S
Nno COMPROMISES:
INSIDE. THE mmps.Or ‘

TODRY'S RADICHES

*

5 | b ,‘ “/ PAL
"* W PRE-JBIL INTERVIEW LXTH PRLESTINE
,y;ync_nqm@rs‘on;c‘onmgnm ISH, FIDH. ot o/

; ;‘};esnsfinnms mission Yowesisy !
SN W T | ¢ St AN L

Cover mage: Alex Schaeter,
The Fodersi Reserve Bank in Hames

Interview oriinatly found .
otoverruled substack.com

Typesetin
oRnGoR

GAANOND
auce

el st sesnsons ot ad

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission,
flfillit, or betray it
— Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism

“Love isn't about what we did yesterday; it's about what we do today and
tomorrow and the day after.”

— Grace Lee Boggs, The Net American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for
the Twenty-First Century

Calla Walsh and Paige Belanger are heading to Valey Street Jail in New
Hampshire on November 1dth for a month and a half stint for the action they
and two others took in November 2023, The “Merrimack Four,” as they are
called, were initially hit with a slew of felony charges—conspiracy, criminal
mischie, burglary, and more—that threatened a masimunm of thisty-seven years
in prison. Their protest temporasily halted operations at Elbit Systems, Iscacl's
lagest weapons supplier which provides cighty-five percent of is military
drone fleet used against Palestinians in Gaza. Luckily, they struck a dea: sisty
days in county jil, a small vietory in their ongoing fight against the American

ams industry’s ies to lsacl oceupation.

Dve wanted to speak to Calla for a while, but just happened to get lucky that
her “Co-Dee” (co-defendant), as she says with a smile is also visiting the city
before lock up. The pair were not able to speak for over sis months due to a
court enforced gag order, a McCarthy-esa holdover meant to divide and disrupt
militant lefi-wing actors. 1 am shocked. “Do people know about that?” 1 ask.
Calla shakes her head.

The group has been at imes vilified online by people from across the political
spectrum, Sometimes, this has manifested in eritcisms of youthful naivety,
Sometimes a5 a reaction to their unapologetic stature, both on their action as
well as their political outlook. I figure that's a good place to start our
Alex: “Calla, you were 19 when you participated in the action against Elbit
Systems. What would you say to peaple who say you'se a stupid kid?”

Calla: “The media tends to characterize me as a stupid kid no matter what 1 do,
S0 T don't really care. I'm a stupid kid when it's convenient, P'm an adult facing.
Seven felonies and thirty-seven years i prison when it's not. 1 think some
peaple older than me who ridicule my age simply feel threatened by my political
clasity and experience, which call their own frighteningly underdeveloped
politis and practice into question. I£ 1 ever become patzonizing o disdzinful to
young peaple when I'm older, 1 hope young people bully and corzeet me.”
Calla seminds me that, for what i worth, the “Merrimack Four” range from
wenty to thirty-thee years old.

Calla: “Everyone saw the Twitter conspiracies that we were a gagele of teenage
girls manipulated by a billionaire’s cult® into firebombing a small local Jewish
business. These misogynistic, counterinsurgent nasratives attempted to portray
the action as illogical of insane to the level of the Manson Family or Patti
Hearst, and they attempted to deprive me of my own ageney over my righteous
actions, actions which I will never renounce or regret.”

Alex: “What about you, Paige? You and I are a litdle closer in age. People
wouldn't be concerned about you being manipulated of too young. How did
you find yourself here”

Paige: 1 feel like doing this was inevitable. | have always felt an acute sense that
reality s we know it is not the one in which we ase meant to be living. We are
allso intensely alienated from nature, from our own humanity, from life iself
Ive always imagined a world outside this inescapable alienation, although
wouldn't always have framed it that way. The only time Pve ever felt like 1 it
into this world is when 1 have been fighting to bring a new one into being;

T could talk about my theoretical evolution. .. but T hink the real answer i less
academic. Put simply, it was the only moral thing to do. Palestinian resistance is

4 o compromises
the unquestionable vanguard of the plobal revolution. There was no option but
to resist alongside them and halt the supply of the weapons used to mutilate
and murder them. Declaring solidarity without material support scemed
performative at best, and counter-sevolutionary at worst.”

Paige and Calla are very consistent in their views, and Calla often shares similar
opinions on social media. Some people find them inflammatory. This is where

some criticism comes from.

Alex: “Critics often argue that direct actions like vandalism o property damage
can alienate potential allies or harm a movement's credibility. What do you
think of those critiques, especially in the context of your recent action?”

Calla: “Anyone alienated by the dismantling of genacidal weapons factories is
ot someone | want to be in a movement with. Anyone so scared about the,
liberal mainstream optics of militant sesistance, whether in Palestine or here in
the U, is going to be a friend of counterinsurgency

We've heard this argument aguinst Palestine Action sabotage tactics in favor of
organizing Elbit workers ot appealing to their conscience. .on the assumption
that they have any conscience left. Imperialist weapons company workers,
segardiess of their personal background, ae enemies of the plobal working
class and all colonized peaple, and we do not have time 1o coddle their morality
when they are enabling the slaughter of thousands of Palestinians every day.

1 cerainly have my own critques of ou action and the early phase of Palestine
Action US — I think the inentionsl/symbolic reest actic shouid be
abandoned, aclear degree of separaion between “aboveground” and
“underground” organising needs to be made, and the movement must develop
swonger digital and operatonal securie to efectively go on the offensive. But
none of my criques of Plestine Action US have to do with regreting our
hrusttowards milany, escalation, and attacking the Zionise supply chain.
Our action was to show solidarity with the people of Gaza in 2 material, not
abstract, way — not to appeal to weapons factory workess of to the New
Hampshire masses.”

Paige: “ think we need to worty less about alienating the movement and more.
about escalating sesistance to fascism and imperialism here at home. The
ideological split in the movement about tactics,in my view is more about the.
aims of those on cither side of the divide and less about the tactis per se.

What really differentiates these two conflicting tendencies is that one seeks to
realize socialism in the imperial core, and ralles primarily about the injustices.
of capitalism and their effect on the Amesican proletariat, and the other
represents a staunch anti-imperialist position and secks t0 open up a front of
resistance against imperialism at home, in order to stand in actual solidarity
with the national liberation strugeles around the world that are casting off the
yoke of the US empire and bringing about a global revolution that frees
everyone from capitalism, imperialism, and fascism.

People need to come to terms with the fact that fascism i, in fact, our material
reality, and that any meaningful esistance to it will be met with significant
political repression. The only way to dismantle a system like that is through
milltant resistance. Any potential ally not willing to face that reality, and would
instead criique tacties as alienating or harming one’s crediblity, s not a real ally
to the revolution. | understand that there is hesitance to engage in escalatory
action in the face of state sepression, but to be reduced to posturing about the
‘morality or sespectabilit of these tactics in general is only doing the state’s
counterinsurgency for them.”

As we talk, T am thinking about what this last year looked like in American
politis and organization. How hundseds of thousands, if not millions of
people took to the streets, were arrested, and pasticipated in all kinds of actions
and material support for the people of Palestine. How much of that work fell

6 o compromises
alasmingly flat.

Lam thinking about the “Uncommitted National Movement” a grassroots pro-
Palestinian group, which intensified efforts to influence the Democratic Party's
stance on the supporting lsracl by doing things like convincing over 100,000
Voters in Michigan — approximately 13% of the electorate — to cast ballots for
“uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary. When delegates from
this movement, who had secured positions at the Democratic National
Convention, demanded a Palestinian speake at the convention to addess their
concerns, their request was dened. Ultmately, they endorsed Kamala Harris,
whose policy towards Iseacl,at least s of the publishing of this piece, has not
materially changed.

alasmingly flat.

Alex: “So what role do you think a typical protest versus something like
sabotage should play in these movements? Do you see one as more effective
than the other?”

Calla: “In any liberation struggle there i a time and place for mass ralles, for
economic bayeotts, for political education, for petty vandalism, for sabotage,
for urban guerilla warfare, for all of the above. A divesity of tactics only
works, though, if we are building our capacity to inflict material blows on our
enemy and win the ultimate victory.

Fanon said that colonialism “will only yield when confronted with greater
violence.” Fanon’s statement is confirmed by the international failure of a year
of mass ralies feishizing ‘non-violence’ and cooperation with police. Around-
the-clock rallies and days of action with no escalation have hecome o
demobilizing force: they serve as a pressure release for people’s pent-up anger
and energy, and then peaple go home, usually only having yelled at an empty
building and listened to speeches saying what everyone there already knows
and agrees with.

1sce a defeatist tendency coming from some people in the imperial core who
think that we are exempt from taking past in the resistance, that people in the.
Global South should be doing all the dying, that the only thing we can do is
passively voice our outrage and appel to the non-esistent moralit of the
oppressors. We cannot afford to be defeatist, but we should look at what has
worked and what hasn’t be honest about our erors, and strategize how to
corret these errors and escalate.”

Alex: “So, what works?”

Calla “Direet action, community organizing, confrontation ith the poice, and
secondary teriary targeting successfully shut dowen the first Elbit failiy in the
US in my hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two of us are sill facig
charges there, bt everyone else’s charges have been dropped.

Through sabotage and property damage tactics, Palestine Action UK has
permanently shut down several Elbit facliies and forced investors — most
recenty Barclays — to divest.

In Adanea, the united Front against fascist state repression, the mass orgs”
general non-disavowal of militants, the deepening of clandestine tendencies, and
militants’ continued attacks on police and surveillince infrastructuze appeas to
have kept organization from disintegrating there in the face of extreme
counterinsurgency

And even if Cop City is buil, the slogan of the movement there is, 1f you build
i, we will burn it The struggle went far beyond the inital goal of shutting
down brick-and-mortar facility - Stop Cop City can be understood a5
framewark for people's war against the police state. Similaely, even i the
university encampments did not win divestment, they did radicalize tens of

® o compromises
thousands of people and give them frontline esperience. Each of these
experiences have created new layers of militants and led to qualitative leaps in.
our long:

om strategy.”

Paige: “The fact that there is a distinction at all between protest and sabotage is
based on asbitrary conceptions of what s “violent’ and ‘non-violent. Typical
protests are upheld as ‘non-violent’ and ‘peaceful’ while sabotage is “violent.
Property damage is not violence, and if it happens for the puspose of shutting
down weapons companics, it is,in fact, peaceful.

“The state weaponizes clims of violence against al resistance, at home o
abroad. We can see this in the way accusations of tesrorism are levied against
national liberation movements and those in solidarity with them, as well as the
way spray painting a message on a building or even breaking a window is
distorted as “violent protest in the U.S,

Ideally, there would be no distinction between protest and sabotage! Protests”
would not be the peace-policed, permitted parades as they are now, but
legitimate moments of upheaval against the power of the state. Probably they
would all include a litle sabotage. We are policing ourselves with the ruling
elasses’ distorted definitions of what is moral, and internalizing these
definitions in the way we critigue militant tactics that actually threaten power. 1€
typieal protests were actually protests, and not just non-confrontational,
toothless rallies, then they would have a genuine role in the divessity of tactics
needed to take down the empire from within, and militancy would play a ole in
them as well. As it stands, sustained direct action has been the only thing
forcing material concessions from the empire .. like Cambridge Elbit shutting
down for gaod.”

Alex: So, what can people do? Where do you think people should peaple direct
their energy?
Calla: “Exeryone can be escalating, or building capacity for escalation. There
are different roles for everyone — oganizing the masses, building the
underground, making propaganda, going on the front lines, feeding the front
liners,

From the RICO and domestc tersorism charges aggins Stop Cop ity
activists, o the Uhuru 3's ree speech i, to Samidoun's ‘ertoris?
desigaution, lely we are entering a new phase of counterinsurgency, and it is
more important than ever thit the movement develops a strong counter-
repression steaegy. Right now, that means sudying up on hiscorical
counterinsurgencies like MeCarthyism, COINTELPRO, the Green Sce, and
persecusion of the Holy Land Foundation Five — and also preparing tacticall
for more repression to come.”

Paige: “Activists need to turn their attention away from mass orgs that
counter the threat of state repression and infiltration by toning down their
militancy and advocating for ‘peaceful,’reformist tactics. We need to start
sceing smaller groups of trusted peers, carrying out deliberate and precise
strkes against imperial infrastructure. It i far past the time for vague political
education and outseach with no specific end, which many of these orgs make
atop prioriy.

Politial education efforts need to be reoriented towards understanding the
legal mechanisms for state repression and the surveillunce capabilities of the
empire on revolutionaries. 1 love reading political theory, and i essential to
have revolutionary theory guiding principled politcal organizations, but book
elubs are not bringing people closer to taking the militant action needed to
overthron the fascist state.

We also need to stop appealing to the morality of the oppressors and seeking
o mobilize peaple towards demanding radical change from some higher
authority. The people have the power, they just need to emember it
Calla “Above all, we need to believe we can win within ou lfecimes. I el ke
there s historical amnesia about the George Floyd Rebellon four years ago,
when 25 millon people were n the sires, 300 ciie/ towns wee o fir,
Trump was in bunker, and the feds were running out of tear gas and rubber
bullrs. The 2020 uprising was a eminder of the spontancous, milan, and
revolutionary potential of the masses,that can only b organized and channled
into protracted struggl i we defeat the counterinsurgency attempting to
neutalze and co-opt us.

Tagree with what communist Grace Lee Boggs wrote in hee piece ‘Organization
Means Commitment’ about building a revolutionary movement in the imperial
core. It far more effective to begin to consolidate with a few comrades who,
you'e closely aligned with, than it i to organize with 100 peaple with no shared
principles or politial lines. Qualiy over quantity. NGOs and pundits position
themselves as the movement's leaders because they have the biggest bank
accounts and media platforms — [ would caution peaple about oining NGOs
and tailing their lines and tactics, which are usually tailing behind the masses

and the front liners.

IF you want to know what the stae is really scared of, who is really threatening
their power, then look at who they ase repressing the most.”

At the end of our conversation, I'm left in 4 strange space, somewhere between
admiration and apprebension. They're unwavering, undetesred in their
conviction that the only moral stance left o take is an uncompromising one—
where resistance isn't softened by fear of mainstream alienation butis
sharpened by a desire to stand in meaningful solidarity. They're clear-eyed and
fearless. Between puls on a cigarette, Callarelays to me how the police who,
arrested her all drew their weapons. “All guns draw. One of them was shaking,
they looked so terrified,” she tells me, rolling her eyes. She was, of course,
totally unarmed
“A different time 1 got arrested, they asked me for my fucking preferred
pronouns.” We both laugh,

I think about the risks, the consequences that come with their choices—
eriminal records, societal ostracism, even imprisonment—and yet, these are
sk they embrace as part of their commitment to something larger than
themselves. They're willing to be eritcized, misunderstood, to lose things they
once valued for the sake of a mission they fecl must be fulflled. When they tall
about standing in solidarity with Gaza, with the liberation movements of the
world, it doesn't feellike a headline or a moral platitude; it fecls immediate and
alive, pressing down into the space between us.

Ithink of Call’s intense gaze. I'm left with a question that's no longer
hypothetical

What s to be done?
Support the Merrimack 4 in jail!

write to Bridget:

Bridget Shergalis #67968
445 Willow St
‘Manchester, NH 03103

write to Calla:
Calla Walsh #67970

445 Willow St
Manchester, NH 03103

write to Paige:
Paige Belanger #68132

445 Willow St
Manchester, NH 03103

projected release dates: 12/21/2024

They would love to receive books, letters, pocms, and updates on the moverent and
world events. (The other co-defendant is not publicizing their address at this time)

Allletters are inspected before delivery; do not discuss any details of their case or.
anything you would not wan to be read by a cop.

For tips on writing to politcal prisoners visit nycabe.wordpress.com

o compromises 15
&”P

Bl