anti-ICE – Smash By Smash West

In the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s murder by federal forces in Minneapolis for resisting ICE terror, a number of Austin neighborhood rapid response groups were formed, inspired by the hyperlocal organization in the Twin Cities. In 78722 in central East Austin, a large meeting was held to this end. Several projects were spun off of this, including rapid response, assembly of whistle kits, canvassing of local businesses, attending city/APD community meeting in protest, and support of local high schoolers walking out in defiance of city and state leaders.

Some of us who live in the area of 78722 called Duplex Nation found each other and began to coordinate and share ideas. Duplex Nation is a collection of around 80 upstairs-downstairs duplexes built in the 1940s postwar housing boom tucked behind Maplewood Elementary. Though several have been converted to single family homes and a few more are owner occupied, neighbors are mostly renters and the quality of the buildings varies widely. The exteriors are painted in wild colors and backyards are up against alleyways, creating a balance of funky uniqueness and shared commons. Those of us that met at the rapid response meeting echoed that we expected more community when moving into the neighborhood and that we wanted to build more in order to face challenges like ICE/police incursions, episodic weather catastrophe, shitty/negligent landlords, or just needing a hand or tool for a house project.

We decided to throw an alley party on the first weekend of Smash by Smash West to meet this goal which we think was a sweet, wild success! With some light coordination we assembled a grill, hot dogs, tents, and chairs and set up in our common alley space! One of us reached out to musicians from the duplexes and booked a gentle show which rivaled that of rat/typhus infested Cherrywood Coffeehouse across the railroad tracks! Another whipped up an iconic flyer which was taken door to door and posted around the neighborhood. This generated enough buzz that dozens of duplexers came through the alley to meet each other on the day of the event!

We grilled, drank, shared neighborhood news, and swapped stories about issues in our units and with our landlords. A screenprinting station churned out patches with anti-ice and pro immigrant messaging. Literature about anti-ICE and policing movements was shared, thanks to a generous donation from the Smash By Smash West crew (if you need lit for your event, hit them up, there’s boxes ready to go!).

So many thanks to everyone who came out and who helped to put on this event! There seems to be an appetite for more community and for more gatherings, maybe seasonally? Rumor has it that other neighborhood groups are planning similar gatherings in the commons and streets of their areas. Please share reportbacks, so we can learn from each other’s experiences!

An anonymous submission from some friendly neighborhood defenders

Over the last two months, inspired by the courageous and inspiring resistance of neighbors in Minneapolis, we have seen an explosion of neighborhood based organizing against ICE in Austin. This turn to neighborhood organizing is an exciting development, and faces important challenges that require creative experimentation: adopting the minneapolis strategy to the geography of a sprawled Texas city; interrupting deportations in a context where most arrests are carried out by state and local police rather than federal agents; a border state with some of the highest concentrations of deportation infrastructure and a police state built to defend it.

SmashXSmashWest is a festival and convergence that calls for creative experimentation and going on the offensive. Some of us have been engaging in it for the last few years, and we see it as an important opportunity for us. So this is an invitation to all neighbor defenders, rapid response networks, and neighborhood councils to take action in our neighborhoods during the week of SmashXSmashWest, March 13-22! Let’s use SmashX as an opportunity to deepen our neighborhood connections, flex our muscles for mobilizing and disruption, and asserting more power over our lives together, as neighbors. We want to see activity across every neighborhood throughout the week, so that we come out of the other side of SmashX with energy, moment, and increased collective power.

Get creative on how to take action in your neighborhood! Here are a few suggestions for what to do to build neighborhood power against ICE and police:

host a neighborhood block party, happy hour, or a show at a local venue
organize a march through your neighborhood
host a neighborhood meeting on how to divest from the police/ICE in our daily lives
go on copwatch/ICEwatch patrol around your neighborhood. Record their activity patterns
rally at a spot that police/ICE frequently stage or mobilize at, or at a local police/ICE facility
establish a defense hub at a site of high police/ICE activity and connect with people targeted
distribute whistles & resources throughout the neighborhood
remove FLOCK, ALPR, Ring, and other surveillance cameras from the area
blockade or barricade a street temporarily to keep police/ICE out
host neighbor-to-neighbor trainings and skillshares

If you want your event promoted on the SmashXSmashWest calendar/social media/signal announcement thread ahead of time, send it to @smashxsmashwest on IG, smashbysmashwest@protonmail.com, or @smashby.26 on Signal. Social media promotion not required–neighborhood, Signal-based, or word of mouth only events strongly encouraged, especially for protests, block parties, and other actions!

Free to use flyers and logos available at tinyurl.com/smashby.

You can also reach out to SmashX if you’d like literature or other materials relevant to the festival to distribute at your local event! Whatever you do, write up a few sentences after the fact describing how your event went and submit it to SmashX to publish the reportback.

Tag: anti-ICE

Smash By Smash West – Duplex Nation Neighbors Reportback:

Smash Pol(ICE) Neighbors Week of Action