Can I get a quick rundown on the political context for this? What exactly is Firestorm, and why is the FBI investigating them?
>On the morning of Thursday, July 21st, Firestorm was visited by two individuals from the FBI who claimed to be concerned about right-wing threats towards our co-operative. One provided a business card identifying himself as a special agent with the Charlotte Division's Asheville satellite office and asked if we had received any threats (presumably, not including the presence of FBI agents). They didn't ask any other questions about our collective or our community and we didn't provide any other information.
>We have retained an attorney through the National Lawyers Guild, an association of lawyers and legal workers best known for defending the rights of activists. We're sharing our experience in the hope that others in our community, whether or not they consider themselves activists, will be prepared if an agent knocks.
>In recent years, vague threats of right wing violence have become the standard opener for federal agents seeking to engage activists and their loved ones. This pretense of concern for our safety plays on our fears and can make us vulnerable to intelligence gathering and self-incrimination. The FBI—an organization literally founded to disrupt organized labor and criminalize anarchists—is not part of our safety plan! From the assassination of Fred Hampton to the repression of the George Floyd Uprising, the FBI has always aligned itself with the interests of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
>If you're approached by the FBI or other federal agents, get their information and tell them you'll have your lawyer follow up. Then end the conversation. It's a crime to lie to federal agents, even unintentionally, so it's safest to simply not speak further. You can call the NLG's Federal Defense Hotline at (212) 679-2811.
Okay, so it looks like the FBI claims to be proving them over "threats of right wing violence", and Firestorm, a bookstore run by anarchists, is naturally evasive of feds looking into their business "for their own safety".
I can sympathize with them, tbh. As much as it amuses me to see anarkiddies getting screwed by safety inspectors, my hatred for feds trumps that. The FBI does this shit all of the time: they unofficially approach people they want to shut down on the basis of looking out for "threats in the area", and once their victims cooperate they snoop around and look for anything else incriminating they can use to van the people they claimed to be protecting.
Never trust a fed.
Asheville, a small city of about 100K in western North Carolina has a surprisingly active anarchist scene. Fire Storm is one of the main radical hang outs in town along with the Odditorium music venue. It's a radical/anarchist book shop and coffee house. If you want to dive down the rabbit hole, start here:
https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/_notpdf_/AAF%20Albanian%20Armed%20Forces/A%20ROSE%20BY%20ANY%20OTHER%20NAME/Asheville%20NC%20An%20tifa%20Network%20Map/Full%20Asheville%20NC%20%20Auntie%20Fa%20Research%20Extract%20-%20Oct%202019/0%20-%20MASTER%20FILES%20-%20START%20HERE/https://twitter.com/firestormcoop>>349145Huh, looks like several antifa members run this thing. There's quite a bit of traceable info too. I even see evidence of them openly bragging about vandalizing homes and businesses.
Perhaps this is a job for RWSS after all. Maybe the feds feds can be enticed to actually do their jobs for once and catch some pedos.
Most of the people associated with Asheville ARA are already well-doxed. Check out antifawatch.net. If you have any information to add, please add it.
Seems posting this thread triggered the bots
>>349144>the FBI has always aligned itself with the interests of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.The sheer spectacle of their delusion
>>349155They're right about it being made to disrupt labor unions though.
>>349156Sure but it wasn't made specifically to protect white American capitalists.
>>349157You could argue that it was made to protect the interests of capitalists because of the priority of union crackdowns and actions against organized labor, instead of catching actual career criminals and corrupt politicians.
Anarkiddies think capitalism is inherently white supremacist, so that's a logical conclusion for them (in their minds).