Saturday, August 17th at 2am

There was an attack on the Autonomous Zone, an info shop and community center in Chicago, and one of its collective members, by 5 self-proclaimed 77 Street Punks, a violently homophobic and racist gang with ties to organized white supremacist hate groups. The estimated age range of the attackers is late teens to early twenties. Four males, three blondes and one brown haired, as well as one brown haired woman. These were not skinheads.

The confrontation began with the yelling of anti-gay epitaphs, such as, Faggots! When hearing this, the collective member stepped outside in order to investigate. The fascist punks then questioned whether the Azone was, a bunch of anarchists or something? When politely told that, some of us are. One of the males punched the collective member in the face, only slightly injuring them since they were able to move back in time to avoid a true collision. The other two blond men began braking the azone windows. At that, the collective member ran into the Azone space and was pelted with milk crates that had been holding free books. As the A-zone member went further into the space looking for a self-defense weapon they were charged at by 3 or 4 of the 77 Street Punks. The anarchist then picked up a big orange chair and was able to swing, hit and push all the attackers out the front door. During the attack two of the large front display windows were broken. A police squad car passing by at the time arrested three of the five attackers for vandalism and assault.

We believe the Autonomous Zone was attacked for being anarchist and supporting the Queer Liberation struggle. As having openly queer collective members. The Azone has actively made the connection between Queer Liberation and Anarchism.

The Autonomous Zone hosts a weekly Queer Space every Wednesday night. 7PM-Midnight. All events are free and open to all gender expressions and sexual orientations. Queer Space is organized by Queerzone, a subcollective of the Autonomous Zone. Queerzone is a multi-racial, multi-gender, class-conscious, queer and genderqueer affinity group run on anti-authoritarian principals, such as consensus decision making. Queer Space is intended to be used for building community, fostering a radical queer culture, bridging the gaps between the many different queer, genderqueer and Trans communities.

Queer Space events in the past have included film nights, multimedia, music, a Bi/Pan/Omni Night, a nonleather fetish night, political discussion on topics such as Radical Nonmonogamy, history lesson on 1982 pride parade. Future events include Queer Space Unplugged, a Queer Hip-Hop Show, Trans Night, Safer Sex Workshops and STD/AIDS awareness free school, Art & Propaganda Gallery.

The Autonomous Zone will not back down. We will continue to host Queer events, struggle for queer liberation and fight against homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, misogyny, racism and other forms of bigotry. We will defend ourselves and our community.

WE NEED YOUR HELP. We are having an emergency benefit on Saturday, August 31st @ the Autonomous Zone located at 2129 N. Milwaukee Ave. $5 or more, absolutely no one turned away for lack of funds. The money will go towards fixing the window as well as Azone rent. Public Transportation: Western or California Blue Line stops, Milwaukee Bus or the Western Bus (which actually runs all night) and our new phone number is:
(773) 235-7370, or emails to the collective can be sent to collective@azone.org