Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)
Philadelphia ABC is the local chapter of an international network of Anarchist Black Cross groups that support leftist political prisoners — people who are imprisoned for their beliefs or actions taken for social or environmental justice — with the ultimate goal of prison abolition. A few of the people we are aligned with are Dr. Mutulu Shakur from the Republic of New Afrika, Indigenous Freedom Fighter Oso Blanco, and Black Liberation Army members from Philly, Russell Maroon Shoatz and Joe-Joe Bowen. View the wiki database of people we support at prisonersolidarity.com. For more information on our approach to supporting people behind bars, see our Support Guide at phillyabc.org/get-involved/. We host monthly letter-writing events for people to establish correspondence with someone new or maintain an existing relationship. We also host two large annual fundraising events, Running Down The Walls 5K run/bike/walk/roll every fall and Martyr’s Ball dance parties every winter. We welcome questions and participation from people new to prisoner support, so don’t hesitate to reach out!
Philly Socialists
Revolution has to be a mass movement; if it isn’t driven by community power then it’s doomed to fail! For the better part of a decade, Philly Socialists has been a driving force behind radical change in the city. It is a project driven organization and can be best demonstrated through these. These ever-increasing projects include the Philadelphia Tenants Union fighting for housing rights, the radical newspaper the Partisan, the community food and resource distribution CARP, Dignity fighting with workers in labor struggles, the Cesar Inglesias Community Garden fighting gentrification while fostering and feeding the community, and more. Philly Socialists is also part of a national movement under the Marxist Center – a new solidarity network between dozens of similar local projects and sharing a Marxist ideology. We need to support our communities and work to build a movement that can topple even the most evil, powerful institutions!
Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement Philly (RAM)
The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement is a political movement dedicated to freeing people from bondage and building resistance in the United States. We situate our political movement in the context of the abolitionist struggle against slavery and continue in the tradition, from Nat Turner to the Black Liberation Movement. We believe the Civil War was never resolved and the system of slavery transitioned into the prison industrial complex. Our struggle today must begin from this starting point. Lastly, as revolutionary anarchists, the abolitionist struggle must be extended to the state and capitalism, the perpetrators of oppression. The revolutionary movement in the US today is at a cross roads, as fascist movements are expanding, and the state becomes increasingly authoritarian. The Rojava Revolution, in northern Syria, provides us with a model for revolution today with its foundation in communal and council based political organization and militant defense.
Philadelphia Jobs with Justice (JWJ)
Philadelphia Jobs with Justice (JWJ) is a coalition of labor unions and student, community, and faith groups. They fight for the fair treatment of workers, organizing in local communities and workplaces. JWJ believes in long-term multi-issue coalition building, grassroots base-building, organizing, and strategic militant action as the foundation for building a workers’ movement, and engages a broad community of allies to win bigger victories.
Following the passage of a 10-Year Tax Abatement reform bill that inadequately addresses the funding needs of Philly public schools, JWJ leadership recognized a need for a campaign to compel wealthy nonprofits to contribute their fair share of funding to our public schools. In May, they launched a campaign to demand that Philly’s wealthiest institutions invest in Philly’s public schools through payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs). JWJ is calling on these multi-million and multi-billion dollar nonprofits (such as Penn themselves) to pay 40% of the value of their foregone taxes to a Philadelphia Education Equity Fund.
Click here to watch JWJ’s virtual speak-out on school conditions and why mega-nonprofits need to pay PILOTs:
Are you ready to fight for public schools? Send an email to aiden@phillyjwj.org to get connected with the Penn Action Team!
Reclaim Philadelphia
Reclaim Philadelphia has been reclaiming and restoring political power back to people since 2016. Reclaim Philadelphia endorses and supports progressive candidates and policies that fight for a vision of putting working people before the profits of corporations and the super rich. The People’s Platform, created in partnership with Neighborhood Networks, is our foundation for transforming the Democratic Party and what is politically possible.
We directly connect with our neighbors to unify our communities to end structural racism, classism, sexism and oppression in all its forms. Ultimately, we’re fighting for a world where healthcare, education, live-able environment, housing, safety and justice are human rights – not commodities.
Workers World Party (WWP)
Workers World Party is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party dedicated to organizing and fighting for a socialist revolution in the United States and around the world. With branches around the U.S., WWP develops militant organizers in every struggle, from anti-racist and immigrant rights to labor, anti-war and anti-imperialist struggles.
Shut Down Berks
Pennsylvania is currently home to the Berks County Family Detention Center (BCRC), one of three detention centers for immigrant families, where children as young as two-weeks-old have been incarcerated, and families have been held for more than a year at a time. Berks is the only publicly-owned family detention center in the country.
The Shut Down Berks Coalition is a group of organizations and individuals fighting to close the Berks family prison in Pennsylvania and end the practice of imprisoning immigrant families in the U.S. Members of the coalition include organizers, lawyers, immigrant leaders, and allies.
Juntos
Juntos is a community-led, Latinx immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. We believe that every human being has the right to a quality education and the freedom to live with dignity regardless of immigration status. Juntos combines leadership development, community organizing, and focused collaborations with other community-based and advocacy organizations to build the power of their community members so they may be active agents of change and work against their own oppression.
Personal successes include: co-writing and passing policy that built Philly’s reputation as a sanctuary city, campaigning to get Javier Flores to remain in the US after taking sanctuary for 11 months at Arch St. Methodist church, and creating and winning the #endPARS campaign which removed a database that would release personal information of arrested individuals that ICE would use to detain and deport people believed to be undocumented.
Juntos also spearheads Community Resistance Zones (CRZ) in South Philadelphia — areas in which community members know what their rights are when interacting with ICE & police in order to prepare residents to defend themselves and their neighbors.
To support this radical organization that depends on donations, click here.
West Philly Food Not Bombs (FNB)
Food Not Bombs recovers and shares free vegan or vegetarian food with the public without restriction in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment. Each group is independent and invites everyone to participate in making decisions for their local chapter using the consensus process. Food Not Bombs is dedicated to taking nonviolent direct action to change society so no one is forced to stand in line to eat at a soup kitchen expressing a commitment to the fact that food is a right and not a privilege. With over a billion people going hungry each day how can we spend another dollar on war? West Philly FNB shares food every Wednesday 5pm at the A-Space 4722 Baltimore Ave. Have some extra time in the afternoon? Work at a coffee shop, restaurant, grocery, etc and want to donate food? Want to toss us some coin for supplies? If you would like to get involved (even one Wedsnesday a month is a big help!) send us some love at westphillyFNB@gmail.com.
Black Lives Matter Philly
Our vision is an inclusive, politically and economically self-sustaining and self-determining, healthy, and free Black community. BLM Philly, a local chapter of the BLM Global Network, is a Black organization that seeks to disrupt the [multiple/overlapping/layered, countless] violences against Black people and elevates the experiences and leadership of our most marginalized. We work to build local Black power and a healing, joyful, liberatory movement through grassroots organizing, political education, youth development, and coalition building.
Mobilization 4 Mumia
Mobilization 4 Mumia is fighting for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s freedom and for his right to proper healthcare. Mumia Abu-Jamal is an internationally recognized journalist known as, “the voice of the voiceless” for his many years spent writing about issues relating to working class people of color, prisoners, and the under represented. He has written eight books and countless articles and commentaries from a prison cell on death row in Pennsylvania. The movement for Mumia Abu-Jamal is an international network that has taken to the streets for over thirty years to stop two state sponsored executions, organized to overturn his death sentence, recently sponsored a landmark court case which forced the PA Department of Corrections to administer treatment for his Hepatitus C. The DOC withheld his diagnosis for years and after it was discovered they refused to provide treatment for Mumia as they have for 6,000 other PA prisoners. This new victory will create a precedent to give treatment to all prisoners. With Mumia’s health still in a critical state and a new Supreme Court decision that could bring him back into court the fight for Mumia’s life is in urgent need of your support!
Penn Disorientation Guide 