: Under The Shell: After G20 Arrests And FBI Raid, Tortuga Anarchists On Edge

Elliott Madison opened the door with a lit cigarette between his fingers and invited me into his living room, which is warmly lit, topped with an antique tin ceiling and has a portrait of anarchist founding father Mikhail Bakunin hanging on the wall.

But when he shut the front door behind us, it did not quite close. It’s the same door that was kicked in by the first of 20 FBI agents at six in the morning on Oct. 1, after which they raced up and down the stairs, guns drawn, to search the apartment.

The jazz on the radio preceded my arrival and Madison, who has a long dark pony tail and a Trotsky approach to facial hair, lit up another cigarette and prepared to retell his story. While he had been politically active in circles far outside the mainstream for many decades, Madison insists he committed no crime, even as he faces seven years in prison for a Twitter message he is alleged to have sent during the G20 protests in Pittsburgh.

Jackson Heights Anarchism
Madison and his wife Elena, who works as an urban planner, bought the house six years ago for a bargain after the City learned it was being used as an illegal boarding house.

“Right in this living room, there were three different rooms for people,” said Madison. His own living arrangements, while more comfortable, are no less unconventional. A self-described anarchist, Madison said when he moved to Jackson Heights, he wanted to live the philosophical ideals he had pondered since high school.

“It was an experiment in a better way to live,” he said. So he and Elena used the property to house a commune based on the principles of collectivist anarchism, which he argues provide the building blocks for creating more meaningful relationships between people.

The collective, which began in Astoria a year before the move to Jackson Heights, is now thriving. The house itself is nondescript, located half a block south of Northern Boulevard. But since the purchase, the property has been transformed inside and out, with a vibrant garden in the front lawn, a greenhouse in the back, and a system of solar panels and rainwater collectors on the roof. The interior is decorated with both courtly and naturalist flourishes, like the pair of antique chairs that sit alongside a giant plant that climbs to the ceiling in front of the large window facing the street.

It’s called the Tortuga house, which means turtle in Spanish, to avoid the decidedly un-anarchist convention of “Elliott’s house,” which would otherwise fill the linguistic void.

Madison added that the turtle is a good metaphor for shelter and home. Aside from the symbolism, Tortuga actually houses plenty of turtles, along with birds (including a finch which escaped outside during the raid and died), a dog adopted “off death row,” as well as six other human residents and a menagerie of international guests.

What the house does not contain is its inhabitant’s computers, cell phones, writings, books, passports and other miscellaneous items taken by the Joint Terrorist Taskforce.

Principles in Action
In addition to his writing career, Madison works a regular job as a social worker for the Fountain House in Manhattan. He cares for mentally ill people and says he loves the job because the organization uses progressive therapies and lets the employees come to a consensus about new strategies.

It’s no coincidence that these are the same principles he espouses in his home life. While he and his wife pay the majority of the mortgage, others pitch in money or work on projects around the house, focusing on their abilities.

“I love my job and people who live here should love their jobs,” Madison said, “so what else would I spend my money on?”

This central tenet of Anarchism is called “mutual aid,” in which everyone contributes what he or she can and uses what he or she needs. If that sounds a lot like communism, the next tenet clearly distinguishes the two ideologies.

Madison referred to it is as “free association,” but it basically means anyone is free to leave at any time. “People who come to live in Tortuga house, hung out in Tortuga house, [but] they can leave and move on with their lives” said Madison. “You can’t be an anarchist and try to control people.”

“Anarchists disagree on most things,” he added, explaining that their commune’s style and structure need not be a model for others. “But the principles of mutual aid and free association are not in dispute.”

To resolve differences, they make decisions by consensus. A change is not made unless everyone is “at least okay with it.”

For example, when Madison wanted to compost the waste from the toilet, there were members of the group who voiced a resounding “no,” and the idea was scrapped.

When he advocates for anarchy, Madison sees it as a reconsideration of basic living structures. “Our dream is that the City would have all sorts of communes and systems. There were squatters in the 80s, the old co-ops of the 30s, and many other models” said Madison, “And having lived it 24/7 for years, I think it’s very doable.”

“I don’t think of myself as an exception. I drive a Dodge Caravan, I have old parents, nieces, nephews…I take the subway, I bitch about the fare hikes, but I am also an anarchist. I believe this society is corrupt and toxic and built on greed, and it turns people into oppressors and oppressed,” said Madison. “When I meet my neighbors, some know me as an anarchist, but others know me as the guy who brings the soccer balls to Play Street.”

Arrests & The Raid
Madison said he was assisting the protestors at the G20 summit in September with a group called Tin Can Comms Collective, which describes itself as “a collection of communication rebels seeking to provide useful free tools for activists fighting the State and Capitalism.”

Madison and fellow member of Tortuga house were arrested by Pennsylvania State police during the protest and charged with hindering prosecution, criminal use of a telecommunication facility and possessing criminal instruments, which carry stiff maximum sentences.

While the details and evidence of the Grand Jury investigation remain sealed, Madison and his lawyer say the charges stem from a social networking site called Twitter, which he allegedly used to relay information about police movement to protestors. Madison denies the charges, but also insists they are not illegal and that the arrest and subsequent raids are either intimidation or incompetence on the part of the government.

Madison has his first court date for the Pennsylvania charges on Nov. 17.

A week after that arrest, the FBI raided the Tortuga house and spent 16 hours removing items from the house.

“I was much happier a month ago,” said Madison, “Now I don’t like my life. It’s frightening and expensive. They took all my writing and do I want to just wait three years to get my computer back? Or do I go out and spend money replacing my stuff?”

Martin Stolar, who is representing Madison, received a temporary injunction to keep authorities from going through the items seized by the FBI until Oct. 26, when the judge will decide how the case will continue.

“It’s all smoke and mirrors at this point,” said Madison. “As an anarchist, I don’t trust the State and you can see the reasons.”

The Justice Department had no comment.

Reach Reporter Vladic Ravich at vravich@queenstribune.com or call (718) 357-7400, Ext. 121.