/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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Why the State Can’t Compromise with the Gaza Solidarity Movement—And What That Means for Us
https://crimethinc.com/Encampments2024
On April 17, students at Columbia University initiated an on-campus encampment in solidarity with Gaza. After the administration called in the New York City police department in a failed attempt to evict the encampment, students across the country established encampments and occupations of their own.
Why are the police being so heavy-handed? Why are the media contorting themselves into increasingly bizarre contradictions to condemn the protests? Why are the Democrats and the Republicans united in opposing these protests? And how is it that, in their haste to crack down, university administrations, politicians, and police appear to have forgotten the basic principles of protest management?
In this analysis, participants in the movement explore the strategic questions it confronts today.
13:27 UTC
For May Day—a greeting from Russian-speaking anarchists
For May Day, we present an excerpt of a text published today in Russian by the anarchist project akrateia.info.
We've translated it because it is a beautiful and inspiring expression of how the struggle for liberation and mutual aid has persisted across centuries against all odds.
"Mayday is an international distress signal in radio communications, similar to the SOS signal in telegraph communications. This is an approximation of the French phrase 'm'aidez,' a shortened version of the phrase 'venez m'aider'(meaning 'come to my aid,' 'help me'). On this day, we offer to come to each other’s aid (what Peter Kropotkin called 'mutual aid').
"We appeal to you: wherever you are—under fire, in a hospital, in prison, in a foreign country, trying to find a way to earn money, in your native country where you risk becoming a victim of torture by the authorities—we want to remind you that you are not alone. We want to be with you in spirit, no matter how difficult it may be right now.
"Anarchism never died. Throughout the bloody history of the 20th century. it survived and developed. If you are reading these lines, that means you are also involved in our great cause. How many times have anarchist periodicals addressed their readers on May 1? How many times have anarchists feared that anarchism might die and totalitarian countries and fascists would win?
"We will continue, as our predecessors did. We will not give up because we are coming to help each other."
A grainy black-and-white photograph of a May Day parade in Moscow in 1917.
19:09 UTC
Defending the Camp: A Report from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gaza Solidarity Encampment
All around the United States and now in Canada, Australia, and several European cities, students have established encampments protesting the bloodshed taking place in Gaza. Over the past few days, more than a thousand people have been arrested in police raids targeting these encampments. Yet despite the high-profile assaults on Columbia University and other occupations, many encampments have managed to stand their ground, even in the face of repeated police attacks. In this report, participants in the Gaza solidarity protest encampment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recount their experiences learning to hold their ground.
11:27 UTC
Thousands upon thousands of police are surrounding Columbia University and raiding the building occupation there now, determined to crush the movement in solidarity with those experiencing genocide in Gaza. We salute the courage of those occupying the university. This struggle is far from over.
02:39 UTC
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13:53 UTC
A Statement from the Tree Occupation at Cal Poly Humboldt
From Redwood Trees to Olive Groves, the Commune Grows
https://crimethinc.com/CalPolyTreesit
An inspiring message from participants in the occupation of Cal Poly Humboldt in solidarity with the people in Gaza, which has held its ground against a massive police mobilization for a week now.
This report includes a photoessay documenting the occupation of Cal Poly Humboldt and an audio recording of an audio presentation that one participant made via telephone to an encampment on the other side of the country last night.
23:31 UTC
The Making of "Outside Agitators"
While police around the country are raiding campuses and brutalizing student protesters, the authorities are once again trotting out narratives about "outside agitators."
They do this whenever a movement gets out of their control. It is one of the most basic tactics in their playbook, and they employ it indiscriminately.
As we wrote in 2014, during the demonstrations in Ferguson in response to the murder of Michael Brown,
"Rhetoric about 'outside agitators' is a military operation intended to isolate and target an enemy: divide and conquer. The enemy that the authorities are aiming at is predominantly black and brown, but it is not just a specific social body; it is also an aspect of our humanity, a part of all of us. The ultimate goal of the police is not so much to brutalize and pacify specific individuals as it is to extract rebelliousness itself from the social fabric. They seek to externalize agitation, so anyone who stands up for herself will be seen as an outsider."
https://crimethinc.com/texts/agitators
Rhetoric about "outside agitators" is really intended to cut student protesters off from the one thing that could enable them to stand up to the authorities, which is connection with the off-campus community.
If student protesters want to have any bargaining power in their efforts to express solidarity with people in Gaza, they will need alliances with non-students, many of whom have more experience and less to lose.
Remember, students, the administrations also have off-campus allies, and they do not hesitate to deploy them against you.
17:21 UTC
Day One: University of Texas Austin Students Take the Lawn
https://crimethinc.com/UTApril24
On April 24, students, faculty, and community members assembled on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin to demonstrate against the complicity of the university administration in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Fearing a repeat of the upheavals that have taken place at Columbia University and elsewhere around the country, campus authorities mobilized a massive number of police in response. Yet despite arrests and violence, the demonstrators ultimately outlasted and outmaneuvered the police. In this report, participants describe what they learned.
23:04 UTC
Report from within the Cal Poly Humboldt Building Occupation
https://crimethinc.com/SiemensHall
On April 22, 2024, students at Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Arcata, California occupied a building in solidarity with Palestinians, precipitating a showdown with police from throughout the region. After a six-hour standoff, the police were compelled to withdraw from campus.
In this report, participants in the occupation describe what took place and what they learned.
20:15 UTC
Campus Building Occupations from 2008 to Today
https://crimethinc.com/BuildingOccupations
Last night, students acting in solidarity with those suffering in Gaza successfully occupied and defended a building at Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Arcata.
In hopes of equipping today's student demonstrators to experiment more, we present a history of the wave of campus building occupations that took place from December 2008 to 2010—written by participants in some of the first occupations of that era.
11:50 UTC
Why We Don't Make Demands
Today, with the encampments at universities around the US in our thoughts, we are mailing out copies of our zine "Why We Don't Make Demands" in the packages of books and posters that people order.
You can read the article online here:
https://crimethinc.com/demands
Over a hundred zines are freely available for printing in our zine library:
19:28 UTC
“It Is an Honor to Be Suspended for Palestine”
Dispatches from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University
https://crimethinc.com/Columbia2024
In this in-depth report, participants offer a blow-by-blow account of the events at Columbia, appraising the tactics that the demonstrators have employed and the challenges that they face.
09:14 UTC
Remembering Dmitry Petrov
Today, it has been one year since Dmitry Petrov, Cooper Andrews, and Finbar Cafferkey were killed in Ukraine.
Dmitry dedicated his life to the anarchist movement, fighting on the front lines in Russia, Belarus, Rojava, and Ukraine against a backdrop of intensifying tyranny. The story of his life offers insight into the recent history of the former Soviet Union; it also represents an inspiring example of all the things an anarchist can accomplish, even in challenging conditions.
You can read our biography of Dmitry here, along with a selection of his writing:
18:00 UTC
Occupying Columbia University—1968 to 2024
The students occupying Columbia University in solidarity with Gaza are tapping into a long history of resistance.
In April 1968, at the high point of the anti-war and Black liberation movements, students and their non-student comrades occupied Columbia. The notorious anarchist group Up Against the Wall Motherfucker—"a street gang with an analysis"—made their public debut during this pitched struggle.
You can read about it here, along with a protest strategy game based on the events, which some of the participants designed afterwards:
https://crimethinc.com/Columbia
07:46 UTC
Students occupy Columbia University in solidarity with Palestinians
We salute the courage of the students occupying Columbia University in protest against the university's complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
On April 18, after the first night of the occupation, the New York City police invaded the campus and arrested over a hundred of them, but in response, hundreds of students established a new occupation, which is going strong.
You can follow updates on telegram here:
Students—you can do this, too, wherever you are.
The governments of the United States and Israel are not going to stop the genocide in Gaza unless we compel them to.
06:10 UTC
Fighting in the Streets of Washington, DC: The Clashes of April 16, 2000
Many people remember the historic demonstrations that shut down the summit of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999 as a breakthrough for anarchist direct action. The mobilization against the summit of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC the following April confirmed the movement's strength, popularizing tactics that are widely used today.
This oral history explores the A16 mobilization in depth:
The photo shows the black bloc driving back police by charging them with two sections of fencing. 🏴
***
"We walked straight into downtown, saw the blockades, the sleeping dragons, the big yellow puppet and went down to I street. All of the streets there were blockaded."
"We were so crazy, so fearless. I remember at some point marching with the anarchists past this construction site. And a whole bunch of us picked up this fence, these couple of links of fence, and charged the police line. It was so wild, the cops running away from us!"
17:36 UTC
April 15 is Steal Something from Work Day!
https://crimethinc.com/StealfromWork2024
Every April, millions of workers around the world observe this day as a chance to settle accounts with those who are profiting off their labor.
For us, it represents an opportunity to reflect on why so many people steal from their workplaces and what it would take to create a world in which doing so would be unnecessary.
12:59 UTC
The Civil Fleet Podcast (Ep 56): Free Homayoun – Homayoun Sabetara, a widower and father of two, fled Iran in 2021. Along the way, he was forced to drive a car carrying several others across the Greece-Turkey border. He was arrested in Greece, charged with human smuggling, and sentenced to 18
11:51 UTC
Strike4Gaza April 15: One point of departure
Several organizations are calling for actons in solidarity with people in Gaza on April 15 under the hashtag #Strike4Gaza.
This is a good time to recall how demonstrators shut down a Raytheon arms manufacturing facility last November. They mapped out all the entrances, confidentially arranged for dozens of people to block them all at the start of the workday, and then drew hundreds more to the protest through social media posts.
https://crimethinc.com/Raytheon
This is a reproducible model.
20:29 UTC
Boxcutter
“Physics 101 jets crumple” one sharp irrefutable point. Sneak attack, hijack the narrative! Equal and opposite reaction. Our planet!
19:09 UTC
April 12, 1918: A day that lives in infamy in the history of the Russian Revolution
On April 12, 1918, the newly-formed Cheka raided 26 anarchist centers in Moscow, murdering dozens and arresting hundreds. The Bolsheviks aimed to consolidate power over the revolution, and the anarchists represented the most radical force within it.
The Bolshevik authorities used reactionary rhetoric to justify this attack, accusing the anarchists of being “bandits” and “criminals” for taking over property belonging to the ruling class and turning it into social centers and collective housing. The Bolsheviks were seeking alliances with the privileged classes: on the day of the raids, wealthy homeowners came along with the Cheka to recover their properties and abuse the arrested revolutionaries.
The operation quickly extended to Petrograd. Around this time, the Cheka began to execute arrestees without trials; they organized the Gulag system that devoured the lives of millions, the vast majority of them peasants and workers.
When the Bolsheviks usurped the Russian Revolution, it was a disaster for anti-capitalist movements everywhere.
https://crimethinc.com/Counterrevolution
19:37 UTC
Tremors in Turkey: How the Resistance of Wan Defeated Erdoğan Twice
https://crimethinc.com/Wan2024
In the city of Wan, in the part of Kurdistan ruled by Turkey, the Turkish state has repeatedly invalidated election results outright, installing its own representatives in positions of authority without any pretense of democracy.
They tried to do this once again in response to the municipal elections of March 31. In response, demonstrators flooded the streets, ultimately forcing the state to capitulate. In this report, a longtime participant in the Kurdistan liberation movement explains how the political dynamics in Turkey are shifting in the wake of the resistance in Wan.
06:13 UTC
Direct Action against the Criminalization of Abortion
As the Arizona Supreme Court takes steps towards completely criminalizing abortion, it is a mistake simply to count on electoral politics for a solution. We need to foster grassroots means of abortion access—both to address the immediate needs of those impacted by this attack and also because it will be more difficult to keep abortion illegal if massive numbers of people nonetheless continue to access it.
There are also ways that we could go on the offensive to preserve abortion access:
https://crimethinc.com/DefendAbortionAccess
Learn how activists in Poland dealt with the state criminalizing abortion:
https://crimethinc.com/abortionwithoutborders
23:44 UTC