Archive for March, 2011
March 30, 2011 at 9:04 am · Filed under Hot Off the Presses, posted by pfm
For years, we’ve searched for a way people could watch our movies over the internet in the quality they deserve, rather than just pirating terrible low-quality versions. Finally, we’ve set up the CrimethInc. Emergency Broadcast System, an online movie-viewing theater. Four movies are currently available on the page: pickAxe, Breaking the Spell, The Miami Model, and Subversive Action Films‘ excellent The Chicago Conspiracy. The site is quite rudimentary right now, but we plan on having Spanish-subtitled versions up soon, adding more features, and expanding the collection as times goes on.
The first three of these are also available on our Guerilla Film Series DVD, along with five other video shorts; The Chicago Conspiracy is also available on DVD from the directors. We urge viewers to support the filmmakers who are sharing their work by buying their DVDs or donating to them: filmmaking is one of the most expensive mediums, and without financial support we can expect fewer and lower quality radical movies in the future, at precisely the time that more are needed.
Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page for more information, and enjoy these four finely-crafted documentary films.
March 29, 2011 at 9:33 am · Filed under Internal Memos, posted by pfm
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In just a couple days, we’ll unveil our newest round of projects—some of our most ambitious in several years. But first, we’d like to offer a glimpse into our internal discussions. We’ve been trying to figure out how to handle our current financial difficulties while rendering our materials more widely accessible; we think we’ve hit upon a solution, but we’ll need your support to make it work.
Read on after the jump.
March 18, 2011 at 9:14 am · Filed under Calling All Anarchists, posted by peter p
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Steal Something from Work Day 2011 is just around the corner—this coming April 15! To prepare for it, you could print out copies of Heist, our full-length Journal of Workplace Reappropriation, to sneak into all the locker rooms and dish pits in your area. You could forward links to the original Steal Something from Work Day video and the impressive Submedia follow-up to all your friends and family, if perhaps not your coworkers. There’s even a Facebook page you could join.
Or you could contact our friends at Wild Nettle Distribution, who will freely send you STEAL SOMETHING FROM WORK DAY stickers to spread the word where you live. They’ll be sending out packs of 25-50 at no cost—all you have to do is email distro@wildnettle.com. Don’t forget to include a name and address; donations help, but are not mandatory. If you’d like more than 50 stickers, please help cover printing and shipping costs; for example, a $10 donation for 100 stickers would be great. Perhaps you could go in on a big package with others in your town? You can donate by sending money via Paypal to distro@wildnettle.com. Unfortunately, Wild Nettle can’t afford to send international packages for free, so contact them if you live outside the US.
Adventurous tales of workplace theft after the jump!
March 14, 2011 at 10:26 am · Filed under Hot Off the Presses, posted by pfm
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During last June’s G20 protests, the Canadian government brought trumped up conspiracy charges against our friends Test Their Logik, accusing the hip hop duo of causing the riot that destroyed downtown with their hit video “Crash the Meeting.” The two were imprisoned, then forbidden contact upon release, as part of a massive campaign of repression that ultimately targeted over 1000 people.
In response, we released a collection of their material as a benefit for G20 defendants. Now that the prosecutors have admitted that their charges were groundless and dropped their no-contact injunction, Test Their Logik are back in action and coming harder than ever. Featuring a cameo by fan Glenn Beck of Fox News, their new video “Conspiracy Rap” sends a big fuck you to the ones who tried to stop them and offers a preview of their first official album, which we’ll be helping them release this May. Like “Crash The Meeting,” this video was produced by Anarkid, a self-taught multi-media warrior and VJ from Montreal bent on radicalizing the rave scene.
Test Their Logik will be touring extensively this spring to support the release of their new album, showing that resistance cannot be stopped by any amount of repression. Meanwhile, over a dozen people still face serious charges as part of the same conspiracy rap the Canadian government tried to pin on Test Their Logik; the Guelph Anarchist Black Cross has released this zine to publicize their situation, which we strongly encourage you to print out and distribute.
Check out their tour dates after the jump.
March 10, 2011 at 8:28 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by pfm
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Since February 15, the capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin has been at the center of a storm of popular protest against proposed austerity measures including anti-union legislation. Hundreds of people occupied the building until March 3, touching off other actions around the state, including an ongoing university occupation in Milwaukee that began March 2.
On March 9, while Senate Democrats were absent in protest, Wisconsin’s Republican Senators passed a bill stripping public-sector unions of collective bargaining rights. In response, thousands returned to the capitol building, forcing open windows and pushing past state patrolmen to reenter and occupy it. Police eventually gave up attempting to control the crowds, and the announcement went out that they would not remove demonstrators from the building despite the court order that had forced the end of the previous occupation. At the high point on Wednesday evening, several thousand people filled the first three floors of the building entirely; after midnight, a few hundred still remained, despite the usual pleas from authoritarian organizers for people to leave.
Unions are legally prohibited from calling for a general strike, but there has been much talk of striking. In any case, a series of protests are planned for the next several days. In addition to this list of demonstrations Thursday morning, Thursday evening a flash mob is planned for the university library in Madison at 10 pm, Saturday farmers will drive their tractors into Madison in protest, and it’s rumored that teaching assistants will go on strike on Monday when the state contract with the Teaching Assistants’ Association expires.
Events are still unfolding in Wisconsin, and may yet escalate further. But we can already draw some conclusions from them, which can guide us in the months ahead–for Wisconsin is surely only the first of many states that will see public outrage over austerity measures.
Read our full report and analysis.
March 5, 2011 at 12:46 pm · Filed under Hot Off the Presses, posted by b. traven
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As seen in Wisconsin, inside and outside the occupation of the capitol building in Madison in protest against new government austerity measures, we’ve designed a new poster heralding the downfall of capitalism.
Download PDF : 864kb
To be clear, we’re not certain that capitalism is about to collapse. However, we’re convinced that it is doomed–such a volatile and destructive system cannot possibly last forever–and that it is entering a new phase of crisis. All the old peace treaties are coming to an end: unions have been outflanked by globalization, while the Fordist compromise of higher wages for obedient workforces has given way in the course of the transition to a service-based economy. These peace treaties were not simply ways to pacify resistance movements–they also served to perpetuate capitalism itself. Without the higher wages won by the old labor movement, for example, consumers can’t afford to keep rates of profit up for capitalists. Consequently, at the moment of its worldwide triumph, capitalism has run out of ways to expand, heralding a new period of instability. The next several years will surely be marked by more upheavals like the ones in Greece and Egypt; these may even reach the United States.
In that context, a poster like this is really an attempt to cast a spell, to convey a vote of no confidence in capitalism in hopes that it will be infectious. If capitalism is indeed entering a period of crisis, anarchists must not miss this opportunity to spread a vision of an alternative. It is precisely before the upheavals that we can do this most effectively: people’s idea of what is possible can change very quickly in the midst of turmoil, but their idea of what is desirable often changes much more slowly. If we miss this opportunity, we may see yet another phase of revolutionary struggles fought merely for “better democracy”–wasting an opportunity that will not come again for a generation. Therefore, we invite you to join us in covering the walls of North America with posters like this, and to brainstorm ways to escalate the conflict that point towards real liberation.
We’ve been working feverishly on further projects to this end, which we will unveil shortly.
More after the jump.
