Archive for From the Trenches
May 5, 2009 at 10:40 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by pfm
-
At long last, we’ve completed our 35,000-word full report on last summer’s anarchist mobilizations against the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, complete with chronological maps and painstaking documentation. Updated from the feature in Rolling Thunder #7 and expanded to include the complete text of thirteen different participant narratives, this report offers a comprehensive history of the preparations for, events of, and aftermath following the protests, and an analysis of their context and implications.
Unlike virtually every other analysis yet published from the radical community, this one utilizes subsequent internal government reports, comparing them against a wide variety of other sources. We hope our investigation and the accompanying archive of personal testimonies will prove useful both to participants still trying to understand the events of this past summer and to organizers looking to derive lessons from them for the future.
In a nutshell, we hypothesize that the chief significance of the 2008 anti-convention mobilizations was in the precedents they might set for future organizing. Anarchists took the initiative to determine their own goals and strategies for the protests, establishing decentralized networks throughout the US far in advance. This enabled them to build relationships with other organizing groups and to coordinate their actions, effectively setting the tone for the protests at both conventions. At the same time, the protests were less attended than expected, perhaps as a result of the Obama campaign detracting from street-level participation in the antiwar movement. In this regard, they were the final act of an era that has now passed.
The RNC protests met with an almost unprecedented degree of state repression, which is still playing out today even as the political climate has changed. The federal government continued its strategy of gathering intelligence and entrapping stragglers, already familiar from attacks on environmentalists and animal rights activists. Local authorities focused on infiltration, profiling, and raids, ultimately arresting over 800 people and bringing conspiracy charges against organizers. Despite all this, they seem to have been remarkably unprepared to maintain order in the streets on the first day of the RNC, and their subsequent overreaction helped discredit them in the public eye. Most arrestees have gotten off scot-free; it remains to be seen how the ongoing felony cases will conclude. The outcome of the RNC 8 conspiracy trial in particular will indicate how sustainable we can expect the organizing model debuted at the 2008 conventions to be.
Going It Alone: Anarchist Action at the Democratic
and Republican National Conventions
We Are All Legal Workers: Legal Support at the RNC and After
Accounts from the Democratic
and Republican National Conventions
April 25, 2009 at 1:23 pm · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by ret marut
-
Over the past three decades, Earth First! has waged a life-or-death campaign to halt the destruction of the natural environment. Right now, the Earth First! Roadshow is halfway through a five month revival tour across the United States, sharing direct action skills, ecodefense history, and opportunities to get involved in protecting the wilderness. Consult their schedule here to see if they’ll be passing through your bioregion before the tour ends at this summer’s Earth First! rendezvous in Cascadia.
One of the acts on the roadshow, a puppet show teaching basic security culture skills, is especially timely in view of recent government efforts to entrap and frame environmental activists. We’ve obtained the script and an audio file, and are sharing them here to equip you to put on the puppet show yourself if you so desire. If your community could use a refresher in protecting your privacy and safety against snooping, evil-intentioned G-men, just build some puppets and adjust the show to your local needs! You can even use the audio recording if you prefer not to memorize the script yourself.
It’s all after the jump!
October 16, 2008 at 11:48 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by pfm
Crap Hound has long been an honorary member of the Paul F. Maul Artists’ Group and part of the CrimethInc. design process, and recently they have come out with a new issue sure to be of unmeasurable value to us, and anti-American anarchists everywhere. Crap Hound collects an unbelievable amount of reproducible artwork in each issue based around themes, and this new issue, #7, is the first part of the Church and State theme. If that sounds like a true bonanza, it’s because it is. You can order it from, and see pretty pictures of the insides at, Buyolympia.com. Here is their blurb:
The first all new issue of Crap Hound in eight years! Featuring 96 pages of glorious religious and patriotic imagery! Despite the nearly decade stretch between new issues, editor Sean Tejaratchi has been dutifully culling the choicest hight-contrast art, lovingly lifted from vintage catalogs, advertising, obscure books, and found ephemera.
September 6, 2008 at 11:22 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by b. traven
-
As of September 2 practically all of the predictions in our most recent feature, “What to Expect from the Conventions” have been borne out by reality. Despite millions of dollars of security, thousands of riot police and national guardsmen, and a dramatic series of preemptive raids and arrests, authorities were powerless to prevent massive direct action from disrupting St. Paul during yesterday’s Republican National Convention. The day began with hard blockades all around downtown and several different marches, including a black bloc that destroyed police cars and corporate property. A full nine hours of street conflicts ensued, involving a broad diversity of participants and tactics.
At both the DNC and RNC, anarchists showed themselves to have seized the initiative to determine the character of street demonstrations. The US anarchist movement has survived several years of repression and attempted co-optation, proving that the upsurge associated with the anti-globalization era was not a flash in the pan: if anything, we are stronger today than ten years ago.
Read our predictions and analysis here; absurd local media coverage here; corporate media coverage here; and legal updates here.
July 23, 2008 at 11:14 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by b. traven
-
Here’s a brief summary of this past week’s convergence, until someone completes a lengthier report. You’ll have to read about it here, if not in the minutes of the next FBI witch hunt (see supporteric.org), since neither the New York Times nor Fox News succeeded in getting their stooges on site and the local media could only string together the usual clichés.
This year’s CrimethInc. Convergence occurred 40 miles outside of Milwaukee, WI, on the outskirts of the tiny town of Waldo. It began with appropriate theatrics. As participants descended upon the campsite on the first day, so did a massive supercell—spawning a tornado touchdown a mere 15 miles away—and with it, 70 mph horizontal winds and rain that threatened to carry everyone off. The early arrivals lucky enough to experience the storm had to hold on for dear life to prevent the temporary structures from blowing away. Despite this challenge, everything was cleaned up and reconstructed in time for the opening circle at dusk.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 10, 2008 at 10:25 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by peter p
-
Froseph is going on tour this summer with the Wild Nettle Bookmobile, an anarchist literature and arts & crafts distributor from Winona, MN and his latest album “Deep Breath.” The usual CrimethInc. wares will be accompanied by harder-to-find arts & crafts projects, CDs, shirts, patches, and zines, along with monsterous amounts of free literature. Also available will be an exciting project put together by the CrimethInc. Gleeful Ludic Throng. It’s a new Hunter/Gatherer Audio Zine with a haunting sound and fancy letterpressed casing.
The purpose of the Deep Breath Tour is very simple: To stimulate the magic and intimacy already present in the communities being visited while teaching and learning with one another to build a stronger network of resistance to dominant culture — this is a big summer and there is a lot to talk about.
More info and tour dates after the jump.
May 25, 2008 at 8:04 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by b. traven
-
From the Depths now has a full website at www.fromthedepths.info. They are also returning to the road this summer, and eagerly seek booking assistance in the Midwest. Email booking@fromthedepths.info if you can help.
Tour dates after the jump.
May 2, 2008 at 10:03 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by b. traven
-
With a few exceptions, anarchists are not known for comedy. This is unfortunate; the vicissitudes of late capitalism are nothing if not farcical, and nothing is more persuasive than humor—to laugh at a joke is to acknowledge its premises.
While we have yet to unearth the great anarchist comic of our generation, we have discovered a ’zine that satirizes the North American anarchist subculture to great effect. Allow us to introduce the Super Happy Anarcho Fun Pages, the 12th issue of which has just been released. All twelve issues are freely available online, courtesy of www.tangledwilderness.org.
More comics, broken down by subject, after the jump »
April 28, 2008 at 7:34 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by peter p
-
Two years ago we hosted the CrimethInc. Convergence in our town, Winona Minnesota. During that gathering, we attempted to organize Winona’s first Really Really Free Market. Foolishly, we had only promoted this ‘Free Market to the local liberal scene and circulated the news amongst our DIY community. That was a mistake—out of town participants outnumbered locals 20 to 1, our local liberal community didn’t come through, and all the items available at the ‘Free Market would only have appealed to DIY kids anyway. Though we considered that a defeat, we knew we’d try it again sometime.
Find out what happened this time.
March 28, 2008 at 3:31 pm · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by peter p
For the past four years, we’ve had the essay “Wasted Indeed” available in half-sized zine format through our downloads section. The tract originally appeared in Inside Front #∞—this time, we’ve included the original companion piece “An anarcho-primitivist case for straight edge.” In our experience stocking literature tables, these texts have been widely well-received from drinkers and non-drinkers alike (See Matt Power’s Article in Harpers ) and this redesign and addition is long overdue. You will find the new has replaced the old in the Zine Downloads and is accompanied by a reading version for those maniacs who might choose pixels over paper.
February 12, 2008 at 1:13 pm · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by b. traven
Here’s a story from a correspondent in Texas, who was canned for running material from Days of War, Nights of Love in a newspaper column—a humorous illustration of the hypocrisy and pettiness common in universities. Apparently, it is acceptable to argue in favor of plagiarism, but not to actually plagiarize anything; it is unacceptable to use text without citing sources, but it is perfectly standard to print outright falsehoods and censor the parties thus injured. We trust the erstwhile columnist, blessed with such absurd adversaries, is headed for finer things and brighter pastures.
His story after the jump.
November 3, 2007 at 9:25 pm · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by ret marut
Gentle reader, if you share our interest in long-term and effective struggle against the powers that be, let us direct your attention to The Center for Strategic Anarchy, a frequently updated online resource. The Center is a think tank dedicated to identifying and commenting upon important developments in global economics, culture, and politics, to equip anarchists to think strategically when choosing where and how to take on the status quo.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 25, 2007 at 11:42 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by ret marut
-
Tactical Feedback from the Streets of Georgetown, October 19, 2007
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 outset, none of us were involved in the organization leading up to the march, only in the action itself. We’ll leave it to others to derive and share specific lessons from the organizing process.
For more background: www.octoberrebellion.org -:- youtube footage
Read the rest of this entry »
August 3, 2007 at 12:22 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by ret marut
-
Those who enjoyed the feature article on crimethinc.com detailing how to organize a successful Really Really Free Market will be pleased to learn that the most recent ‘Free Market in New York City went off without a hitch! This article includes a brief report and links to photographs. Good luck to all those endeavoring to organize ‘Free Markets in smaller cities and neighborhoods around the country—remember, if they can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere!
July 30, 2007 at 11:38 am · Filed under From the Trenches, posted by pfm
In the next week, we’ll have our own recollections and coverage from the just completed 2007 CrimethInc. Convergence. For now, here is a report from the Athens News:
An un-permitted parade of more than 150 costumed anarchists and their supporters filled North Court Street Saturday night. They barricaded the West State Street intersection and danced, chanted, climbed light poles, banged on objects and fire danced before police dispersed the crowd, using squad cars and pepper spray.
“We’re just having fun,” one marcher told a bystander who asked what they were protesting.
Read the rest of this entry »
Older Entries »
