message from MN

This episode originally aired in the patron feed December 1st under the title “Political Imagination and Appeals to the Law” patreon.com/posts/144753...

In today’s episode, @nhold.bsky.social returns to discuss how deportation is unjustifiable state violence no matter one’s immigration status or citizenship, and how that violence is naturalized when demands are framed around who or what is “legal” on.soundcloud.com/HjCstFKypwOY...

Listen to this!!!

Death Panel continues to be essential listening during these unprecedented times. Don’t let the law set the horizon of your political imagination.

In today’s episode, after a brief introduction on children as a target of state violence by ICE, we speak with @mayaschenwar.bsky.social & Kim Wilson about care work and parenting as part of abolitionist practice and how we show up for each other in dark times www.patreon.com/posts/149776...

2000 agents are still here. Woke up this morning to horns and whistles down my street -- panic jumped out of bed ready to run outside, but the cars were being pursued. ICE is still kidnapping people, still getting stymied at every turn, still brutalizing observers because they know they're losing.

My friend and one of the co-authors of Read This When Things Fall Apart, Stevie Wilson, will be released from prison in less than a week. Stevie has done tremendous work as an incarcerated organizer and has plans to continue doing important work on the outside. Let's help him make a new start.

“This has not only justified organized state abandonment and enforced the poverty of the poor, sick, elderly, working class, and disabled; it has tied the fundamental idea of the safety and survival of humanity to exploitation.”

“The political economy demands that we maintain our health to make our labor power fully available, lest we be marked and doomed as surplus. The surplus is then turned into raw fuel to extract profits, through rehabilitation, medicalization, and the financialization of health. …

From Health Communism: “The worker/surplus binary solidifies the idea that our lives under capitalism revolve around our work. Our selves, our worthiness, our entire being and right to live revolve around making our labor power available to the ruling class. …

heartbreaking to see public health people people get as far as “ICE detention is a driver of disease” only to call for increased funding for ICE medical services not “free them all for public health”

I included Rosa Lee in my No Selves to Defend Project - noselves2defend.wordpress.com - you can read about her in the zine.

The Sojourners for Truth in Justice took up Rosa Lee and her son's case as a key plank of their organizing. issuu.com/projectnia/d... - a key example of defending Black women's bodily autonomy at a time when people did not publicly address such things in general.

This is one of the most important cases that galvanized Black people in the late 40s through the 1950s. Almost every major Black leader had a comment about it. It is also one of the most successful defense committees that was organized in the 20th century. Almost no one knows about it today.

As Audre Lorde said, “Do not be misled into passivity either by false security (they don’t mean me) or by despair (there’s nothing we can do).”

Exactly this. Been thinking about how clear the dividing line is right now between people who think they’re in some way protected—whether by laws or norms—and those already long disabused of that. It can lead to frustration but it helps clarify who to trust and how far

“In a little over a year, the number of detention facilities used by ICE *nearly doubled* to 212 sites spread across 47 states and territories. *Most of that growth* came through existing contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service or *deals to use empty beds at county jails.*” (emphasis mine)

The fight to stop ICE is also in your local jail.

for no reason, thinking back to Occupy and the behind-the-scenes work undertaken by some folks to ensure media didn’t always keep calling the same available white guy…

it is absolutely wild to say “protesting isn’t risky” when not only are there plenty of examples from throughout us history to the contrary, including very recent history but: a) we know about the very intense tech-driven surveillance of ICE observers and protesters b) uhh minneapolis murders???

what rules about being in Minneapolis for real is that we simply do whatever we want and can largely ignore you-know-who

I’ve been binging @deathpanel.bsky.social the last few days and getting so much strength and determination from the wisdom of @reallandsend.bsky.social. Also, I’m so excited and happy to learn of their baby. What joy, all around!

finally got around to listening to this and, holy shit, so good. so inspiring. one of the best podcast episodes i have heard in a long time; also i believe those were ryoji ikeda interstitials between the segments and damn they fit the vibe. this should be required listening for everyone, it’s good

"Health Fascism and the Anti-State State" Essential listening from The Death Panel. #healthcare #fascism #democracy #RFKjr

Out now: bsky.app/profile/deat...

Worth the time

Aunt Ruthie doesn’t do socials but Craig is here at @craiggilmore.bsky.social

Here's our recent Death Panel chat, notable for the great fun we had talking with @reallandsend.bsky.social & getting to meet the newest of the DP gang:

Latest episode of @deathpanel.bsky.social w/Ruth Wilson Gilmore & @craiggilmore.bsky.social on The Anti-State State contextualizes mind-boggling sentences like this. Services & public goods are framed as "waste" or "bloat" while the spigot of taxpayer $ pours into carceral & administrative systems

Teaser here for “The Anti-State State” w/ Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore: soundcloud.com/deathpanel/t...

new death panel with ruthie AND craig about the anti-state state is very, very good

currently listening

cannot wait to listen.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d... open.spotify.com/episode/6MIn...

Going to listen to this on my walk home from work in beautiful New York City baby.

So important to amplify local reporting from Minneapolis/St. Paul. Yesterday, I talked w/my elderly mother; all she knew from her TV news was that somebody in Minneapolis had been shot. That's not good enough. Amplifying such insurgent media can scare elite national media into more coverage.

RWG: “Many people think if they just stay off the radar in some way, whatever way that is, that they will not be caught up by the trouble. And certainly Alberto Toscano’s book [Late Fascism] and other books show us again and again that there is no outside. And therefore there is no time to lose.”

damn this is coming just 3 days after an excellent interview with Ruth Wilson Gilmore analyzing the state as it is today. can’t wait to listen to this. Death Panel has proven an invaluable political educational resource for me for years now, i can’t recommend them enough

To those who care about #Covid19, #PublicHealth, #DisabilityJustice: if you haven't listened to this episode of @deathpanel.bsky.social, you need to. Our carceral system serves as a reservoir & incubator for pathogens. If you think this isn't about you, you're wrong. soundcloud.com/deathpanel/c...

always illuminating getting to talk with Bea, who with Death Panel has created one of those rare outlets where you can try to make sense of the world live on a mic—this one was especially that kind of episode. solidarity w everyone still in the streets and helping people stay there.

Re-upping this episode today because it feels so resonant in a time of profound state violence against children and for anyone currently choosing how to talk to young people in their life about abolition

You think we are organized in 30 below temps on foot and in cars? Wait til it’s 40 above and we add bikes to the mix. Theres a whole fucking army of people who know the bike lanes in their neighborhoods intimately. This will turn even the worst bike lane haters into fans.

Free them all

They gassed people at my neighborhood park today, and it was so meaninglessly violent that we can’t tell whether it was just a distraction so they can do more vile shit nearby

In other words there is absolutely zero drawdown or tone change or deescalation— fascists lie

This morning, federal agents staged at the Powderhorn Park Recreation Center lot and began to throw chemical irritants at observers. They also kidnapped an observer. Our parks are meant for our children, youth, and neighbors. They should never be militarized zones meant to separate families. 1/

But then this occupation comes and people are like “we will find a way to pay the rent and shelter the unhoused of absolutely as many impacted residents as we possibly can with our own money” while orgs and foundations and cities and states do little.