On Saturday March 19th I will be at the Charlottesville Anarchist Bookfair at Random Row Books with the Wingnut Anarchist Collective, tabling with our zines and books for sale. I will also be doing a presentation on my book The South is Still Rising.
More about this exciting event here:
http://cvilleanarchism.wordpress.com/ (more…)
On March 2nd at 5pm I will be doing a book reading and signing at Chop Suey books in Carytown. If you haven’t picked up a copy of The South Is Still Rising yet, this is your opportunity.
I will be presenting on the Tent City Occupation of Monroe Park in 1998 by the General Strike Anarchist Collective.
The South is Still Rising: Contemporary Radical and Anarchist Movements in Richmond, Virginia from 1994-2004
The South is Still Rising explores the little known story of radical organizing in Richmond, Virginia in terms that Mo’s mom can understand. This story is contextualized in both within the history of Richmond and within the history of radical activism on a national and global scale.
The South is Still Rising reveals the things going on in the old capital of the Confederacy that are not played up in the media, and that many folks don’t get a chance to find out about. This is your window into a better understanding of what is actually going on in the South.
A new type of Southern Pride. A history that includes the resistance to racism, sexism, capitalism, and more.
Hope to see you there!
My book, The South Is Still Rising Contemporary Radical and Anarchist Movements in Richmond, Virginia from 1994-2004, is finally printed!P and L Printing, an anarchist and IWW collective in Denver, Colorado printed the book for me.
It is 266 pages. Maroon cover, perfect bound.
I am selling it for 12 bucks a copy.
Plus shipping if you ain’t from around these parts. If anyone has a bookstore or infoshop and wants to buy multiple copies to sell there, PLEASE DO! We are trying to start a whole bunch of new projects at The Wingnut and could really use the financial support.
From the back cover:
The South is Still Rising explores the little known story of radical organizing in Richmond, Virginia in terms that Mo’s mom can understand. This story is contextualized in both within the history of Richmond and within the history of radical activism on a national and global scale.
The South is Still Rising reveals the things going on in the old capital of the Confederacy that are not played up in the media, and that many folks don’t get a chance to find out about. This is your window into a better understanding of what is actually going on in the South.
A new type of Southern Pride. A history that includes the resistance to racism, sexism, capitalism, and more.
You can send 12 bucks plus 2 bucks for S+H to PO Box 6025 Richmond, VA 23222 for a copy. I might adjust the S+H price if it ends up being very different.
The Richmond Police Department apparently told a reporter last night that they were dismissing their case against us in court. We have not yet received any official word regarding this- no papers or call or anything. (You never call, you never write). But if this is true it just means that the RPD and the City Attorney realized the HUGE publicity blunder they made in attempting to harass us via court complaints and emergencies orders over FOIA documents.
This does not mean they won’t try and file some other legal documents against us. And it doesn’t mean that the harassment is over. It only means that these particular documents that they filed might be retracted. Without an official apology or statement in regards to it being fucked up to harass us for being anarchists, and also illegal for them to ask for FOIA documents back, this does not mean much.
I appreciate the support legally and media wise from the ACLU.
I appreciate the media attention and coverage of anarchists that this whole tactical error on the part of the RPD and the City Attorney has given us. I also appreciate their direct involvement of my political beliefs in this case. They have made it exceedingly clear that we are enemies. The State and the police feel threatened by anarchists because we stand vehemently against their hierarchies and positions of power. I am anti-authoritarian. I am anti-hierarchy. I want the state and police to be destroyed. I don’t want reform, and I don’t think you can legislate or vote in real change. We need a revolution of the people. And it needs to start in all of our daily lives and communities. If we change our day to day, if we build our own alternatives to the state while resisting oppression, we might see a better world in our lifetimes.
The current system of capitalism and hierarchy CLEARLY does not work. Not for the jobless, the homeless, the hungry, the people without access to good education or healthcare. Not for the environment, future generations, animals, or indigenous people. We need to start trying new things. They won’t all work. But we will never progress into something better if we don’t start trying to find better ways of existing together.
It is fairly common knowledge that being an anarchist is fairly criminalized in the United States. So it comes as no surprise when the State tries to use one’s anarchist belief against them.
In this case, the Richmond City Police Department is using court proceedings to try and ‘compel’ me to give back some of the documents that we got using the Freedom of Information Act. I am the person named in the documents, because someone has to make the FOIA request. But the documents being requested was an idea that came from Richmond Copwatch. We wanted to get copies of the police protocols so we could know when the police are breaking their own rules.
We submitted our request, were informed that there were many different sets of protocols, so we asked for a list. Then we chose from the list. We got that information right before Christmas. We then scanned and uploaded all of the information onto the internet- to save others the trouble and expense of a FOIA request.
Today someone came to the Wingnut and hand delivered a package from the Office of the City Attorney of the City of Richmond. I opened up the envelope to find just 2 documents full of lawyer speak. No cover letter, no explanation. Just 2 documents not even addressed to me, but about me. Apparently the CITY OF RICHMOND POLICE CHIEF BRYAN NORWOOD and the CITY OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA are filing a complaint against me, the defendant Mo Karn (not even my legal name you sillies). They want some of their FOIA Documents back. Because they say they shouldn’t have given them to me, and importantly, I am a known and admitted anarchist.
So the first I hear of this is court documents. No email, no letter, no phone call asking for them back. Just a copy of a complaint they filed.
The second document they sent me today was an “EMERGENCY MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER AND TO COMPEL THE RETURN OF TACTICAL INFORMATION AND TO PREVENT THE DISCLOSURE OF SAID INFORMATION“
Apparently they want their information back. I don’t think they understand the internet. You can’t really get that information back. We’ve got it, the internet has it, and hundreds of people have looked at it. The documents they specifically request back are Emergency Operations Plan Part 1 of 2 Emergency Operations Plan Part 2 of 2, Canine Unit Manual, Crowd Management Team, Focus Mission Team Property Crimes Detectives Operating Manual, Homeland Security Criminal Intelligence Unit, Mobile Command Center Operating Manual, Mounted Unit Operating Manual, Traffic Enforcement Unit, Police Cyclist Operating Manual, and Police Segway Operating Manual. These are just some of the almost 50 documents we have made available at http://www.wingnutrva.org under the tab Richmond Police Department Documents.
Who knows if these motions will be approved by a judge. They don’t have a case number on them, and they don’t have a court date or any useful information like that at all.
I don’t believe the information in these documents is classified or should be exempt from FOIA. Its not like it is manuals on how to drive their various vehicles or anything actually explicit. Beyond that I definitely believe this has a lot more to do with politics. Their FIRST point for their motion is that “1. Defendant Mo Karn is a known and admitted anarchist. See generally http://anarchymo.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/foia-rocks.” Yup. And that has what to do with FOIA? Freedom of Information Act Except for Anarchists would be FOIAEFA. I didn’t request shit through FOIAEFA.
In the spirit of FOIA and making RPD documents available online, here are copies of the documents they sent me in the mail today.
Emergency Motion for Protective Order by Richmond Police Department V. Mo Karn
Complaint by Chief of Police Bryan Norwood And The City of Richmond V. Mo Karn
Tonight is the monthly meeting of the Anarchist Black Cross. One of the agenda items is scheduling monthly demonstrations outside of the Richmond City Jail. This is something that is really important to me, and that I think is worth doing regardless of how many people actually come out.Richmond City Jail is a terrible place, like pretty much all jails and prisons. On top of that, Richmond’s jail is in terrible condition and very over crowded. Multiple deaths in 2010 due to negligence and abuse attest to the many reasons why Richmond does not need a jail. The people in charge obviously can’t be trusted with human lives anyway. Prison abolition is the goal, and until then, prisoner support.
I think this would be a visible way of letting the people inside know they are not forgotten. People on the outside will know that it is not just the family of people locked up who are affected. Our entire community is negatively affected by the presence of cops, jails, and prisons.
If you can, come out to the Wingnut tonight for the Anarchist Black Cross meeting- 7pm at 2005 Barton Avenue. Call 804 303 5449 for directions, or email rvaabc@gmail.com
The article from www.anarchistnews.org is after the jump. (more…)
For the past 3 years I have gone to New Orleans for the New Year. To see fri4ends who migrate there, to see friends who live there that I rarely catch up with, etc. This year, if I can find somewhere to stay I want to stay for the whole month of January.
I’ve always gone down with friends, but this year I am the one driving, because I want to take Flapjack and Grits with me. Not only because last year when I left them they ate over 100 dollars of library books, but also because Grits is from New Orleans and has never been back.
I’ll be headed down sometime after the 25th of December and before the 1st. If anyone wants to catch a ride with me and pitch in on gas that would be awesome. If you know of somewhere that my 2 dogs and I can stay that too would be awesome.
I am always excited for sping and summer when they come, but there is also something relaxing about getting all ready to nest for the winter. There seem to be fewer scheduled activities and more time for drinking coffee and tea and playing scrabble and other board games with friends.
We’ve also been doing some renovations and improvements around the Wingnut- including repainting the bathroom, repainting the kitchen, attaching the base board correctly in the bathroom, hanging a potrack in the kitchen, installing 4 doorknobs in the past month, installing a threshhold in the upstairs bathroom, building panel walls for the front porch and painting some baseboard that only had primer on it.
Upcoming projects might include painting a mural on the porch panels, building benches out of pallet wood, building a coat rack, making concrete countertops for the kitchen, moving the sink onto a concrete counter top in a better location, fixing the backyard fence, building bookshelves for our radical lending library, demo-ing a trailer in the backyard etc.
But right now, I just ate some waffles and I’m going to drink some coffee to wash them down. Then the post office and library!
Cuddle Puddles and Hot Pants # 5- An Anarchist Zine from Richmond, VIrignia is now available for download here:
http://zinelibrary.info/cuddle-puddles-and-hot-pants-5-anarchist-zine-richmond-va
Cuddle Puddles and Hot Pants #5 (CPHP5) is a zine by Mo Karnage with other contributors including Kayla Dean (also of the Wingnut Anarchist Collective) and Autumn Springs! Topics include; gentrification, queerness, gay marriage, vegan recipes, accounability, copwatch, the campaign to keep Monroe Park Open, and more about the Wingnut Anarchist Collective.
All pdfs here are parts of the zine. we are behind the times technologically.
xveganarchistrvax@gmail.com
www.anarchymo.wordpress.com
PO Box 6025
Richmond, VA 23222
If anyone in the Richmond area has an interest in helping to make banners for Food not Bombs or about the Monroe Campaign please let me know. If you have paint or banner material you want to donate to the cause that would be rad too.
I also want to work on the Wingnut’s collection of banners. We are trying to make a bunch that work for a variety of situations that way we are prepared for last minute protests etc.
Topics we are thinking about making multiuse banners for include:
Jail solidarity
Police Brutality
Anti-Death Penalty
Housing Justice
Gentrification
Environment
Worker Sollidarity
Indigenous Solidarity
Queer
Anti-War
Did we miss any big anarchist topics?
If you have ideas for any banners or want to help email me! xveganarchistrvax@gmail.com
