Towards that end, we present Fighting in the New Terrain: What’s Changed since the 20th Century, the product of months of discussion. We hope that this will inspire further analysis and strategizing, and we invite you to share your feedback with us.

A “spin-off” of Days of War, Nights of Love has recently been published in Danish. It’s not just a translation of the original material, but a new version with a lot of original content, a new design, and new illustrations. The book is available via the website www.tankekriminalitet.tk or in underground shops in Denmark. Most of the original contents are included and expanded; the new articles explore child-rearing, street art, the education system, and vegetarianism.

In Brazil, Protopia is translating CrimethInc. books into Brazilian Portuguese. They have already translated Days of War, Nights of Love and Expect Resistance, and are currently midway through Recipes for Disaster. All the texts are available on the Protopia website, and they plan to print Days of War, Nights of Love through a local anarchist publisher, Deriva, soon. Lots of texts by Protopia’s own agents and others are available on their website as well.

Since our last update about German-language CrimethInc. projects, our gender poster has appeared in German [PDF, 322kb] as well, and in Spanish [PDF, 363kb]. We reported on the Icelandic translation of Days of War, Nights of Love when it was printed in 2006. An abridged Italian translation of Recipes for Disaster, Ricette per il Caos [PDF, 3.29MB], was published around the same time and is now available online.

A Czech CrimethInc. group has long maintained websites here and here. A CrimethInc. cell in South Africa maintains a website here. An old Spanish-language CrimethInc. site is archived on this website; you can find our humorous dishwashing poster in Spanish here. A Finnish translation of our pamphlet “Beyond Democracy” appeared here. Various texts have appeared in Bulgarian on this website and in the zine Katarzis. An Indonesian group publishes a sort of sister journal to Rolling Thunder entitled Amor Fati.

It’s especially difficult to keep up with smaller-scale translations. For example, our interview ”How to Organize an Insurrection” swiftly appeared in German, French, Polish, and Catalan, among other languages. Some other translations of this interview, including the Russian version, appear to no longer be available online, another good reason to organize a more permanent archive.

Countless more texts and translations, like this Hebrew translation of Fighting for Our Lives [PDF, 2.2 MB], have never been widely available on the internet. Somewhere out there are Swedish, Norwegian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croat, Slovakian, Lithuanian, Basque, Mandarin Chinese, and Esperanto translations we have lost track of over the years, some of them full books. If you have access to any of these, please contact us and we’ll try to help make them available to the public.

Last May, a CrimethInc. agent was invited to speak about “The End of Ideology and the Future Events” on a panel at the 2010 Babylonia festival in Athens, Greece. We’ve polished the notes from that discussion into a text exploring what ideology is, what it could mean to oppose it, and what could replace it as a foundation for resistance.

Read the full analysis here.

There are currently three publicly-announced touring groups on the road. The Conspiracy Tour is circling the country to build support for the targets of state repression in the anarchist community and presenting legal training for communities of resistance. The Emergency Tour is traveling through the midwest, visiting primarily small towns to present an introduction to anti-capitalism and mutual aid organizing. The Letters Tour is doing a short circuit mid-month to promote the new issue of their anti-political literary journal.

If you don’t see your event or action represented in this list, please email experimental.committee@gmail.com or announce it as a comment to add it to this list. If there isn’t anything happening where you live, go ahead and plan something!

We’re sending solidarity and love out to Testament and Illogik, among others, who cannot tour because of the absurd conspiracy charges brought against them in the wake of the G20 protests in Canada.

The Schedule

August 7 – Emergency Tour in Duluth, MN; Conspiracy Tour in Asheville, NC; RRFMs in Frederick, MD, Carrboro, NC, and Naples, FL

August 8 – Conspiracy Tour in Louisville, KY

August 9 – Emergency Tour in West Bend, WI; Conspiracy Tour in Bloomington, IN

August 10 – Emergency Tour in Milwaukee, WI; Conspiracy Tour in St. Louis, MO

August 11 – Conspiracy Tour in Omaha, NE

August 12 – Conspiracy Tour in Denver, CO

August 13 – Western Maryland Zine Fest begins in Frederick, MD; Conspiracy Tour in Salt Lake City, UT

August 14 – Conspiracy Tour in San Francisco, CA; RRFMs in Yellow Springs, OH, Olympia, WA, Lancaster, PA, and Parker, CO;

August 15 – RRFM + Regional Meetup in Winona, MN; Conspiracy Tour in Oakland, CA; RRFM in Olympia, WA

August 16 – Letters Tour in Cincinnati, OH; Conspiracy Tour in Santa Cruz, CA

August 17 – Emergency Tour in Madison, WI; Letters Tour in Chicago, IL;

August 18 – Emergency Tour in Champaign-Urbana, IL; Conspiracy Tour in Portland, OR; Experimental Lecture on Friendship in Carrboro, NC; Letters Tour in Milwaukee, WI

August 19 – Emergency Tour in Carbondale, IL; Conspiracy Tour in Tacoma, WA; Letters Tour in Champaign-Urbana, IL

August 20 – Letters Tour in St. Louis, MO; Emergency Tour in Carbondale, IL; Conspiracy Tour in Seattle, WA

August 21 – Letters Tour in Bloomington, IN; Emergency Tour in Cairo, IL; Conspiracy Tour in Missoula, MT; RRFMs in Fargo, ND, Baltimore, MD; Anarchist Bookfair begins in Seattle, WA

August 23 – Student Occupation Radical Convergence begins in Mankato, MN; Conspiracy Tour in Rock Island, IL

August 25 – Emergency Tour + DSM Mutual Aid in Des Moines, IA

August 26 – Emergency Tour + Conspiracy Tour in Minneapolis, MN

August 27 – Emergency Tour in Morris, MN

August 28 – RRFMs in Richmond, VA, Seattle, WA, Houston, TX; ARA call to action against Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin in Washington, DC. Also in Washington, DC, the DC Summer Anarchist Network is holding a day of workshops, tabling, fun activities, and more at St. Stephen’s Church, 1525 Newton Street Northwest, from 3 to 9 PM. Workshops include collective liberation, feminism, veganism, radical technology, prison abolition, silkscreening, practical anarchism, and TERRIBLE FREEDOM.

August 29 – RRFMs in New York, NY and Austin, TX

Additionally, some groups are planning a whole month of smaller activities. If you’re in South Florida, email S.W.A.M.P for a schedule of events in Broward County. If you’re near Frederick, MD, request a schedule. If your anarchist community has planned a similar month of scheduled events, please submit a contact email for calendar requests.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS AUGUST?

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Earlier this summer,

In addition, now that the band has finally made enough money to cover the recording costs of the album, they are offering it for free downloading. Donations are still welcome to cover the costs of making this available.

“Germinate” is still available on CD via CrimethInc. Far East. From the Depths is scheduled to record another record this fall.

Meanwhile, our comrades are embarking on a nationwide tour to address this same issue. The full list of tour dates is available here.

Black and White Version [PDF, 1.4 MB]

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THE POLICE

The ones who beat Rodney King, who gunned down Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant, who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. The ones who broke Víctor Jara’s hands and Steve Biko’s skull, who disappeared dissidents from Argentina to Zaire, who served Josef Stalin. The ones who enforced Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. The ones who interrogated Black Panthers and Catholic Workers, who maintained records on 16 million people in East Germany, who track us through surveillance cameras and phone taps. The ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand, who back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family.

In every nation, in every age, you tell us you’re indispensable, that without you we’d all be killing each other. But we know well enough who the killers are. You won’t fuck with us much longer.

POLICE EVERYWHERE, JUSTICE NOWHERE
www.crimethinc.com/police

Information on the situation facing arrestees in Toronto is still sketchy at best, as most of those with serious charges have not received bail hearings yet and full coordination of support campaigns has yet to emerge. We will present an additional update on repression and arrestee support as soon as possible.

Full report here.

We salute the courage of those who put themselves at tremendous risk to shatter the illusion of social consensus and reveal the depth of public outrage against the G20 leaders and the capitalist system they defend. If you put your freedom on the line in Toronto—thank you.

Full statement here.

Reshape magazine ready! After one year we’ve finally published a free magazine including several translations (to German) from the CrimethInc ex-Workers Collective. It contents several ”old” translations we found in the elder magazine “Interface”—but we also did some translation-work of our own and therefore have many new texts. We hope to provoke some discussions in the German leftwing, autonomus, antifa, and anarchist scenes with this publication. You can read more about our motivations in the foreword. We’ll distribute the 20,000 copies through several activist mailordesr, infoshops and in the streets. If you want to help—get in touch! Further, we have a blog that contains more translations than were included in the magazine, with more to come.

Toronto-based organizations of women, people of colour, indigenous peoples, the poor, working class, queer people, trans people, and disabled people are organizing an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence to counter these fuckers. We in Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance are calling on our friends and lovers, our comrades and co-conspirators, to join us in creating the most militant resistance that the city of Toronto has ever seen. The bankers and politicians who claim to run our world will not be allowed to run our town. In defiance of the largest military operation to take place on Kanadian soil in living memory, people are organizing everything from street parties to occupations, massive demonstrations to autonomous and targeted attacks.

The Toronto Community Mobilization Network is the network of the different communities, organizations, and individuals that are organizing the varying responses to the militarization of this city and to the systems of oppression and domination that a meeting of world “leaders” represents. The objective is to use the opportunity of the G8 and G20 summits to highlight and strengthen the diverse movements for social justice that already exist in the Toronto area. The full schedule of the events is available here. The TCMN, and all of its constituents, have agreed to respect a diversity of tactics as part of their statement of solidarity and respect.

Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance is one of the groups plugged into the TCMN. This is what we’re planning.

GET OFF THE FENCE
On June 26th, when the permitted “People First” march turns towards the protest pen, we invite you to go beyond the tired symbolism of parades and beyond the will of politicians. When that march turns back, we invite you all to continue on with us to actually confront the G20 summit and the security apparatus occupying our city. This is a militant march where many forms of resistance and tactics are welcomed and respected. In the streets we will be uncontrollable. For more information, contact torontospokes@ecologyfund.net.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
A roving dance party with radical MCs, guerilla DJs, and underground bands from late on Saturday night ’til dawn Sunday morning. Let’s take the streets back from the developers, the pigs, and the forces of capital. As of writing, some of the confirmed acts include Test Their Logik, the Rebel Spell, Caballo & the Mothafu Kings, and Lee Reed (formerly of warsawpack). Wear your fiercest clothes and be prepared for some heat. It’s Emma Goldman’s 141st birthday, so fuck the clubs – there’s no cover but your mask.

AUTONOMOUS DAY OF ACTION
Affinity groups are organizing a diverse and decentralized day of actions against capital and state forces. As the ‘leaders’ of the G20 nations make their final deliberations, let’s demonstrate the diversity of our discontent. Disrupt the summit, disrupt business as usual, do whatever you want – but start planning now. We are encouraging folks to plan their own actions and attacks, but if people want to plug into coordinated efforts, they can contact torontospokes@ecologyfund.net.

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Some other awesome events in which anarchists will be participating include a march, rally, block party, and tent city on June 25 and the prison abolition demo; Fire Works for Prisons, on June 27.

Summits like these are opportunities to smash the spectacle and resist the narratives that our enemies try to force down our throats. If you can make it to Toronto, we will greet you as an ally and appreciate your help in making the end of June something that future anarchists can look back on and be inspired by. We’ll see you in the streets!

Since our regular prices are as low as they can be, we’ve never had a way to have a sale on our books before, so we’re excited for this chance to make them available for less money. The wholesale price is also discounted 50%, so this would be a great chance to buy books to give away to friends, relatives and even local infoshops and libraries. The number of available books is limited and are available only on a first-come first-served basis—we don’t know how long they will be available, but we imagine it won’t be too long. Click here for the store sale page.

All books are stamped with a “SUBSTANDARD” notice on an interior page towards the front of the book. This is just to ensure no one buys these books to turn around and sell them at full price to unsuspecting folks. The substandard nature of these books falls into one of three categories:

Imperfections – Occasionally we receive books from the printers that slipped past their quality control inspection and have cosmetic blemishes. These errors are almost always on the covers and do no effect the interior of the books. Examples of this include miss-registered color printing, misaligned spot gloss, lamination imperfections, folding errors, and particularly in the case of Expect Resistance, unevenly-folded cover flaps.

Returns – While we don’t accept returns from our online store, some of our larger distributors do, and when books have too much shelf wear they return them to us. The books usually have scuffing on the covers and/or other evidence of being handled. Also, these distributors put bar code stickers on the back cover, so these books either have stickers or a small amount of residue and scratches where a sticker used to be.

Damaged – Sometimes books arrive to us incorrectly packaged, and from time to time we accidentally drop a box or a book and it gets damaged. It’s very sad. These books usually have dented corners, creases on the cover or interior pages, or gouges in the lamination.

Overall the condition of the books varies wildly, some are pretty fucked up, and some are just 5% away from being mint—as far as which kind you’ll get, it’s pretty much the luck of the draw. However, we can say that there are many more books with minor imperfections than ones with serious damage, so the odds are on your side. We can guarantee though that all the books are completely intact and include 100% of the content in readable condition.

In possibly the first great anarchist mistake of the decade, the CrimethInc. Experimental Committee was founded in late January. Their first assignment? To preserve and integrate the best elements of the convergence into a new model, adjust them to strengthen longstanding weaknesses, all the while upping the ante in a way that serves the anarchist community as a whole. At first, we thought their solution was a bad idea, so we commissioned a report and quickly changed our minds.

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You’re being invited to participate in CrimethInc.’s next big experiment: a decentralized convergence.

THE OBJECTIVES

To create and maintain points of entry everywhere. To demonstrate our ability to work together despite internal differences and external obstacles. To invigorate anarchist infrastructure rather than lean on it. To orchestrate a show of force in solidarity with anti-authoritarians all over the world. To inspire curious newcomers without exhausting our vigor. To illuminate the map like a starchart of constellations. To remind ourselves – everyone – that we are everywhere.

THE CHALLENGE

Can anarchists mobilize to achieve these objectives with a tight deadline? In an effort to test and strengthen our potential, we’re inviting anarchists of all stripes and contexts to participate in a widespread and decentralized demonstration of outreach and infrastructure. To get involved, all that is required is that you facilitate or organize one or more events that will occur simultaneously across North America throughout the month of August.

THE PLAN

During August, we make anarchist principles and activity visible and accessible at a scale never before attempted. Consider it an international month of action; the activities can be of any caliber and temperament, and can appear anywhere: in the news, in the library, in the bedroom, in the supermarket, at the Really Really Free Market, on the streets, and so on. Use this as an opportunity to explore and experiment: if you aren’t typically involved in local mutual aid projects, give it a go; if you’ve never gone on a tour before, plan one with your friends; if you write zines, write banners; if you author theory, stage a reading; if you occupy classrooms, teach one for free. Whatever you do, wherever you go, wave the black flag for everyone to see –including, and perhaps especially for, our friends and comrades – and let the world see that we are everywhere.

THE SKELETON

To supplement the individual events we’re inviting people who’d like to teach workshops, perform skits and puppet shows, and share music and videos, to organize tours with their friends. The troupe could be just one person – you – or as many friends and companions as you can pack into a vehicle: whatever is doable and exciting. You could schedule events in a few towns in your region over a weekend, or cross the continent in a month. Your theme could be acute, spreading awareness about specific campaigns against mountain-top removal, evictions, state repression, the tar sands of Canada, the oil spill, oppression, or for mutual aid projects, solidarity with struggles happening here or elsewhere, or obscure theory. Or it could be more broad – raising awareness about anarchism itself.

Decentralized tours could the most appropriate and safe way for the anarchist community to achieve the objectives of the nationwide convergence. Accessible points of entry can emerge in all of the places that anarchists already are. Inspirational experiences can be had with new people. The diversity of anarchist perspectives and positions can be celebrated and affirmed in a way that allows them to work together, allowing us all to hold our commonalities close and activate our solidarity.

We’re pleased to announce that several tours have already signed up as endorsers: The Conspiracy Tour [USA], The Emergency Tour [USA-Midwest], and Testament & Illogick [Canada]. If you already plan on touring with a project during August, you can plug into the strategy with almost no additional effort. If you haven’t planned anything during August, please consider organizing a tour in solidarity with all those who will be organizing events in their hometowns. This goes most especially for everyone who has participated in CrimethInc Convergences in past years, and is able and willing. To help offset the price of fuel, you might consider distributing free literature for donations, and selling books and screenprinted items – if you’re partial, the Literature Distro Kit is one of the cheapest places to start.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be maintaining a list of tour dates both organized within our challenging timeframe and scheduled for the month of August. To add your project to the itinerary, please email experimental.committee@gmail.com as soon as possible, and we can publish your public events as they unfold.

THE NERVE

Drawing from the lessons of Steal Something From Work Day, our work should effectively utilize modern modes of communication and reclaim their functions when necessary.

Twitter – We can use Twitter to announce your events and simultaneously contribute to the volume of the phenomenon. If you use twitter, tag your tweets with #AnarchistsEverywhere to let people locate it in a search of the entire campaign. If we remember that these tweets are public and can function as promotional work, we can contribute to the campaign 140 characters at a time.

YouTube & Vimeo – We can upload short vignettes that promote the campaign and will be relevant for years to come. Our current recommendation is the proliferation of short 45 second clips ending in the slogan “WE ARE EVERYWHERE”. To avoid the alienation that can sometimes be felt when watching high-quality video production, it is encouraged that these clips be shot with cell phones to remind everyone that they can make their own. To contribute your video to the campaign, simply tag it with “AnarchistsEverywhere”.

Social Networking – Share this blog entry, and when more web projects and videos emerge share those too. Announce local events to everyone that you communicate with through that medium. While you’re at it, be mindful of the networks you imply on facebook.

Of course, it is also important that we create signposts in the real world too. Design posters, t-shirts, stencils, stickers, and other folk-art projects and spread them everywhere. See this appendix for helpful slogans.

THE HEART

Of course, each tour will make this campaign exponentially larger, but this August won’t be about tours. More important is what is going on in each place they pass through; if you are part of an active community – even if that community is just you –you can make your town another mark on our constellation map, which is a substantial contribution. In the context of this campaign, doing locally what tours cannot is considerably more effective than an elaborate schedule of tours. You are a part of the everywhere.

Ultimately, this campaign is about doing what we do every day. In working together as a decentralized concert of actions and activities we can collectively establish visibility for our local efforts and global struggles. For inspiration, check out Recipes for Disaster if you haven’t already, or you could plan a workshop, block party, public discussion group – even a bike ride. Put quite simply: if you’ve got a black flag and the will to fly it, this August the world will be watching.

Whatever you do, your contribution will be a part of an experiment to determine our collective power-to and solidarity-with – no amount of participation is too small, and everyone’s efforts will be counted.

THE DETAILS

Please read the arguments for decentralizing the CrimethInc. Convergence and the implications of a successful August 2010. Whether or not your project is a tour complete with a list of dates and venues, or a single event open to the public, it is still valuable and worthwhile to promote as a part of this campaign. Please email details to experimental.committee@gmail.com for help promoting your event.

APPENDIX of SLOGANS {not just a big joke}

In reclaiming and reworking modern marketing and advertisement strategies, we can re-appropriate the elements of our social conditions. Opportunities to do so will be self-evident: wherever capitalist imagery and sentiment competes for our attention. To do so effectively we would benefit from maintaining relative consistency throughout this campaign. This campaign is already built on a concept that both demands participation and refuses to be homogenized by those with particularly concentrated resources; the message is that we are everywhere and therefore the aesthetic will naturally benefit from the wide spectrum of positions from which these messages can emerge. Additionally, we cannot successfully demonstrate our prevalence without communicating things that describe our politics and the widespread nature of our resistance. That these things are true does not mean we cannot create a consistent and circular front of visibility – this can happen by taking advantage of the strategies outlined above in the nerve section and by making prolific use of, and following the various style guides accompanying, the following slogans:

1. { for use wherever possible, and most appropriate }
2. { for use in pre-august promotional material }
3. { anytime you need a clever supplement }

These are appropriate for Anarchists without Adjectives and will work well in combination with any of the others. The use of any other slogans should be supplemented with these for best use of consistency:

1. WE ARE EVERYWHERE
2. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS AUGUST?
3. GET ALL OVER THE PLACE
4. { The Circle A }

These Insurrectionist slogans are sure to be attractively confusing:

1. DOING BEING EVERYWHERE
2. PARTY THIS AUGUST
3. MAKE TOTAL ALL OVER THE PLACE

The Anarchist People of Color who aren’t surprised that you assumed they weren’t involved in planning this campaign suggested:

1. NO ONE IS ILLEGAL – WE ARE EVERYWHERE
2. THE BLOCK IS HOT, AUGUST WILL BE HOTTER
3. STOLEN LAND IS ALL OVER THE PLACE

Efficient use of these slogans are sure to aid the Anarcho-Syndicalist platform:

1. AN INJURY SOMEPLACE IS AN INJURY EVERYWHERE
2. TAKE IT OVER THIS AUGUST
3. ONE BIG EVERYWHERE

If we would stop for a minute and listen for a change, the Anarcha-Feminist might recommend:

1. OUR PLACE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE
2. TAKE BACK THE NIGHT THIS AUGUST
3. MOTHERS WORK EVERYWHERE

Anarchist Queers can pack these with their strap-ons and glitter-bombs:

1. WE WANT YOU
2. ANARCHISM IS IN THIS AUGUST
3. BASH BACK EVERYWHERE

And lastly, if someone could tell the Anti-Civ folks about these slogans, that’d be great!

1. AGAINST CAPTIVITY EVERYWHERE
2. BREAK THROUGH THIS AUGUST
3. GROW BACK ALL OVER THE PLACE

Click here to donate and download the MP3.

It features Testament & Illogik of Raised Fist Collective (Ontario) and Strife, MK Ultra and Unrest of Thought Crime Collective (Olympia) and recorded in Olympia in early February 2010 during Raised Fist’s Empowerment Tour. It’s a simple but fierce narrative on preparedness and strength emphasizing the aggressive spirit of mutual aid and collectivity. [256kbps VBR MP3]

The State Street 29 is a group of individuals who were arrested on the night of April 8th, 2010. They were arrested at a march consisting of over 60 people that took place in downtown Olympia. The march was done in solidarity with the West Coast Days of Action against State Violence to draw attention to the fact that police everywhere are perpetuating and fostering fear among our communities. Our goal as the State Street 29 Support Committee is to encourage others to view the arrestees, from the perspective of those who rely on and care about them, as loving, well intentioned, and active people concerned about the safety of our community.

Contact: statestreet29supportcommittee@gmail.com

Just in time for April 15, a barrage of new STEAL SOMETHING FROM WORK DAY propaganda is hitting the airwaves. This announcement covers a movie, a full-length journal, and a new hip hop track, among other things.

Steal Something From Work Day VIDEO!

Our comrades at Submedia have teamed up with Iconoclast Media to produce the above video short, an exciting follow-up to the first STEAL SOMETHING FROM WORK DAY video.

Steal Something From Work Day JOURNAL!

Just in time for April 15, we present Heist, “Journal of Workplace Reappropriation.” This full-length publication delves into the practice and theory of employee theft, presenting stories from dozens of workplace thieves and reflections from across the spectrum of workplaces, continents, and centuries. Read the tale of the hardware store cashier who paid for his entire college education by robbing the till–and find out why he wishes he’d spent the money differently! Read the reflections of Miklós Haraszti, a dissident who analyzed Hungarian workers’ practice of making and stealing trinkets from the factory in defiance of the Soviet “Worker’s State” of the 1970s! Find out what it means to go beyond stealing from work! It’s all here, in this 72-page journal!

Color Reading PDF (4.3MB) : Imposed B&W Printing PDF (2.3MB)

Heist is also available in paper form, including in bulk, from Wild Nettle Distribution.

Steal Something From Work Day ANTHEM!

Our favorite underground MC, Testament, joins fellow MC Illogik as Test Their Logik to deliver this hardcore anthem about stealing from the boss:

Download MP3 Here.

And More Steal Something From Work Day Coverage…

STEAL SOMETHING FROM WORK DAY has made it to the other side of the world, in more ways than one. For example, the in-house magazine of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Australia and New Zealand promotes it in the “Trends” section of their April issue to 45,000 devout readers around the Pacific rim.

Alongside less sympathetic STEAL SOMETHING FROM WORK DAY coverage, the UK’s Dissident Island radio ran an interview with one representative on their April 2 show [starts at minute 53].

Meanwhile, warnings are now circulating for business owners to beware this April 15, and corporations focusing on “human resources” are also paying attention.

Finally, the STEAL SOMETHING FROM WORK DAY Facebook Site is more and more active.

Beyond Stealing from Work

In the final analysis, stealing from our workplaces is not a rebellion against the status quo, but simply another aspect of it. It implies a profound discontent with our conditions, yes, and perhaps a rejection of the ethics of capitalism; but as long as the consequences of that discontent remain individualized and secretive, they will never propel us into a different world. Stealing from work is what we do instead of changing our lives—it treats the symptoms, not the condition. Perhaps it even serves our bosses’ interests—it gives us a pressure valve to blow off steam, and enables us to survive to work another day without a wage increase. Perhaps they figure the costs of it into their business plans because they know our stealing is an inevitable side effect of exploitation—though not one guaranteed to bring exploitation to an end.

On the other hand, the notion that stealing from our employers is not relevant to labor struggle enforces a dichotomy between “legitimate” workplace organizing on the one hand and individual acts of resistance, revenge, and survival on the other. So long as this separation exists, conventional workplace organizing will always be essentially toothless: it will prioritize bureaucracy over initiative, representation over autonomy, appeasement over confrontation, legitimacy in the bosses’ eyes over effectiveness in changing our lives.

What would it look like to go about labor organizing in the same way we go about stealing from our workplaces? First, it would mean focusing on means of resistance that meet our individual needs, starting from what individual workers can do themselves with the support of their comrades. It would mean dispensing with strategies that don’t provide immediate material or emotional benefit to those who utilize them. It would establish togetherness through the process of attempting to seize back the environments we work and live in, rather than building up organizations on the premise of an always-deferred future struggle.

A workforce that organized in this way would be impossible to co-opt or dupe. No boss could threaten it with anything, for its power would derive directly from its own actions, not from compromises that give the bosses hostages or give prominent organizers incentives not to fight. It would be a boss’s worst nightmare—and a union official’s, too.

We might also ask what would it look like to go about stealing from work as if it were a way to try to change the world, rather than simply survive in it. So long as we solve our problems individually, we can only confront them individually as well. Stealing in secret keeps class struggle a private affair—the question is how to make it into a public project that gathers momentum. This shifts the focus from What to How. A small item stolen with the knowledge and support of one’s coworkers is more significant than a huge heist carried out in secret. Stolen goods shared in such a way that they build workers’ collective power are worth more than a high-dollar embezzlement that only benefits one employee, the same way a raise or promotion does.

Remember the story of the hardware store employee who embezzled enough money to get a college degree, only to find himself back behind the cash register afterwards! When it was too late, he wished he’d done something with the money to create a community that could fight against the world of cash registers and college degrees. Even as he broke the laws of his society, he had still accepted its basic values, investing in status that could only advance him on the bosses’ terms. Better we invest ourselves in breaking its values as well as its laws!

Practically everyone steals from work, even if many people won’t admit it, even if some people would like to reserve the privilege of doing so for themselves. Let’s draw this practice out of the shadows in which it takes place, so all the world has to engage with it and its implications in the full light of day. Perhaps workplace theft could be an Achilles heel for capitalism after all: not because it alone is sufficient to abolish wage labor and class society, but because it is the sort of open secret that must remain suppressed to preserve the illusion that everybody believes in and benefits from the present system.

So if you find yourself coveting items in your place of employment, don’t just steal something from work—think about how you could steal everything from it, yourself and your coworkers above all. Stealing from work one thing at a time will take forever, literally—it would be more efficient to just steal the whole world back from work at once. That’s a daunting project, one we could only take on together—but it’s one we can begin right now.

Next April 15, we won’t just pocket a few items—we’ll show up at our workplaces with helmets and torches. Stealing something from work is not enough when work is stealing everything from us.