Iron Snowflake

Big Critical Mass ride even with a relocation to Lake Highland Park for the next three months. Start time 6:30PM

The intersection of FL 436 and US 92/US 17 north of Orlando has long been known as “Trump Corner” due to MAGA meatheads protesting there. On the 28th of March, pro-Palestine protesters took it over, repurposing this highly visible site at the intersection of two highways.

During the protest, a statement sent from Occupied Gaza was read out. The statement recounted horrific events in Gaza such as children in the north starving. Also in the statement was a vow to refuse to surrender and hold out for either victory or martyrdom, emphasizing that people there love their land and are refusing to yield it to the invaders.

On the 26th of March, the U$ Supreme Court held oral arguments in a case brought by pro-forced birth doctors challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.

Outside the Supreme Court, abortion rights protesters stood their ground against screaming harassment by so-called “Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.” This is the group best known for stealing fetuses.

Inside, observers from many publications reported SCOTUS appears inclined to punt this one away on grounds that the original plaintiffs did not have standing to bring their case. This would leave in place the appeals court ruling overturning a trial court ruling revoking abortion pill approval.

Other healthcare professionals and even Big Pharma bosses warned that if SCOTUS permits any court to overturn any approval of any drug by FDA, that will sow chaos by making the legal status of every drug on the market difficult to predict going forward.

(Video quality not good when compressed heavily due to very complex scenes, so full 1080p video at archive.org)

On the 23ed of March, Tampa Pride’s parade took to the streets. The “ROTC” drill team with flags put on a very good performance. The name is appropriate considering the ugly times we live in and the dire threat posed by the probable results of the 2024 election and/or a Trump coup.

There is always a sour note at any parade and this was no exception. At least the cops and Mayor Jane Castor (a notorious supporter of Israeli business interests in Tampa) were soon out of the way after going first, right after the lead contingent. Also, anti-LGBTQ dog whistler Chris Nelson’s self-hating “Gays against Groomers” had their propaganda truck parked on 15th st about two blocks from the parade route. They were parked in a no-parking zone, complaints about the illegally parked truck were ignored. There was a rainbow tow truck in the parade, which would have been perfect for towing this truck to the junkyard.

While “Gays against Groomers” apparently attempted to put their stickers up on the parade route, only one was seen by the author of this report, it was quickly removed.

This was a full-featured Pride parade with a big crowd. Many parade contingents (known as Krewes like in New Orleans) featured mock pirate ships in reference to Tampa Bay’s well-known past as a haven of pirates and buccaneers. Buccaneers raided the huge galleons of the Spanish Main. These ships were loaded with gold and valuable stolen from the Indigenous population in this hemispere. The colonists (knownm as Gauchupines or “spur-wearers”) relied on slave labor to mine this gold, setting an ugly pattern that continues today with multinational mining corporations preying on nations of the Global South. Like Yemen fighting for Palestine today, the buccaneers opposing them exacted an economic price from those responsible for colonialism and genocide. Pirate ships were normally run as democracies, with the captain having no power except in battle and no special privilige except a double share of the loot.

Another Week of Action against Cop City is now underway!

Above: Video of the banner drop action, from footage by John Zangas/DC Media Group

Above: More in-depth video covering the speakers by DC Media Group

On the 22nd of March, a group of mostly Black Women got inside Atlanta’s City Hall. Once inside, they dropped a banner and chanted demands that the city drop their appeal of a so far failed court challenge to the referendum to cancel the lease on Weelaunee Forest.

Police removed the banner, but this did not stop the rest of the protest

If the referendum reaches the ballot is is considered almost certain to pass. Contractors and especially investors might start pulling out at that point, seeing no chance of finishing.

On the 21st of March, pro-Palestine protesters took up positions on the Maitland Pedestrian Bridge over I-4 in Orlando, Florida. Once on top, they waved Palestinian flags and held up banners.

The police response was curiously strong although cops never directly confronted protesters. Two state troopers parked on the highway median facing northbound, and a third facing southbound. Two potential Federal law enforcement vehicles were spotted, plus two local law enforcement SUV’s were near the approach ramp to the bridge prior to the arrival of protesters.

On the 18th of March, so-called “Citizens defending Freedom in Florida” held a press conference across from the Polk County courthouse in Bartow, FL. They demanded that more books be removed from schools, announced they were filing a lawsuit demanding the same, and that they were demanding the Governor remove “uncooperative” school board members. The latter is an extension of his existing crusade against non-MAGA/non-Fundamentalist prosecutors in both Tampa and Orlando.

Florida is a “stand your ground” state but you would not know it from how Orlando bike cops treated Palestine marchers at Lake Eola on March 16, 2024. On that day, on our second lap around Lake Eola, an Israel supporter assaulted marchers but was apparently kept at bay by his own limited fighting skills. I did not see the initial incident but the aftermath was ugly. Not long after saying right into the camera that they were there to keep us safe, cops did something very different. The march was stopped, two people were being “questioned” by cops while they argued with one of the marchers. Unknown who the other two were. When one of the marchers told the cops they had been physically assaulted, cops responded that they only intervention they would make would be to arrest both sides for “fighting”-in a stand your ground state!

This is like the worst excesses of how some schools treat students harassed by bullies. This is intolerable in any school and is intolerable in the street too. Self-defense against physical violence is a human right. So it is at Lake Eola-and so it is in Gaza.

The cops did not proceed to arrest attempts, it seems their actual intent was to say “You are on your own. We stand with Israel and you are responsible for your own security.” Message received: if Zionists assault protesters, the arrival of cops is the arrival of more Zionists. Thus the common chant in Orlando “OPD, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same!”

Cops don’t keep us safe, we keep us safe!

Every Saturday, Palestinians and their friends gather in Orlando to protest for their homeland. This time around, on the 9th of March, protesters explicitly chanted “We are Resistance.”

Note that Gaza has been fighting a war of survival since October. In this context, “resistance” gains the meaning “resistance to genocide.”

Bike cops were present again in excessive numbers relative to the size of the march, but this time around they mostly behaved themselves

On the 8th of March, Youth Action Fund hosted the March for Our Dreams and FreedomRally in Orlando, Florida. One speaker celebrated the defeat of DeSantis’s main anti-trans bill in Tallahassee while another warned “I will not be erased.”

Women, transgender folks, the rest of the LGBTQ community, and the Latinx community were all well represented at the rally. At the conclusion of the rally, the crowd marched around Lake Eola, to chants of “Si Se Puede!” and “DeSantis has to go!”(latter on this video)