"What goes around, comes around! Burn this prison to the ground!"

The streets of Trenton, NJ were filled with calls for prisoner rights and prison abolition on a stormy Wednesday night last week as Trenton Anti-Racist Action honored International Human Rights Day.

On December 10th, Trenton Anti-Racist Action, joined by Shoelacetown Anarchist Black Cross as well as ARA members from throughout New Jersey, held a small but spirited march to the New Jersey State Prison. Despite the rain and large police presence, protesters rallied in front of the prison entrance for over an hour, speaking out against specific human rights abuses both in the local prison and in prisons across the country to an audience of community members, commuters, and (hopefully) the inmates inside.

Marchers set off at 4:30pm from Mill Hill Park, immediately passing the Mercer County Courthouse and a mixed audience of people who had just gotten out of court and Mercer County Sheriffs officers. The march continued down South Broad Street, attracting curious spectators. The overall reaction by onlookers was positive, as people came out of their homes and business to show their support. Most stopped to ask demonstrators for literature and more information on the march. As the march passed over Route 1, protesters took to the streets, blocking traffic.

Until that point, the march attracted no police attention. Once protesters took to the streets, Trenton Police started to pay attention. As the march prepared to turn off South Broad Street, an unmarked police car drove dangerously close to marchers in an attempt to get them out of the middle of the street. Despite warnings from police to get on the sidewalk, the march continued on the street, circling the prison. Protesters attempted to be as loud as possible as they marched around the prison so that the inmates inside could hear their calls of solidarity. A resident living in the shadow of the massive prison compound echoed protesters\' chants of "Racist police means, you\'ve got to fight back!"

Offices from the NJ Department of Corrections, Trenton Police, the Mercer County Sheriffs Office and NJ State Police were all waiting for protesters as they arrived at the prison entrance. The Trenton police officer who had attempted to cut the march off pulled an ARA member aside, apparently personally hurt that protesters had ignored him. He repeated the same threat, "If you block the street again, you will all be arrested." Despite the growing police presence, protesters stood their ground in front of the prison, reading letters from inmates, talking and sharing literature with passer-bys, and chanting messages of solidarity to the prisoners inside. The demonstration ended with a haunting declaration, "We will be back!"

No arrests were made and for the most part, the night was incident free. There was an effort on the part of the police to gather information on the protesters in order to be better prepared for the next time they deal with ARA. An undercover cop posing as a reporter for "The Hamiltonian" attempted to take up-close and profile pictures of everyone there. Protesters also noticed at least one plain-clothes officer watching from a distance as well as several officers occupying the usually unused watch-towers surrounding the facility As the demonstration came to an end and marchers made their way home, they were followed by police and unmarked vehicles for almost an hour.

For more information on this demonstration or on Trenton Anti-Racist Action in general, please email trentonara@gmail or visit www.myspace.com/trentonara. You can also visit the Anti-Racist Action Network's website at ARA.activeresistance.org.

Today, Anti-Racist Action members from Pennsylvania and New Jersey descended on South Philadelphia to let the community know about a violent neo-Nazi living in their neighborhood. Douglas Caffarella, of 1430 Porter Street, Philadelphia, is a member of the Keystone State Skinheads, a statewide Pennsylvania gang of neo-Nazis who are currently attempting to build a presence in Philadelphia. Caffarella is currently facing multiple weapons and assault charges after an assault outside of McCusker's Tavern on 17th and Shunk Streets. The target of the attack – a potential KSS recruit - sustained multiple fractures and cuts to his face, along with a broken nose. Remember, this is someone they were trying to recruit! While fliering, anti-fascists were confronted by several people who knew Caffarella. A person who claimed to his childhood friend said "He can't be a Nazi, he has *A* black friend", going on to say that people in the neighborhood don't care about Caffarella's white power tattoos and shaved head. He and another friend of Caffarella's attempted to take down all the fliers posted; fortunately, in the busiest areas we glued the fliers so good luck with that!

Caffarella's brother-in-law was also seen tearing down fliers and was so enraged when he saw the neighborhood blanketed with Doug's face he confronted the ARA members, threatening to kill them if they came back to the 1400 block of Porter Street. "If you  guys come back, someone's going to get shot. I'll blaze you. I've got six shots for you." This brother-in-law also denied Doug's involvement with neo-Nazi groups. It seems not only is Caffarella too much of a coward to confront Anti-Racist Action directly, instead sending his friends and family to do so, but he is obviously too much of a coward to be honest with those friends and family about his neo-Nazi politics.

We will be back to Caffarella's neighborhood in the very near future. In the meantime, we will continue publicly outing all of the other Philadelphia members of the Keystone State Skinheads. BASH THE FASH!

-Members of PA & NJ Anti-Racist Action

To the 2008 Anti-Racist Action Network Conference Solidarity from the antifascist webblog, threewayfight: an insurgent blog against fascism and the State.

We wish your conference well and look forward to hearing of your organizing - now and for the future.

We are facing an increasingly uncertain future: the global capitalist crisis and a deepening recession; continuing War and Occupation; militarization of the State via the Patriot Act in the name of a "War on Terror"; mass raids and deportations of working peoples carried out by ICE; and an election that in many ways is unprecedented but in the end offers only differing visions of maintaining a capitalist System.

The total sum of these situations open up both risks and opportunities for those opposed to the current Order. But the potentials for mass opposition movements are neither limited to nor guaranteed to be movements relating to or emanating from "our side". We must be conscious of and prepared for the emergence of popular and reactionary movements taking shape and offering their visions of "community" and survival in the face of a desperate time.

Whether Conservatives who feel the System is beyond their control and influence to far-Right religious fundamentalists to anti-immigrant forces to outright fascist groups in the style of the NA and their ilk, there are real possibilities that we could see these groups reemerge and strengthen as society becomes more polarized.

The antifascist movement - as represented by movements like ARA - have been on the front lines of developing the needed analysis and the means of fighting back and building a recognized and independent political alternative. It has not been easy. We have faced repression and even murder. We have seen splits within our ranks over strategy. And at times we have fallen short of the mark we set. But the efforts and example of our work has added to the vast experiences of people in motion and struggle. It is our ability to access the lessons from these experiences that will determine our future viability as radical and pro-liberation antifascist movements.

Once again, we wish you luck.

In Antifascist Struggle,
threewayfight