Tortuga House Update: Pennsylvania Drops All Charges Against Madison & Wallschlager For Twittering

In the face of a PR nightmare, Pennsylvania authorities have withdrawn all charges against two members of Tortuga accused of using Twitter to aid protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. At a hearing today, instead of oral arguments regarding a defense motion to unseal the secret 18-page affidavit authorizing the arrests of Elliott Madison and Michael Wallschlager at a motel just outside of Pittsburgh, the prosecution immediately moved to withdraw all charges against the two before the defense had a chance to argue its case. Although clear from the beginning that these charges were absurd based on the State’s very own laws, our housemates were incarcerated for 36 hours, had their van towed and belongings confiscated, and one house member was given $30,000 in straight bail.

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Infiltrators In Santa Cruz, California

Three people recently entered some radical spaces in Santa Cruz and behaved in ways that led many people who encountered them to conclude that they were police agents. What follows is a description of these individuals and a summary of the sequence of events that led people to draw these conclusions. Although it may seem at first glance that they might just be some stupid naive kids eager to impress, read the whole story first because it does look really bad. In fact, the best thing that could be said of them is that they’re dangerously stupid and would therefore also be very unsafe people for that reason. Unfortunately no pictures were obtained.

Source

US Government Annual Threat Assessment In Favor of Revolution

“The Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was posted today at Cryptome.. Among the various interesting things this document contains, it’s analysis of the global economic crisis is important to social movements and anarchists in particular.

According to the US Director of National Intelligence, “The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications. The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom.”

This means that we’ll be afforded opportunities in the near future that we normally wouldn’t be afforded because of the economic situation. Talk has been going on in the scene about this recently and for once, it looks like anarchists and the government have something they can agree on.

“Roughly a quarter of the countries in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as government changes because of the current slowdown. Europe and the former Soviet Union have experienced the bulk of the anti-state demonstrations. Although two-thirds of countries in the world have sufficient financial or other means to limit the impact for the moment, much of Latin America, former Soviet Union states and sub-Saharan Africa lack sufficient cash reserves, access to international aid or credit, or other coping mechanism. Statistical modeling shows that economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one to two year period.”

Revolution is on its way in third world countries. The US economy relies on the capital from these areas to support its unsustainable spending and the US government relies on this reality to do horrendous things. We should support revolutionary movements elsewhere and wait for the opportunity to throw the wrench in here. Over the next year or two (or more), those opportunities will come more often and more easily.

The file is absolutely worth reading and analyzing.”

– Source

A parchment to those in Oakland

“The day after the first night of rioting. BART trains are filled with police and BART headquarters in Oakland to ensure calm during the agency’s board of directors meeting, where many African-American community leaders expressed outrage over the killing of Grant. All vacation or days off for police are postponed and all police have been on call. The community leaders may rhetorically speak of justice for Grant, but the justice they speak of will be the cop getting away with murder and this entire apparatus distilling the rage into a pacifist bliss. Again back to the normalcy of daily life. This entire situation has a larger context. That of civilization, capital, class, work, school, submission, domination and the exploitation of daily life. The mechanisms of control – the police – are spreading everywhere throughout the city. On trains, in the streets and in the air. As a response to this state of emergency. The tightening on surveillance and the free movement of bodies.

These community leaders have been portrayed as the vehicle for the rage expressed during these nights.

Reverend Dion Evans denounces the rioters by saying “He is going to be held responsibly by the people of this community we will see to it before he leaves here today. No one has the right to co-opt the minds of our young people to send them in the streets to do disorderly and dishonest conduct.” The community this leader talks about is that of a hierarchical and exploitative community. Where the relations we share are of commodities in a world of commodities. A community based on capital and its rulers. In an attempt to quail the rage and push each other against one another. The corporate media which is another vehicle for the distillment of rage. Interviews local business owners (of the Lake Merritt area of Oakland. Which is largerly commerical and residential area) saying that most of them are women and people of color. This is a push of pacifism towards the rioters and to pit people against each other. A dichotomy of us and them. But if one looks at many of the targets attacked on the first day. It was not a violence of mob-mentality. When a Sears, McDonalds, Palapas Taco Bar, I.B.’s and cars of Oakland city where destroyed as well as cars of the bourgeoisie set aflame. This clearly shows a strategic direction of attack and a class analysis carried out into action. Media was also attacked, understandably so. Because during these riots the media will hand over photos of riots to the police. Doing the job for the police and the media is no better.

Anarchist in this area should hopefully delve into strategic dialogue about these actions and events (look at Greece). Specifically with the attacks on smaller business. Though it is not really know whether it was anarchists attacking these business’s or not. A degree of hypothesis considering the recent focus on insurrectionary text and ideas. The dialogue proposed would be to either keep the riots in the next few days going or to find a strategic focus for the next rupture in the social fabric.

As the riots enter a second night. As well as an attack on a police station in Berkeley across the street from the the Ashby BART station. Lets keep the rage going let it not die down and that many more fires will be set aflame. In echoing solidarity with Alex, Oscar, Jose and the countless others murdered by the police.
For a complete destruction of this world.
Some anarchists from afar.”

– AnarchistNews.org