the kidnappings, as well as the vehicles, and at least 44 people were kidnapped. In response, protests occurred across downtown in the rest of the day. Blocking entrances and exits to the federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where people were being processed. By that evening, by 10pm, LAPD had posted a message on their social media of an unlawful assembly. They deployed tear gas in so-called less than-leaf-thole ammunition, as well as flash grenades. The next day on Saturday, June 7th, people began organizing in Paramount, which is in Southeast LA, Border and Compton, but with rumors of ice stagings to raid a Home Depot. And this has been a common tactic by Migra, to kidnap day laborers as they are waiting for work at Home Depot. And that evening, around 6pm, Trump signs a presidential memorandum, authorizing the deployment of 2000 National Guard members to Los Angeles, to "address the lawlessness and LA." Allegedly, I was on the ground that evening, and allegedly battles went off between the police and the community. Allegedly, some cars were burned, as well as some buildings were set on fire. Basically, the community spontaneously organized, and we're revolting. And so essentially on one side of the, like, standoff, there were the pigs, and on the other side, there were community members and protesters. Allegedly, people were shooting fireworks off the protest line into the area where the police were. A very interesting tactic that went on for several hours. And eventually, things dispersed. So the next morning, on Sunday, June 8th, the National Guard began arriving in Los Angeles. This was really earlier on 4am. And later on in the day, protesters downtown took the 101 freeway. There's, like, I think, famous images. People may have seen of, like, vendors like selling hot dogs on the freeway. A very LA moment. And skirmishes went off all throughout downtown. Our buildings were burning. They were famously, allegedly, some Weimo cars. These autonomous cars were destroyed and burned, basically incinerated. Weimo during the period of the active rebellion, one would say, and we'll kind of go into when maybe, like, the timeline of that kind of subsided and things transitioned to a different type of activity in the city. But during the period of time when there was this sort of active rebellion going on, and the Weimo started getting regiously burned. Weimo ceased activities in downtown. I don't believe that entire side of the city of Los Angeles. I think I saw, and don't quote me on this, but I think I saw that they're, like, they were trying to hire community relations people in the aftermath. And, like, they didn't realize that there had been this resentment building against weird gentrifier, robot cars for some time. In Los Angeles, and I'm assuming other parts of the country that they are active in. Right. And they canceled it because allegedly, people were ordering Weimo's to come into the area. Yeah. To burn them. And so, allegedly, I was on the ground as well. And there were battles going off between the community. And the pigs famously, people probably have seen photos of cop cars burning, like fireworks being launched at the, and allegedly community members were taking pieces of, like, the ground, like, like, breaking up rock and pavement and throwing it over the highway, over the overpass, destroying cop cars, which were a beautiful site. Also, there, the people are much more militant than organizations that tend to want to believe or are willing to actually meet people at. I mean, I allegedly seen people someone with the PFLP bandana, someone with a Hamas bandana. People may have seen photos, like, someone with, like, with, like, waving to Mexican flag with the PFLP bandana. Yeah, people with signs with the, uh, the red triangle of the Palestine-Unresistance. Things like that connect drawing these, you know, third worldest connections. So I think it's really important that people know that, you know, there was some, like, some people were speculating as to, like, "Oh, you know, those are AI images or whatever." But I think it's important that people know that people were actively making those, making those connections on the ground. And again, we can have conversation debate. It's like, you know, we can talk about that, maybe, perhaps. We'll talk about it a little bit, like, contextually in the episode. But we could also, like, have a, like, much longer conversation. Otherwise, you about, like, spontaneity and what qualifies as spontaneity, what qualifies as organizing blah, blah, blah. So when, like, Joma says, things kind of emerge spontaneously. What they mean there is that, you know, um, uh, that, you know, there allegedly were community members organizing themselves outside of the frame of reference of existing political organizations, movement organizations, things that people on the so-called left would associate with so-called, like, you know, organization with a capital O. People were organizing themselves in some sort of way. And we're obviously communicating to coordinate, like, what was going on in some sort of way. And, like, you know, people have different perspectives on what that looks like. But, um, all that is to say when you say spontaneous, you're kind of talking about people still, like, you know, obviously, there's some level of coordination and some level of thought put into exactly what, you know, people are doing. Absolutely. On the next day, Monday, June 9th, LAPD declared, well, this is actually that evening, L-A-1211 AM. LAPD declares all protests on lawful, as unlawful assemblies and 700 Marines were deployed. Um, yeah. And I don't need to say allegedly here. I was, you know, after the, that early that morning, I was on my way to work, walking around and I saw, and, you know, things were a little quiet, you know, there weren't people still necessarily out around eight in the morning that morning. But I saw, you know, the remnants of everything that had been going on. It was a beautiful site to see the CCB, the primary criminal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles being covered with graffiti, you know, saying, like, fuck the pigs and stuff like that, fuck guys, which was really cool. Yeah, and the city is still more or less beautifully redecorated, except for, I guess, Mayor Kieran Bas getting her op ed and little Tokyo washing. Yeah, we can get into that because that's a little bit more, more to the present moment. But okay, so on June 10th, it was when curfew was imposed, and this was from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. And it lasted for a week. So it was lifted on June 17th. I'm going to jump a little bit in some of the dates moving forward, just highlighting some things. All throughout the, I mean, the last 30 days, there has been consistent attempts at raids and there has been consistent patrolling by the community to stop and to organize the community. Yeah, and we'll get into a little bit more of the direction that things have taken with some experiences. But just for the purposes of the timeline, we should know that there's been this more concerted activity occurring throughout and there are existing, you know, known community political organizations that are actively involved in this and had been actively involved in this far before the, these raids and the LA Intifada had started. So on Thursday, June 12th, this is two days after curfew was imposed. Alejandro Oriana, a member of Centro CSO, is raided by the FBI, where they forcibly entered his family's property and arrested him and he's been charged with conspiracy to commit civil disorder as well as with aiding and embedding civil disorder. And this is for allegedly passing out masks and water to demonstrators. And Saturday, June 14th was the prolific militant no kings parades throughout America with their kids. Yeah, they were all over the city. I don't even know if it's worth talking about, but I think it's important to note here that, you know, a lot of people were saying that, you know, the no kings parade, like had a huge counter-insurgent effect on the uprising. And I mean, that's possible, but from what we observed, I think there were pretty separate and distinct populations involved in the, the LA Intifada and in the no kings parades. I mean, it's, you know, the no kings parades were like, all the wealthy white people holding signs saying, if Kamala, one Kamala, one, we would be at brunch right now, things like that. Yeah, I mean, allegedly, I saw, literally, saw that sign. I couldn't think, I didn't believe I'd see that in real life, but yeah. Yeah, so just wanted to throw that out there a little bit as well. And, you know, just to kind of continue that train of thought a little bit, as we mentioned before, the curfew wasn't lifted until June 17th. So over the course of that weekend until that Monday, the active rebellion phase, one might say of the LA Intifada kind of was phased out for different reasons. Obviously, there was a lot of repression, a lot of arrests were being made, these sorts of things, but also, I think things transitioned into a lot of the activity that Jelma is specifically going to be speaking a lot about in the remainder of the episode in terms of more concerted community organizing community patrols, things of that nature over the past month in the aftermath of the more active rebellion phase. Yeah, so the last two events I wanted us to hold on to Thursday, June 26th, central CSO organizer Verita Topete was ambushed and detained by the FBI while walking their dog in Debs Park. And so, and this is the second member of Synthro CSO that's been rated in the last month within a couple weeks of each other. And they had a warrant and took their phone and the community has organized in response and had press releases and the organization as well has really strong disciplined security practices, so that which is good. And I think it's important to note here too that Synthro CSO is a organization, a Chicano nationalist organization organization in support of Chicano self-determination in so-called Southern California, but they're especially active and they've been active in East Los Angeles for a very, very, very long time. They have connections all the way back through to the growth of Chicano nationalist struggles, part of the third world's within movements in the late 1960s. And obviously, you know, Chicano nationalism existed before that. And of course, you know, some people I've seen people critiquing Chicano nationalism from certain indigenous perspectives were not here to like litigate that debate at all, but it's just important to bring up that that's what Synthro CSO is about and what they've been doing in the community here for a very, very long time and that like that's their politics specific. Right, emerges out of the CSO, which was I think in the 40s, late 40s, but constituted roughly in the early 2010s. And then fast forward to very recent history. So this is July 11th, we're recording this, so yesterday on July 10th, auto agents while also supported by the National Guard rated two cannabis farms in Camarillo and Ventura County, which is like an hour and a half north of LA. Yeah, over 200 people were arrested. This includes workers as well as community members. One farm worker is it Hamil Alennis? Uh, Hamil Alennis. Was killed following a tragic 30-foot fall during the raid and his family is posted a go fund me, which will include a link in the show notes. Yeah, the the language of the family specifically in the go fund me who I think were, you know, trusting the most as far as what their perspective is on generally what happened that he was being chased by ICE agents who caused his fall. They essentially murdered Mr. Alennis. Right. As we've seen countless times, this is, this would be a scientific law of history, but that repression breeds resistance, which is ongoing and is building as we record this. So this brings us to the beginning of our incorporation of some of the contribution from the anonymous comrade at People City Council Los Angeles. They included some excerpts from a piece contributed to its going down where they discuss some elements that are, you know, shared through the perspective that we're sharing this episode. We'll include a link to the full the full piece in the show notes, but just wanted to flag that as well. And I just wanted to add in for folks who have never heard of its going down. I think they have a podcast as well, but they I don't know if they're officially an anarchist outlet, but it's definitely an anti-fascist sort of publication and network. Just say that folks who have never heard of it, they know. Yeah. If you have weird feelings about that, it's a very good. Touch grass. Yeah, touch grass. And it's a very good piece. And just because it's published and it's going down, if you feel weird about that, yeah, get over it and get off the keyboard. Yeah. But anyway, so here is that excerpt to kind of ground us in some of the historical context, the overall context, what contributed to the eruption of the LA in Tifada and the organizing against ice and for community self-determination and Los Angeles. So quote, first, it's important to understand that yes, there may be some spontaneous combustion in LA, but also that this moment has been brewing combined with the ongoing multi-generational organizing efforts here. And as we saw in February with the high school student walkouts, many of those you see out in these streets are young people. It makes sense considering there are a lot of kids that grew up here who likely either have a parent relative or neighbor that the state would classify as quote unquote illegal. The sentiment of quote, this is an attack on us on our people unquote is widespread in the city. So folks are upset in hitting the streets and are taking action to show that LA will not back down. It's been inspiring to see how people are resisting. We are very proud of everyone out there, especially the young people who continue to show up. What we're seeing right now cannot be understood without recognizing the impact of how organizers responded during the fires in January. The city showing up alongside young people getting active in the 2024 student in Tifada, the 2020 uprising, the decade-long block by block ten and organizing spearhead by the LA Tenant Union, and the mutual aid efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that have grown and saved lives across the city and county. There's a direct lineage and connection to both these modern events and historic actions like the immigration rights protests in LA in 2006 and 1994, the 1968 Chicano moratorium, and though the current moment has not reached the level of the 1992 LA riots of the 1965 Watts rebellion, there certainly has been flashes of similarities. Families are being torn apart and our neighbors are being kidnapped right in front of us. It's no surprise that people are reacting the way that they are. The events that have unfolded draw similarities to the beginnings of the first in Tifada, where we see young people using whatever materials they have available to them to fight back and throw at the pigs. Though of course we've only seen a brief glimmer of rebellion and we are not yet in such a sustained historical moment. That's the end of this excerpt of the contribution from the comrade, a member of People City Council. And for those who may not heard of Intifada, this is referring to Palestine and an Arabic Intifada is the uprising and it refers to these uprisings that occurred beginning in 1987 and ending in 1993. But of course there's second Intifada and continuing and of course Alexa flood being the continuation of uprisings. And we have the student Intifada with the encampment movement and now we're calling the LA Intifada, the continuing legacy of uprisings and also recognizing the internationalist aspect of these connections. So here's a question. We're going to have a set of questions from this point forward that I'm going to pose to Joma. As Joma has allegedly been far more on the ground than I have been able to over the course of the past month, long story short as far as I've been concerned I actually recently started law school. It's a very intensive program and of course it was starting literally just as everything was popping off and it's been a very trying past month to kind of partially observe things from a slight distance while I situate myself in something I think is going to enable me to do some good in service of the people. But all that is to say that's why a lot of the perspective from this episode is going to be coming from Joma and also from this anonymous comrade from People City Council Los Angeles. So the first question I have for you and that we also pose to our friend, how have or our organizations and community responding to what's been going on with the ice rates? Sure. So all of the major organizations are involved in different capacities for organizing the community. I think the most important, the most interesting one I think that people should be looking at is the community self-defense coalition, which is a coalition of 70 to 80 maybe more now organizations that have all signed on to a points of unity and to organize around a concrete issue, which is the kidnapping by Migra by ice. This organization began in January of 2025. I forgot how I first got one of it maybe through organizing circles or through social media, but I was it through your ND movement work, perhaps? And it could have been allegedly through ND movement organizing, but in February is when I showed up to some of the earlier beginnings sort of meetings that the coalition was having and at that time it was maybe 30 organizations were involved and now it's almost tripled in size, but it didn't emerge out of nowhere. And so some of the key organizations and granted this is 80 organizations. So I think in all of this is public information. Union del Balrio, which has been around since I think 1981. Centro CSO, which we talked about, stop LAPD spying and they're involved with a lot of the security culture and practices. Yeah, and they do a lot of abolitionist work specifically, but they've successfully been able to sue the LAPD for a lot of public records, things of that nature. Really important organization that you should look into if you're interested in some of the work that's been going on in Los Angeles in the past, you know, past couple of decades. There's also Jewish voices for peace, black men build a lot of the ND movement organization. So Gabriela L.A., which is the women's movement in the Philippines, Anak Bayan, Mechcha, as well as the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice. These are organizations that if you're in L.A. and if you're organizing what would be familiar with you see them out and about doing both like the protests in the streets, but also the sustained movement building work. Well, I mean, I think that's an interesting point to just jump in just a second here because I mean, I'm a you've more recently moved to Los Angeles in the past couple of years, but I grew up in the city and I think like there's there's a level of unity now. It's not complete by any means, but that wasn't very readily apparent. So honestly, like I would not be surprised for a variety of reasons. There's a lot of segregation between different communities, different areas in Los Angeles, different terfs, so to speak, for different organizations and things of that nature. I mean, the city is spread out for a hundred miles in every direction. It's a massive sprawling mess of a place. And so I wouldn't be surprised if some of some folks who are involved in some level of organizing in Los Angeles had not heard of some of these organizations, you know, before that are more involved in specific communities that they may not necessarily be a part of or privy to, but all that is to say now with the work that's being done, especially there's a lot of these organizations are coming together in a way that had not necessarily been the case before in my knowledge and experience. Yeah, definitely. And then also you have DSA, PSL, Frizzo, all these organizations that I don't know, sometimes you wouldn't think would be. So that's sort of the list of the organizations. And of course, these organizations also are doing their own things as well. But I think the more interesting thing is the way that I don't think I can think of any other time when there's been so many organizations organizing together across a concrete demand or need or in response to something. And at a recent press release, someone was, I think it might have been someone from the Harriet Tubman Center was saying that, you know, rebuilding the rainbow coalition and rebuilding like people working alongside together. And in order for that to happen, there has to be an understanding of something that galvanizes the people, which is also why this is like a horrific thing, but also it's building up community networks and strengthening the community. And so that was sort of the list of the organizations that have been on the ground. I think something also to know is that there have been affinity groups and basically by neighborhood self-organized rapid response teams where people are organizing meeting together in person, learning security, protocol, and practices and getting to know their neighbors and their community members. There's been a lot of people going around and talking to vendors, street vendors, letting them know their rights, many of them not knowing their rights or presuming that they are safer than they may have allegedly heard people sharing with vendors who say, you know, I've been a US citizen for 30 years. They're not going to take me when we know that there has been people that have just been kidnapped without a, who were US citizens for whatever that matters. Or without regard to any sort of legal status because there is like a spectrum of documentation in the so-called United States. Right. And the other way that I've seen people organizing is that they're doing patrols. So they're taking in their neighborhood, like a couple hour blocks and they're patrolling the neighborhood for anything that looks like good mimega. Like in the people being trained and with the science, perhaps it's very tinted windows and out of the place, like out of state license plates. Perhaps it's like white vans, maybe it's a cage, like, and they're letting their community know like, hey, this kind of looks a little fishy. There's also been organizations such as the LA tenant union that have adopted home depots because this is where many of the raids have been happening. And so they will have maintained a organizational presence at this site because ICE is going and actively trying to kidnap day laborers or vendors, people looking for work. But they are much less likely to do so knowing that community is there with a tent with the science saying, you know, saying defend LA and protecting the community and that sort of thing. And so that's also been going on as far as community respons goes. And we'll get a little bit more into like, you know, some more reflection on some of these things. But I do want to ask now just because it came up when I was thinking, we're thinking through your response right now. Do you think there's been a level of like training and coordination to try to get people to be a little bit more precise and and ice spotting for lack of a better way of putting it? Absolutely. So actually right now there's a training going on, a virtual training on Zoom. It was capped at 500 members and it already filled up. The way it turned people away. And this is a very robust training, two hour training, images, photos, lessons, things to do, things not to do, and ways to empower the community rather than just being you and your comrades who there's no way we can cover 100 miles consistently. And with evolving tactics as we've been documenting ice has been changing their tactics based off of the response that like they're seen from the community. And so there's robust training to be able to teach the community what vehicles look like, what sort of the tendencies, talk about the ways that how a lot of the staging happens, which is our enlarged parking lots, things that like for the community to look out for. So there's been a lot of training that's been going on in that regard. So now I want to turn to the response to this question from the anonymous comrade at people city council. Again, they excerpted this response in particular from the the it's going down piece, but to begin quote, the mainstream coverage of the quote unquote protests is slowed down. It does not mean that the organizing in actions have stopped. The raids have continued throughout the month of June. It's been an onslaught of attacks on our communities targeting street vendors and day laborers, the heart of what makes Los Angeles such an amazing city. There is a strong grassroots base of folks born out of the community self defense coalition led by union dobario across the city and county who are taking shifts, patrolling their neighborhoods beginning early in the morning. People are organizing quote unquote buyouts for vendors so that they have money to stay home and avoid danger. We've seen amazing creative actions outside of hotels where federal agents are sleeping at. These actions have been successful in either forcing ice to flee or leave or some hotels even saying that they will not allow the feds to stay there. For more info, be sure to check out at no period, sleep period for period ice on Instagram. I just want to interrupt in here and one of the ways the ice has adjusted their tactics is they were staying in air bnb's and so maybe I'll try to put it in the show notes. I don't remember the website, but there's a website of maps of where air bnb things are that community has been using to patrol to see if there's common signs of ice. Yeah, it's really interesting evolution of that reconnaissance and documentation. Really cool. To continue the excerpt from the anonymous member of people city council quote as one LA organizer said quote life in LA right now wake up and clock in for your ice watch shift clock out in the lower groceries to your neighbors by as much as you can for many street vendor you see recharge and strategize with your comrades and the night loudest hell outside of hotel where ice sleeps unquote. And the quote from the organizer who people city council clerk but again still quoting their response here. Lastly we have to center the importance of the Olympics. What many people don't understand is that mayor Karen Bass in the city of Los Angeles are obligated to comply with the feds due to the 2028 Olympics. The Olympics are designated as quote national special security event and which allows federal agents like federal agencies like ice, DHS, CBP and secret service to coordinate quote unquote security with local law enforcement. Mayor Bass cannot legitimately say ice out of LA when she invited the feds to LA in January 2024. LAPD shares information with the feds so the joint terrorism task force and LAPD assists the feds by quote securing the perimeter unquote during immigration raids. LAPD is essentially bodyguards for ice during kidnapping operations to read more about NSSEs make sure to follow the account no Olympics LA the organization the collective no Olympics LA and just ending that quote from people city council but I just want to put add a point to there I'm sure you can find on their social media profiles on all the major platforms by just typing in a no Olympics LA. And that reminds me as well for what organization and community is doing terminal island which is basically near a San Pedro and Long Beach so very southern part of LA. Ice has been using it as a staging and so there's been community members that every morning like three or at four a.m. five a.m. they're they're documenting the vehicles that leave terminal island because many of them are undercover switching license plates etc and so we're getting a sense of how many kidnappers are coming into the community there's also been tools that people use to be able to look up license plates to see like oh this is actually matched with the car and these are telltale signs for community members to say you know something's you know fishy going around especially in the context of of LA and T. Fata and the raids and something that is often said in the community self-defense coalition meetings is that we're trying to build power not paranoia and so the idea of not you know being a cop or whatever and like getting overly concerned but to build community power. All right so moving forward to the next question what are areas that we need to improve on? The honest I'm really proud of LA and the people on the ground and the youth and more seasoned organizers as well I think people are putting in the work and I think I've seen a lot of people who were not mobilized before getting mobilized in many of the meetings people saying I've never I'm not an activist or an organizer but I'm seeing my neighbor my neighbor is being terrorized by unnamed unmasked people who refused to give their identification and that's fucked up and so I just want to begin with that I think we need to have less organizers that and like organizations that are able to be in these sort of meetings to push political lines that are like robust something that happens when there's 80-ish 90-100 organizations working together Nate was just saying those organizations that are surprising that or that could be surprising to be working together and so how do you maintain tactical unity or coalition unity and not practice liberalism and maintain strong political lines and keeping politics and command so I think those are some things that need to be improved on I've been really encouraged to see so many different tendencies organizing together and I think I would just like to see more third world as tendencies being not even espoused but like active that's something I don't even know if I'd call this something needs to be improved on but I've been really encouraged as well like to see like members of CPUSA members of DSA members of all these different collectives working together organizing together I mean it makes a lot of the like sort of online tendencies of like fighting and infighting and arguing and dunking on each other seem really petty and pointless and then just you know to follow up with that point I mean we did mention that there are people who have third world as downtown peerless politics on the ground a lot of the organizations involved one might debate the level to which they adhere to this one way or another we don't need to get into that but they all they do generally share not entirely an anti imperialist politics and you know allegedly as was seen on the ground you have people espousing these internationalists third world as connections in terms of the connection between Palestine and the repression of undocumented people here in the so-called United States and to that point I would want to include the you know I guess answering the question for myself and it's like a little bit of self critique but finding a ways to plug in even when you know you may not necessarily have the ability to engage in the full spectrum activity that was you know mentioned in that piece that we read excepting previously where there's you know you're able to dedicate the majority of your day to the organizing work that's being done you know me being in law school working on the weekends I'm basically having seven seven days a week I'm I'm very very busy with just sustaining myself I think like I'm I'm figuring out more ways of being able to plug in and be able to engage in some of the patrol work some of the spotting work in my community in my neighborhood in my on my block on the places that I go day and day out basically finding a way to get connected and be able to be a point of contact for the overall movement against ice against their repression we're facing against these fascist fascist moves from the the state yeah that's great I'm going to read an excerpt from our comment from people city council question was what are areas that we need to improve on and they say quote continue being brave people will be brave if they see others being brave we do not have time to wait we must simultaneously build rapid response networks autonomous direct action anti repression counter repression and legal infrastructure we are currently seeing the expansion of fascism of the surveillance state and repression right now in LA we are seeing targeted arrests and house raids of organizers warrants wiretaps grand juries etc they are attempting to cast a broad net this is reminiscent and as we've all been warning of how the state went after the stop the stop cop city movement the one thing to improve on is something we must always be doing and this is the answer prepare for how the state will come after you and adjust so if you're in Los Angeles what can anti imperialist third world ists or communists do to be involved yeah touch grass there's so much that can be done and so many ways get plugged in feel free to reach out to me if you're in LA and I can do my best to get you plugged in I know a lot of the organizations are looking for people to sign up for volunteer shifts like home depot and stuff as well as things that our comrades were talking about like grocery store runs like literally taking people who may need extra presence like either to immigration hearings or to literally to the gym to places and so there's so many things that you can do show up to events I know there's constantly there's events being called for press releases and rallies but I think the most important thing is getting involved in whatever capacity you can so yeah feel free to reach out to me and I'll do my to candip hug you in yeah and just for my own personal experience there are a lot of people who want to be involved in this work and there's limited capacity to like necessarily like respond to everyone and make sure everyone gets plugged in and properly vetted so just be patient and kind like don't give up trying to get plugged into things if you want to it's just a it's a process of of organizations of collectives building the capacity to take on new members and make sure they're properly vetted and trained and have the capacity to be as effective as possible in the struggle now I'm going to be reading the response to this question from our comrade at People City Council Asangilus quote get involved and organize yourself your household your neighbors your workplace do what you can to show up and defend your neighbors no one is coming to save us except ourselves that's not just sloganering you must embody it and put it into practice start regular community patrols and cop watch learn the best patrol schedules of the pigs and beyond the look at for feds cop watches a legitimate strategy and skill build you can implement with your neighbors develop mutual aid hubs in your neighborhood look out for one another create strong security and op-sec protocols and finally re-jorge jackson and here they're quoting george jackson directly quote settle your quarrels come together understand the reality of our situation understand that fascism is already here that people are already dying could be saved the generations more will die or live poor butchered half lives if you fail to act do what must be done discover your humanity and your love and revolution pass on the torch join us give up your life for the people unquote so good I wanted to add in something that reading our comrade's response to just maybe think about something that we've learned in an affinity group in my area that while we're trying we're just making not making it out as we go but we're learning through practice and we were signing up for various shifts to kind of do patrols around the community and something that we realized is rather than having sporadic timing like signing up maybe at seven a.m. to nine a.m. and then another day signing up at five p.m. seven p.m. or whatever fine to pick one that way you start to see patterns like you know take the seven a.m. to nine a.m. shift or the nine a.m. to let whatever it is that way you're able to start seeing like oh typically this van is here I've probably not anything to worry about because they're probably just doing whatever they're doing on that day just a little thing that we've learned hopefully that if you're implementing these wherever you are you can learn from those sort of lessons yeah and speaking of the point of wherever you are I think it's important to pose this question as well I would probably guess the majority of the people who are listening to this podcast aren't maybe in Los Angeles so if you're not in LA but especially if you are in the so-called the United States I suppose what should folks be doing I'll go first and then you can throw in and then you can read once again touching grass get offline and organize with with what you have around you with your conditions also learn from I think you should look at the LA tenant union and organizing they were doing because they built out a robust infrastructure that is been able to sustain and make a material difference as things pop off and I think something that I've been noticing and have been seeing others articulate is that we need to learn how to build beyond the crisis so things pop off and then there tends to be the movement of like sort of a co-opting of something and then sort of the the NGOification of a movement and we saw it with Black Lives Matter we saw it with other movements as well and so I think also not to interrupt but even like the meant for police abolition or to defund the police these sorts of things that are even like you know supposedly sort of progressions upon the BLM you see those being co-opted NGOified put into political office these sorts of things right right yeah so being you know watching out for sort of the opportunism but knowing that it it'll happen that opportunists will as a class like tend to like reproduce and that's partly born out of the culture of capitalism and America with the ReCase but anyways I think the main thing get organized even if it's amongst a couple of people you agree with and start meeting and start finding a need and fulfilling that need if joined whatever organization is around or start something just to hop in here too and this is based on you know experience you know beyond this particular struggle beyond the moment just in general you know being very attuned to where you're at and getting started in your neighborhood and like I think the the points that Joe was making the point that the comrade from people city council is making you know starting even in your house you know the people at your roommates your partners these sorts of things like you know figuring out ways to be a part of this struggle and to build something and building out from there and like feeling like you don't necessarily and I think you know there is a negative tendency sometimes and I don't necessarily think that that's happening here but I just want to warn against it you know in other context in the future no matter where you add it's an issue but like you know the idea of like parachuting into other people's communities that you think maybe you might think those communities are like more affected or something like that and like you should be necessarily going over there like obviously you know if there's a call for support you should you know take on that call and become involved and be there in solidarity with people or be there to be an extra body on the line if you need to be. Can I interrupt really completely? That's something actually I learned sort of a self critique there was a call for support in a different area of LA like 40 minutes away from me and so my partner and I went and drove out and we're there for several hours and as we were there there was a raid that happened in our neighborhood we were on the ground 48-minute away but then when like our neighbors basically like there was a raid that happened we were we weren't able to be there for support because we were 40-ish 50 minutes away and this isn't saying don't go you know travel or whatever but to recognize there's a reason why like we know our neighbors and our community and the good thing is that our neighborhood and community is very well organized and so it didn't really matter that we weren't there but it's just yeah all that is to say there's always ways of doing things specifically where you are and that's always a great place to start and to be cognizant too like especially too you know especially in larger metropolitan areas like Los Angeles or New York there's a lot of people who are transplants who didn't necessarily grow up in the neighborhood or even in the city and they you know you might be afraid of like getting involved in things you might not know things that well and this is a great opportunity for you to actually for once you know get to know your neighbors get to know the history of the neighborhood you're in get to know like the existing coalitions and networks and you know figure out if you do need to like build something completely new or if you need you if there is a way you can plug in and you know build the trust necessary to be able to plug in obviously you know there's a lot of repression being faced right now and it's natural for some communities to be suspicious of people who are showing up for the first time perhaps that sort of thing so just being like being a trustworthy person a trustworthy comrade a trust for the neighboring community member and you know showing people that you're willing to put yourself online for them for your you know for purposes of supporting their liberation but also our collective liberation that's all just super important so those are just you know my two cents as far as that's concerned and of course all of that is self critique as well because in various parts you know in the present moment but always those are things I need to you know be cognizant of as well great so I'm going to read our comrades response and they write quote and this is a question of if you're not in L.A. what should he be doing so quote what's happening in L.A. is coming for all of us get organized and make plans now sustained willful defiance try it fuck a peaceful protest and then they quote from a zine called uh peace police our police quote this from the zine quote nothing about peace policing is necessary we do not need to rely on specially designated people who are given authority to keep us safe we each possess the authority judgment and autonomy to keep each other safe this is a responsibility we should hone collectively we do not need to rely on marshals to block off intersections we will do it on our own our hands and eyes are as good as theirs our voices are just as loud let every protestor take on whatever role they can by participating in the process of keeping us safe we can both ensure that our protests are secure and grow everyone's skills and instincts and blessed is the flame an introduction to concentration can this is a different thing so and blessed as is the flame an introduction to concentration camp resistance and anarcho nihilism author syrphanski describes efforts at violence resistance at violent resistance and sabotage within Nazi concentration camps they explain quote the nihilist concepts of negation resonate deeply with these acts of sabotage offering a framework through which we might think about acts of resistance not as a means of liberation but as acts of liberation in themselves by taking act and quote by taking action yourself you're liberating yourself even for just a moment from the grip of the state from police control and from hierarchy itself at a time when political and economic possibilities are so bleak these acts of liberation are meaningful beautiful and mobilizing they should be encouraged and held up we should teach a teacher about and defend our right to such liberation at every turn peace police strip us of the learning and liberation that can be one from protests instead reproducing the hierarchies fear and discipline that are used to maintain oppression the most beautiful moments of a protest are when the police are afraid perplexed or on the run the purpose of peace policing is to mitigate all of that when we depend on peace police to mediate the state's governance of a protest we sacrifice our autonomous power we fall into a position of dependence as though we must be given power by someone else or some entity above us in order to act we give up on what's most liberating and effective because we have learned helplessness we have learned that decision-making authority can only lie in certain quote official and quote people such as the police protest marshals representatives ordained by a nonprofit and organizers who are chasing celebrity parentheses think of the types who promote themselves and i.g. at every protest making an ostentious show of how much they're doing and how important they look in photographs with a wool horn or at the head of the crowd and quote so that gave me several things that I was thinking about thinking about the liberatory nature of revolt and organizing it made me think of a known and the liberatory nature of anti-colonial violence and how that changes and frees the person if frees one's consciousness and enables them to like you know deepen that consciousness through other sort of more conservative action as well but like in that initial moment you you break the lack of recognition that the colonizer has by enacting violence against him you know for example i think the short thing at the very beginning i think they would want brought home which is what's happening in LA is coming for all of us get organized and make plans now and build up the infrastructure now so yeah and finally i think we're gonna kind of end with this point or with these we love our points of unity here on jade pod but joma if you could read the community self-defense coalition's points of unity that kind of help provide a framework that we could be thinking about one of the things that's useful about this points of unity is that 80 organizations have signed on and are paying dues and are organizing together based around these things yeah yeah and that's hard to imagine to think about you know what kind is a point of unity that i can get 70ish 80 other organizations to sign on well there's a reason why we're a different organization and i think we've done a lot of episodes on history and concepts and forms of analysis and understanding imperialism and anti imperialism and what constitutes the third world etc etc and um i think you know i don't know if you would make it to the end of this episode like kind of still questioning like oh like what's third world is about this struggle you know it's in the imperial gaurable blah blah you know there's debates about this that happen on and mostly online but also offline and i think when when we read these points of unity you'll kind of realize how these things coalesce and how there is an essential third world is politics to anti-ice organizing yes so there are seven points of unity for the community self-defense coalition number one and police and ice terrorism in our communities no derades deportations and family separation number two money for public education and social services not racism or genocide number three and us intervention in ueshtara america africa aja middle east number four close all concentration camps parentheses immigration detention facilities prisons number five we will not collaborate with ice police sheriffs number six this land belongs to indigenous peoples tangva kishu mash all original protectors of the land number seven we will struggle for self-determination for all oppressed people in our future generations and great i think that's a great uh place to end on and you know give you something to think about as you reflect on how you could potentially get involved in this struggle that's happening not just in la but all around the so-called the united states right now and finally we just wanted to make note of the fact that we're going to try to continue to put out episodes with some regularity you know we were working on some ongoing series obviously there's going to be some more updates on particular present things there's been a lot of other things going on in the past month that we were not able to touch on that are pretty you know really very strongly to the themes of the you know the podcast but i just wanted to mention that joma will actually be out of the country for a pretty protractive period of time but we're planning on trying to record some episodes remotely which is something we've never done we usually record these in person so we're going to figure out the logistics of that and hopefully have some more episodes soon yeah and we also plan to have some more interviews with folks on the ground as well so be on the lookout for that and we'll do our best that weekend with everything going on and please reach out if you're in la and you're trying to get involved and haven't been able to to either nate or i will do what we can yeah me joma or uh could folks you send DMs to the jd pod account as well yes okay cool i mean there as well i guess we'll end it there point number seven i like as a good point and on we will struggle for self-determination for all oppressed people in our future generations