Friday, October 19, over two hundred people staged an unpermitted march in one of the expensive shopping districts of Washington, D.C. to manifest opposition to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. To our knowledge, this was probably the most—if not only—effective use of the black bloc tactic in Washington, D.C. since the Presidential Inauguration in 2005. This is promising, given the opportunities for mass action coming up in 2008. At the same time, there were some things that could have been improved, which we chalk up to inexperience and the usual internal dissension; in the interests of constructive criticism, we’ll chiefly be reviewing those here.
To disclose the limitations of this analysis at the out... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The plan was all over the place from the beginning!
It is early in the summer of 2010 and CrimethInc. agents have not yet revealed the location of the the summer gathering that has occurred annually for almost a decade; on the heels of a controversial disruption, and after reaching a plateau of opportunities and variations on the model itself, the CrimethInc. Experimental Committee is researching objectives for the model that would eventually become the events of August 2010. It is late evening and dusk has just turned to night. The air is humid and still. Clouds roll on the horizon.
In a moment of stasis while researching and revising our plan for August 2010—surrounded by notes, maps, newspaper clippings, and antiquities from our ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We are publishing one more analysis from participants in the blockade of the Portland facilities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After our previous reports, “The ICE Age Is Over: Reflections from the ICE Blockades” and “Occupy ICE Portland: Policing Revolution?” we reached out to other participants for an additional perspective on the situation. As we emphasized before, our collective has no official position on issues internal to the occupation; we are simply passing on the reports of anarchists who are involved. We urge you to support those arrested in the ICE blockades and participate in the struggle for a world without borders or white supremacy.
A nebulous line exists between reality and dreams. ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We’ve received the following report from participants in the occupation around the Portland facilities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While our collective has no official position on issues internal to the occupation, we consider it important to promote constructive conversations about power dynamics within our movements and the ways that they can impose limits on what we can accomplish together. For more material on this subject, consult our earlier report, “The ICE Age Is Over: Reflections from the ICE Blockades.” Shortly, for the sake of amplifying multiple perspectives, we will add one more text from Portland.
“Criticize the comrade, take a criticism from the comrade.” -Bambu
&ldquo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The story goes that the very first gathering of Occupy Wall Street began as an old-fashioned top-down rally with speakers droning on—until a Greek student (and perhaps—an anarchist?) interrupted it and demanded that they hold a proper horizontal assembly instead. She and some of the youngsters in attendance sat down in a circle on the other side of the plaza and began holding a meeting using consensus process. One by one, people trickled over from the audience that had been listening to speakers and joined the circle. It was August 2, 2011.
Here, in the origin myth of the Occupy Movement, we encounter a fundamental ambiguity in its relationship to organization. We can understand this shift to consensus process as the adoption o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) It is never acceptable to give information about any other person without his or her express consent. It cannot be emphasized enough that informing to the government is always a serious matter, whether it is a question of a high profile defendant snitching on his comrades or an acquaintance of law-abiding activists answering a seemingly harmless question. The primary goal of the government in any political case is not to put any one defendant in prison but to obtain information with which to map radical communities, with the ultimate goal of repressing and controlling those communities. The most minor piece of trivia may serve to jeopardize a person’s life, whether or not they have ever broken any law.
On December 21, Operation Backf... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Two weeks ago, thousands of French police attacked the ZAD—the Zone a Défendre (Zone To Defend)—an occupied area in which the French government tried for decades to build a widely unpopular airport. Yet every conflict conceals other conflicts within it. Inside the movement, there have been bitter differences about how to deal with power dynamics, whether to negotiate with the authorities, and how to resist the divide-and-conquer tactics of the state.
In the US, we have watched the struggle around the ZAD without presuming to understand all the factors at play. Yet the debates taking place there have spilled over to our side of the Atlantic as well. In hopes of helping other rebels who may confront similar challenges to t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Today, in Charlottesville, Virginia, participants in a fascist rally did what they have been threatening to do for a long time, driving a car into a crowd and murdering at least one person.
We are not surprised.
At Standing Rock in November, police nearly blew off the arm of 21-year-old Sophia Wilanksy with a concussion grenade.
The North Dakota legislature responded not by condemning police violence, but by introducing a bill that would make it legal for drivers to run over protesters.
At an anti-fascist demonstration in Seattle in January, coinciding with Trump’s inauguration, an alt-right assaulter shot Hex, an unarmed anti-fascist protester and IWW member, in the stomach, sending him to the hospital for weeks. Police initially... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “A woman can never be too rich or too thin.”
The anorexic and the body builder are both pursuing ideals that recede before them. Once one starts to measure oneself against a one-dimensional standard, such as strength or slimness, too much is never enough: the goal is always ahead of you, no matter how far you go. These ideals cannot be reached in this world… but if you follow them far enough, they can lead you out of it, into the abyss which is their true domain — as Arnold Schwarznegger’s early heart problems, and the suicides of our rock stars and sex symbols, clearly attest.
It’s true that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood actresses, and others like them were practically factory farmed by this co... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Foreword by CrimethInc.
A century ago, on November 7, 1917, the Bolshevik seizure of power got underway in revolutionary Russia. Following up our compilation of voices who spoke out against the rise of Soviet totalitarianism, “Restless Specters of the Anarchist Dead,” we present this translation of a text that appeared today in Catalan.[1] It offers a detailed timeline of the Bolshevik crackdown on revolutionary currents in Russia, starting before the so-called October Revolution and running up to the treaty between Stalin and Hitler.
The current text is no more than a summary, a small reminder of a historical disaster that still resonates in our struggles today. This October 2017, a hundred years later, it falls on us to re... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We spent months organizing and fundraising. Everything we did leading up to the gathering seemed to fall right into place. A week before the convergence was to start, two kids showed up early to help out and explore the city. They turned out to be amazing individuals with whom I hope to work again soon. We spent the following week gathering food items and other miscellaneous necessaries. Groups and individuals started to show up as early as Wednesday. Everyone helped out around the house where we were staying, which I found quite refreshing. By night, we traded tales of our adventures traveling to Des Moines, and plotted new ones for the days that would follow. This was especially interesting because unlike similar convergences, people were... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In solidarity with those in China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere who are facing the coronavirus outbreak and the bureaucratic nightmare that accompanies it, our Brazilian comrades have updated a poster they made years ago in response to environmental disasters in Latin America. We present it here in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Italian.
The earthquake in Puerto Rico—the fires in Australia, Brazil, and on the West Coast of the United States—the coronavirus in China and all around the world: all of these catastrophes are compounded by the power structures that concentrate power in a few hands and value the lives of the privileged few above everyone else. Now our rulers are telling us that they are the only ones qualified to manag... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) One year ago, with the blessing of Donald Trump, Turkish forces invaded Rojava seeking to perpetrate ethnic cleansing in order to forcibly resettle the area, committing summary executions and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Since 2012, the autonomous region of Rojava had hosted a multi-ethnic experiment in self-determination and women’s autonomy while fighting the Islamic State (ISIS). Anarchists participated in resisting the Turkish invasion, some as combat medics on the ground in Syria and others as part of an international solidarity campaign. To this day, Turkish forces continue to occupy a swath of territory in Syria, but they were blocked from conquering the entire region.
Anarchists from around the world have been ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) A year ago, the Russian Federal Security Service—the FSB—initiated a wave of repression, arresting and brutally torturing anarchists in order to force them to sign false statements admitting to participating in a supposed terrorist group invented by the Russian authorities. The ensuing crackdowns put tremendous pressure on anarchists around Russia; you can learn more about the cases and solidarity efforts here. Today, a young Russian anarchist died in an attack on the FSB headquarters in Arkhangelsk. The FSB has gotten its wish, bullying young Russians into carrying out bombings rather than engaging in public organizing. Below, we present a rough translation of the initial report from Russian anarchists, including the young man&... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Since October 18, a full-scale uprising has unfolded in Chili as people of all walks of life come together to protest austerity measures, fight police repression, destroy the symbols of capitalism, and defy a military occupation reminiscent of the years of the dictatorship. The following interview and firsthand accounts explore the character of the uprising and the experiences of those on its front lines.
This is part of a global wave of revolts unfolding in Haiti, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq, Hong Kong, Honduras, Catalunya, and elsewhere. The uprising in Chili was sparked in part by a social movement in Ecuador that occupied the parliament and forced the government to withdraw planned austerity measures. There are signs of the momentum spreading... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On July 13, Willem Van Spronsen was killed by police while apparently taking action to disable the fleet of busses that serve the Northwest Detention Center, a private immigration detainment facility. His final statement, reproduced below, conveys that he was acting in response to the continuous raids and deportations carried out by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). His action occurred on the one-year anniversary of a hunger strike inside the Northwest Detention Center and an encampment outside.
We understand why Willem Van Spronsen decided to give his life to interrupt the violence that is perpetrated against undocumented people in the United States every day.
It is not hyperbole to say that the ICE raids are targeting our frien... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) POPSEC is a series drawing on popular media to convey important security lessons—how to emulate best practices, analyze mistakes, and strive not to repeat errors. Mad Max: Fury Road is full of both good and bad examples of security practices. While the following contains all kinds of spoilers, it’s also full of life lessons we can draw from scrutinizing the successes and mishaps on the Fury Road.
Lesson 1: If You Liked It then You Should Have Put a Lock On It
Now, of course it’s wrong to keep women locked in a vault like property, but there’s an important lesson to be learned from Immortan Joe’s objectification of women and subsequent failure to “keep them in their place”: if you care about some... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In dominant American discourse, white people are always the protagonists. Their problems and dilemmas, pleasures and pain, are treated as everyone’s primary concern. Even if you are not included in this narrative, you’re forced to reckon with it. While we anarchists would like to see a world in which no character is a caricature, in which people are not divided by race and only take delight in our differences, we are all currently obliged to pay attention to the problems of white people because, in their pain, they frequently lash out at those they perceive as their enemies. The opioid crisis is a prime example.
In an interview on National Public Radio, author Margaret Talbot describes a scene she witnessed at a softball practi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) What kind of world do the G20 leaders want to create? They showed us a sneak preview at the G20 summit in Toronto last June: a billion-dollar security budget, 20,000 security personnel, secret laws, pre-dawn house raids, indiscriminate attacks with batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. Over 1100 people were arrested, most of whom were never charged.
If this is the future, who can blame people for resisting?
Since the G20 protests, we’ve waited breathlessly for a comprehensive account of the charges and investigations stemming from the summit. Despairing of finding one, we finally prepared this report. It’s not all-inclusive; there is a tremendous amount to keep up with, and many important details are still being forcefully wit... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) A series of fierce protests broke out all around Belarus in February 2017, continuing throughout March and shaking the foundations of Lukashenko’s decades-old rule. Anarchists were at the forefront, radicalizing both the street confrontations and the proposals advanced by the movement; anarchist tactics spread to many other participants, who joined anarchists in pushing back against aggressive police repression. We interviewed Belarusian anarchists who participated in the movement to prepare this full report.
The Belorussian president Alexander Lukashenko first came to power in 1994; he won his fifth mandate in Fall 2015. He has become notorious for violently suppressing social movements and any kind of opposition. The small yet vibr... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Nowadays, democracy rules the world. Communism is long dead, elections are taking place even in Afghanistan and Iraq, and world leaders are meeting to plan the “global community” we hear so much about. So why isn’t everybody happy, finally? For that matter—why do so few of the eligible voters in the United States, the world’s flagship democracy, even bother to vote?
Could it be that democracy, long the catchword of every revolution and rebellion, is simply not democratic enough? What could be the problem?
Every little child can grow up to be President.
No, they can’t. Being President means occupying a position of hierarchical power, just like being a billionaire: for every person who is President, th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) These narratives accompany Breaking and Entering a New World, the story of the occupation of a derelict building in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on November 12–13, 2011.
I.
You’ve been passing the empty warehouse almost daily over the nine years you’ve lived in this town. Giant windows comprise the whole front façade of the building, displaying the dusty remains of some long-abandoned showroom, and to the right a short driveway buts into a flaking silver garage door. You’ve peered in those grimy windows, squinting to see what lies through the empty doorway in the wall of the front room visible to passersby like yourself. Biking home on warm summer nights you’ve wondered how a prominent spot on the mai... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On August 12, Charlottesville fascist Jason Kessler attempted to hold the sequel to last year’s “Unite the Right” rally in Washington, DC. It did not go well for him. In the end, 2000 police struggled to protect two dozen fascists from thousands of anti-fascists and other foes of tyranny. To get some perspective on these events, we spoke with David Thurston—arts director for No Justice No Pride, a member of the steering committee of the DMV’s Movement for Black Lives, and a core organizer with Resist This—and also with an anonymous anarchist involved in organizing the anti-fascist bloc, among other aspects of the mobilization.
The US government spent $2.6 million to force the fascist rally upon the peopl... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This report details the trials following the arson of a police car set on fire in May 2016 during the upheaval against the Loi Travail in France, and all the expressions of solidarity that accompanied them—including a fresh outbreak of arsons against police infrastructure.
Months pass, years pass, yet the situation in France remains unstable as the rhythm of social and political struggles accelerates. The events we will describe here are a consequence of the political situation in France and in Europe as a whole: the repercussions of the 2008 international financial crisis are still noticeable in our daily lives, European governments and their security policies can’t contain or palliate the “refugee crisis,” the ISI... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The week of demonstrations against the G20 summit in Hamburg got off to a telling start on Sunday. A lengthy court battle culminated with the highest court in Germany upholding the right of the anticapitalist camp to set up in Hamburg. Yet when they attempted to do so, the police blocked access to the park, directly violating the court ruling, then carried out a brutal raid in which several hundred riot police surrounded and brutalized campers and confiscated their belongings. The following firsthand account illustrates the world that the G20 summit in Hamburg represents—a world in which “peaceful protest” and court proceedings exist only to distract the naïve, while the whims of security forces are the law of the lan... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Police raided more than 20 apartments, collectives, and projects around Germany in the early hours of December 5 in a new wave of repression following their unsuccessful attempts to brutally suppress demonstrations against the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg. The “Soko Schwarzer Block,“ the special police commission called “black bloc“ that was formed after the G20, officially announced that the searches pertained to an incident during the G20 at Rondenbarg trailer park—in which the police trapped and attacked a crowd, injuring many people. Solidarity actions and demonstrations responding to the raids took place immediately in Hannover, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Hamburg, Flensburg, Göttingen, and Berlin.
Fabio, a p... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) With fascism on the rise both in the United States and Europe, it’s a good time to remind everyone of Inglourious Basterds. This movie is full of people kicking Nazi ass and offers a wealth of entertaining operational security lessons. The following text is packed with both spoilers and important takeaways from the film.
Lesson 1: Don’t put your trust in someone who has everything to lose from helping you and nothing to gain.
The opening scene of Inglourious Basterds features a confrontation between a Nazi officer and a French dairy farmer who is hiding a Jewish family under his house. The Jews have entrusted their safety to the dairy farmer because, prior to the German occupation of France, he was one of their neighbors. Th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On June 30, on a day of nationwide demonstrations against the brutality of ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and borders in general, fascists mobilized around the United States to march through downtown Portland protected by a massive phalanx of riot police. The ensuing clashes were reminiscent of the fascist mobilizations of 2017—especially April 15 in Berkeley and June 4 in Portland—but even more egregiously violent. Portland police already wrote the playbook on coordinating with fascists, but this time they opened their lines to let the fascists charge demonstrators, then attacked those the fascists had just attacked. From now on, every movement that attempts to come to grips with the violence of the state—su... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) LIE and CHEAT.
Hypocrisy, The will to a system is the will to a lie.
Today it is impossible to avoid hypocrisy in any struggle against the status quo.
The political and economic structures are constructed so that it is practically impossible to avoid being implicated in their workings. Today, whatever a man thinks of the employment opportunities available to him or of our economic system itself, he has almost no choice except to work if he does not want to starve to death or die of an illness for which he could not afford health care. If he does not believe in material property, he still has no choice but to buy all the food and clothing he needs and to buy or rent living space (that is, if he is not ready to live at odds with our ve... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Note from CrimethInc.
Anarchists such as David Graeber and Cindy Milstein have used the term “prefigurative politics” to describe the anarchist principle that the ways we organize in the present should reflect the sort of society we hope to create in the future. Yet the concept of prefiguration is drawn from a Christian theology that presumes a future salvation so certain that it radiates backward through time, generating its own precursors. Many Marxists, too, see history as the inevitable unfolding of an ordained process—a sort of secular second coming of Christian millenarianism. Most anarchists, by contrast, take nothing for granted about the future, especially in today’s context of ecological collapse—s... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)