On Sunday July 10th, the Team Colors, a millitant research collective, gave a great talk about their recent book, Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. This edited volume of essays and interviews inquires into the current state of radical movements and social struggles in the United States.

read more

Time for Another Exciting Defenestrator Film Screening!

A new documentary about natural gas drilling and how it might impact your life

Q&A afterwards the screening with independent researchers and journalists currently covering natural gas extraction in PA.

Thursday, July 29
8 PM
Firehouse Bikes (50th and Baltimore, accessible by the #34 Green Line)

When filmmaker Josh Fox received an unexpected offer of $100,000 for the natural gas drilling rights to his property in the Delaware River Basin, on the border of New York and Pennsylvania, he resisted the urge to accept. Instead, he set off on a cross-country journey to investigate the environmental risks of agreeing to the deal.

read more

This July 2010 marks 10 years since Philadelphia was the site of the 2000 Republican National Convention. The week of August 1, 2000, thousands of activists took to the streets of Center City Philadelphia for direct action against police brutality and the prison industrial complex.

read more

Audio interviews from the U.S Social Forum that took place in Detroit from June 22nd to June 26th, 2010.

Naeema Kelly and Paul Newman: Teenagers from Durham, NC that work with a non-profit called Spirit House that does work against the Prison-Industrial Complex.

read more

read more

Israeli commandos attacked a flotilla of ships from the Free Gaza Movement carrying food, medical equipment, and building materials to besieged Gaza. Gaza has been blocked by Israel and Egypt since June 2007, denying basic goods to 1.5 million people.

read more

Thousands of people flooded the streets. The police made numerous arrests for disorderly conduct, property damage, theft, and even arson. Local hospitals reported a slew of injuries.

These events occurred after the Phillies won the World Series in 2008. The city took it in stride. There was no public outcry, no crackdown on Phillies fans, no call to prohibit future baseball games. Riding the wave of euphoria, the public largely accepted these crimes as collateral damage. After all, the Series was good for the sports franchise, good for city tourism, and good for city pride.

On March 20th of this year, a similar event took place. Thousands of teenagers converged on South Street in a flash mob. Several injuries and incidents of vandalism occurred. The city’s reaction, however, was very different. The local media published images and video of unruly and destructive African American youth. Officials painted a picture of an epidemic of Black teenagers terrorizing the innocent people of the city. The violence that occurred provided a pretense for perpetuating a longstanding racial stereotype of the threat of out-of-control Black youth.

read more

Paying back student loans can be a real downer. Loans can make organizing after college virtually impossible as they force debtors to work a full-time corporate or nonprofit job, or join the military just to pay them off. When I graduated from college, I had $50,000 worth of student loan debt. I felt I was forced to get a full-time job, and pay them off as quickly as possible so in the future I could finally dedicate myself to social change work. Luckily I didn’t have to make this choice, as there are other options available! Here are a few worth knowing about.

read more

May 18, Harrisburg PA: After two days of testimony from state prisoners and PA Department of Corrections staff, a six-person jury ruled against Ravanna Spencer in his lawsuit against guards who beat him during a cell extraction at SCI-Camp Hill in 2006.

read more