/r/CrimethInc
The CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective (CWC) is a decentralized anarchist collective composed of many cells which act independently in pursuit of a freer and more joyous world.
The CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective (CWC) is a decentralized anarchist collective composed of many cells which act independently in pursuit of a freer and more joyous world.
History is not something that happens to people - it is the activity of people. In every moment, in every decision and gesture, we make our culture, our life stories, our world, whether we take responsibility for this ourselves or ascribe this power to executives, politicians, pop stars, economic systems, or deities.
The Future is Unwritten in a society which glorifies their power and our passivity, all thought which challenges this passivity is thoughtcrime. Crimethink is the transgression without which freedom and self-determination are impossible - it is the skeleton key that unlocks the prisons of our age.
CrimethInc. is the black market where we trade in this precious contraband. Here, the secret worlds of shoplifters, rioters, dropouts, deserters, adulterers, vandals, daydreamers—that is to say, of all of us, in those moments when, wanting more, we indulge in little revolts - converge to form gateways to new worlds where theft, cheating, warfare, boredom, and so on are simply obsolete.
This webpage is one of many manifestations of the underground network through which we work to realize these daydreams, to take the reins of our lives and make our history rather than using the same energy to insist we are being made by it. If you have illicit ideas and intentions of your own to share, you're invited to join us here.
This subreddit is for all things CrimethInc.
/r/CrimethInc
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A banner hangs in Weelaunee Forest during the Defend the Forest/Stop Cop City occupation, summer 2022. It reads "Total liberation from domination—against white supremacy and patriarchy, against the state and capitalism."
10:00 UTC
It's Safer in the Front
https://crimethinc.com/saferinthefront
Faced with intensifying repression and state violence, there is an understandable inclination to seek safety by avoiding confrontation.
But this is not always the most effective strategy.
“Counterintuitively, in a confusing situation, often the best, if not safest, place to be is the front lines, so you can see what is going on around you.”
00:53 UTC
Thirteen years ago today—during a demonstration in Oakland, California, a participant demonstrates the proper meaning of "armchair anarchist." 🏴
20:24 UTC
Today, for the seventh time, a fixed electoral process will return the despot Aleksandr Lukashenko to power in Belarus. Last time he held an "election," in 2020, an uprising nearly toppled his government.
Background on the 2020 uprising in Belarus:
https://crimethinc.com/WhenWeRise
For now, it appears that Belarus will remain under Lukashenko's rule until Vladimir Putin loses control in the region. Belarus offers a cautionary tale about the consequences of the kind of autocracy that is taking hold around the world, from India to the United States.
But even in these conditions, there is resistance. Across generations of oppressive regimes, people in Belarus have learned how to resist in the most challenging conditions.
According to the Belarusian anarchist project Pramen,
"On Sunday, Lukashenko will celebrate himself in the company of people he will never be able to trust. Looking around, he will drink to victory, knowing full well that this victory means absolutely nothing. The day after the elections, Belarusian society will continue to resist by organizing sabotage actions on critical infrastructure, supporting prisoners, fighting in workplaces and universities—our desire for freedom is stronger than any repression and the dreams of dictators and tyrants about huge empires and stable regimes. Sooner or later, our struggle will free us from the shackles of the dictator, showing the whole world how ordinary people without huge resources can determine their future independently of empires."
22:26 UTC
If you feel despair, if you feel defeated, if you catch yourself dissociating or focusing on what our oppressors are doing rather than on what you can do yourself—that is territory that the enemy has claimed within you.
Give them nothing. Focus on your agency. Every hour, every day, wherever you are positioned, there are things you can do to resist. Take good care of yourself and those around you. Watch for opportunities and seize them.
We are in a fight—we have to focus—but it is a fight that we can win. 🏴🏴🏴
04:13 UTC
You may have seen this image of Elon Musk's Nazi salute projected onto Tesla's Gigafactory in Berlin . . . But you may not know that last year, anarchists occupied the adjacent forest to block the expansion of the Gigafactory and used direct action to shut down electricity to it.
You can read all about it here:
https://crimethinc.com/TeslaGermany
There are concrete things we can do to resist. 🏴
19:17 UTC
This is a time of great anxiety and danger—but it's also a time of possibility, when countless people are looking for connection. This footage shows one of dozens of Festivals of Resistance around the US last weekend, at which people prepared to confront the second Trump regime. Start organizing!
18:41 UTC
Yesterday, over 600 people gathered in Sacramento to participate in a variety of discussions and trainings about community defense. At the same time, 200 gathered in Chicago to prepare to fight mass deportations. Next weekend, gatherings like these will take place all around the US.
https://crimethinc.com/festivalsofresistance
It's time to get our communities together, to share skills and prepare to fight for each other. 🏴
02:41 UTC
The Ex-Worker podcast: Sacrificial Violence and Retribution
We explore the public responses to two different extrajudicial killings—and what they tell us about the different forms of violence contending in our society today.
As we return to the Trump era, it is very important to reflect on what is driving the popular appetite for violence and how our rulers are channeling it away from themselves.
07:00 UTC
This is a photograph of the ruins where Pacific Palisades, one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Los Angeles, used to be. The fire has consumed these houses completely. The climate disaster is proceeding faster than anyone is prepared for.
Capitalism is humanity making war on itself in slow motion. Now the process is speeding up and impacting more and more people, including some who were previously protected from the immediate consequences. The climate crisis is just one aspect of this catastrophe.
The floods in Porto Alegre and Valencia—Hurricanes Helene and Milton—the wildfires destroying LA. Neither corporations nor politicians will offer real solutions. We have to take direct action to defend each other and address the root causes.
07:28 UTC
This weekend and next, events will take place around the country in response to the call for Festivals of Resistance before Trump takes power. This is a crucial chance for communities to come together and build skills for collective defense.
Check out the list here:
08:38 UTC
What's striking about the manifesto left by the Trump supporter who shot himself and set his truck on fire outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas is that the desire to harm others merges with the urge to self-destruction. Arguably, this characterizes millions of Trump supporters.
It's no coincidence that a man the FBI described as a "heavily decorated combat veteran" would end his life saying "I needed relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” Being a killer for hire weighs heavily on the conscience.
These mercenaries are damning themselves to living hell so that billionaires like Trump and Musk can turn a profit.
This sort of tormented anger is common among Trump supporters. On some level, they must sense that the climate disasters smashing their communities are caused by the oil profiteers they defend—that they are more to blame for the problems of this society than undocumented people or trans people. Their self-righteousness masks self-hatred.
Their fantasies of civil war conceal a desire to kill themselves.
07:57 UTC
This year, the challenge will be to fight as hard as we must while preserving the parts of ourselves that are imaginative, that are tender, that can not only desire a better world but believe it into being. We can do this. Happy new year, comrades. 🏴🖤
21:06 UTC
The City of Elgin, Illinois Just Declared War on All Houseless Folks Living There. Noise Demo/Rally Saturday Jan 4th at 1pm
THE CITY OF ELGIN HAS DECLARED WAR AGAINST ALL UNHOUSED PEOPLE IT’S TIME TO FIGHT BACK!.
On the night of December 19th, 2024, in a city hall courtroom of only a handful of people, Elgin city council members approved and celebrated a plan to eliminate “Tent City”, along with all other tents and self-made structures that act as shelter made by those living on the streets. This plan was discussed and decided on without the knowledge or presence of the hundreds of houseless people living in Elgin.
“Tent City”, located on roughly 8 acres between the Fox River and Route 31 in Elgin, has been a site used for encampments by people experiencing houselessness ever since the demolition of a metal fabrication factory there back in 1990. For many of these residents, this is the only space in the city that offers safety and accommodations that allow them autonomy over their lives. With this autonomy, the residents of Tent City have spent time and energy over the years building and sustaining this community.
The City of Elgin plans to evict all residents of Tent City, along with the hundreds of other houseless individuals residing in tents and self-made structures around the city of Elgin, moving only 50 of them to the Lexington Inn & Suites for a duration of four months. This hotel is widely known for bed bug and cockroach infestations, along with sanitary conditions that only barely meet city code.
There is currently no plan for housing after the four months has ended. “We know this is a temporary solution,” Assistant City Manager Karina Nava said.
ALL houseless individuals, including those selected for the four-month stay at the hotel, are ordered to immediately vacate the premises of their encampment or face trespassing charges. After every resident is evicted from “Tent City” in particular, the “site will be secured” and “cleared and remediated”. Furthermore, the city promises to instate a ‘zero tolerance policy’ for any future tents and self-made shelters, leaving those who are unable to access options provided by the city at extreme risk to the impending winter temperatures presently and long-term.
Rather than meeting houseless people where they are, where they feel safe, and investing in resources that could help them re-build after two recent fires, the City of Elgin would rather spend more money and resources by evicting them all, subjecting them to the trauma of forced displacement. Parks Superintendent Greg Hulke estimated the cost of the eviction and clearing to be between $2 million and $2.5 million, with the process taking two to four months, not including the cost of the relocation of the selected 50 residents.
While “safety” has been said to be the reason for all of this, it is abundantly clear that the real motive is the same beautification process seen happening in many other gentrified cities. What this eviction plan fails to reveal is an anti-homelessness motive integrated into the city’s vision of boosting property value. . Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley said the department will begin the process on or about Jan. 20. The unhoused people of Elgin deserve the autonomy to determine their own living situations. This plan is not a rescue – it is an eviction, and for many people, it may be a death sentence.
DEFEND THE MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN SOCIETY FROM LOSING WHAT LITTLE THEY HAVE LEFT
JOIN US FOR A RALLY SATURDAY JANUARY 4TH @ 1PM @ THE CORNER OF E. CHICAGO ST. & S. GROVE AVE
20:17 UTC
2024: Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire—The Year in Review
https://crimethinc.com/2024inreview
It’s time to take stock of the year have just lived through and get oriented for the year ahead. Here, we review the events of 2024, as well as some of our own humble contributions to the fight for a better world.
01:15 UTC
A list of some of the events that will take place around the country in the days leading up to the presidential inauguration in connection with the "Festivals of Resistance" call to action.
More soon to come.
***
From the original call to action:
"Along with others around the country, we invite you to join us in organizing festivals of resistance on the weekend of January 18, immediately before Donald Trump takes office. This is a crucial opportunity to engage in outreach, education, and action ahead of what it is sure to be a tumultuous time.
"Once Trump takes power, it will only become more challenging to make connections with our neighbors, create the networks that we will need to face down his assaults, and share the skills we will need to survive his reign. Right now, we have a precious window of time in which to prepare. Let’s make the most of it."
11:22 UTC
And there are still people out there that think Luigi did something wrong.
18:42 UTC
An incomplete roundup of responses to the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, and the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the person being charged in connection to it—including graffiti, posters, corporate media interviews, public demonstrations, and more.
21:20 UTC
The Civil Fleet Podcast – Episode 66: We found a child floating alone in the dark: Refugee rescuers describe how they saved an 11-year-old girl in the Mediterranean last week. She was the only survivor of a ship wreck.
14:29 UTC
Sacrificial Violence and Retribution
https://crimethinc.com/sacrificialviolence
Just about every day, more than fifty people are shot and killed in the United States. On December 4, 2024, one of them was Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the most profitable health insurance corporation in the country. In the weeks since, we’ve all heard a great deal more about that particular CEO than about any of the hundreds of other people shot and killed this month. At the same time, there has been an outpouring of support for the attack, despite the efforts of media platforms and employers to suppress it.
On December 13, president-elect Donald Trump and vice-president-elect JD Vance invited Daniel Penny to join them at the Army/Navy football game—solely on account of his having randomly murdered a Black person and been acquitted. Here, we see some of the most powerful political figures in the world attempting to drum up enthusiasm for extrajudicial killings—provided that they target the marginalized.
But this is not just a question of violence aimed down the social hierarchy versus violence aimed up it. We are talking about two entirely different kinds of violence.
Let’s call them sacrificial violence and retribution.
04:50 UTC
We invite you to join in organizing festivals of resistance on the weekend of January 18, immediately before Donald Trump takes office. https://crimethinc.com/festivalsofresistance
17:38 UTC
Life is Ecstatic Discourse Between Destruction and Creation
03:29 UTC
It's time we acknowledge the money system keeps, the infinite devaluation of currency, the infinite printing of currency, is simply to keep society infinitely working. Solutions do exist, we need to learn to build together.
Project Build Cirlces has a solution that has yet to be discovered/utilzed by humans A.K.A Keystones of humanity. Project BC will take some imagination to completely understand the impacts, but it's the most powerful thing humans forgot they had the power to do. Turn their backs and build circles. Turn your servant quarters into keystone quarters. BUYcott (superpower'd boycott). But ultimatly, it's up to you the read of this to dig in.
04:57 UTC
News from the Front: The Reflections of a Russian Anarchist in Rojava — A Russian anarchist volunteer speaks on the collapse of the Assad regime, the future of Russia, and the looming threat of a Turkish-backed invasion of northeastern Syria.
"I watched with special feeling as the Russian columns passed by me at one of the positions. I peered into the faces of the soldiers, trying to understand whether they realized that all these years, they had been terrorizing the population with bombings, they had surrendered Afrin to the Turkish army, they had kept Assad’s regime alive—and now all this is over. Russian military aid to the Syrian dictatorship has ended. I do not think that those soldiers realized that they were looking into the eyes of a man from the same country as themselves, but who chose the other side of the barricades."
13:10 UTC
There's no cause to panic. But if at some point you might want to have access to some of our books or other materials, it might be a good idea to order print copies in the next few weeks.
One never can be sure what the future might hold.
21:56 UTC
One way to prepare for the Trump era is to organize a screening of "Fell in Love with Fire"—a feature-length documentary about the popular uprising that swept Chile in 2019, exploring how demonstrators took control of the streets while remaining leaderless. https://crimethinc.com/fellinlovewithfire
19:41 UTC
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