Colombia. After decades of armed conflict and paramilitary violence, Colombia has seen protest movements return in strength over the past year and a half. The forceful demonstrations of the past week exceed even the high points of the nationwide uprising of November and December 2019. In response, the most heavily armed government in Latin America has carried out a brutal crackdown.
Continue reading Colombia Has Lost Its Fear – A Nationwide Uprising Continues in the Face of State Violence
On April 11, 2021, a police officer in the Twin Cities suburb Brooklyn Center pulled over Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, allegedly on account of expired tags. Taking place in the midst of the trial of the police officer who murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, this murder shows that the situation for Black people threatened with police violence has hardly changed since May 2020. There are important conclusions to be drawn from this.
Continue reading The Murder of Daunte Wright: Co-optation and Revolt – A Year after the George Floyd Uprising, What Has Changed?
CrimethInc received the following report secondhand from anarchists in Russia, describing the situation there during the protests of January 23, in which tens of thousands across the country rallied in response to the arrest of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny—expressing anger that runs much deeper. It had been our hope that sooner or later, the unrest from Belarus might spill over into Russia—this is certainly the best hope for rebels in Belarus and elsewhere around the sphere of Russian influence, as well as all who suffer under Putin. We publish this here in the interests of fostering international perspectives among all who endure the consequences of capitalism and state power. May even revolt deepen and spread.
Continue reading Letter from Russia – On the Protests of January 23
Politicians have come together across the aisle to decry the storming of the Capitol on January 6 as “lawless,” “anti-democratic,” and “extremist,” going so far as to misrepresent the result as “anarchy.” But the problem with the invasion of the Capitol was not that it was unlawful, undemocratic, or extremist, per se, but that it was an effort to concentrate oppressive power in the hands of an autocrat—which is precisely the opposite of anarchy. Direct action, militant tactics, and a critique of electoral politics will remain essential to movements against fascism and state violence. We must not let the far right associate them with tyranny, nor permit centrists to muddy the waters.
Continue reading Why We Need Real Anarchy – Don’t Let Trump’s Minions Gentrify Revolt
So-called USA. We have received the following call to action from a network of anti-border activists. In the wake of Trump supporters’ invasion of the Capitol building, opponents of authoritarianism must maintain momentum against all the oppressive policies that the Biden administration aims to preserve—keeping the focus on social change, rather than simply shoring up the status quo against fascists. January 20 has a long history as a day of resistance to tyranny; this year, it makes sense to focus on the institutions of oppression that are spread around the country, rather than the ones concentrated in the nation’s capital.
Continue reading J20: Close the Camps – A Call to Demonstrate against ICE on Inauguration Day
As a consequence of Donald Trump’s supporters occupying the Capitol building in Washington, DC after a rally promoting his baseless claims of election fraud, the Republican Party is fracturing, setting the stage for the consolidation of a new bipartisan political center—albeit much further to the right than before. Yet this also paves the way for massive sections of Trump’s base to break away from representative democracy altogether, embracing an explicitly fascist alternative. The events of January 6 offer them martyrs and a revanchist narrative that will serve them for years to come, providing an internal mythos for recruitment and a justification whenever they need to use force.
Continue reading January 6: A Mass Base for Fascism? – Meanwhile, as the Republicans Fracture, a New Political Center Emerges—Further to the Right
Washington. In Washington state, Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth McMullen has declined to press charges against Forest Michael Machala, the far-right gunman who shot and nearly killed a counter-demonstrator during a fascist rally in Olympia on December 12. Machala’s attack was the second far-right shooting in Olympia in seven days. Thurston County Superior Court found probable cause for McMullen to file first-degree assault charges against Machala on December 14—yet she chose not to file them, letting the deadline elapse without doing anything. Machala posted bail shortly after his arrest, while his victim was still in the hospital. The court went on to drop the no-contact order stipulating that he should not approach the victim; in addition to removing protection from the victim, this lays the groundwork for Machala to regain possession of his confiscated AR-15. In refusing to press charges against a known extremist who carried out a widely documented shooting in front of a large number of witnesses, Elizabeth McMullen is inviting fascists to come to Olympia and turn it into a killing field.
Continue reading Washington Prosecutors Refuse to Charge Far-Right Shooter – Prosecutors Send a Clear Message Inviting More Fascist Murders
As you all probably know, many antifascist and anarchist platforms were banned from Facebook earlier this year. Enough 14 was banned as well, and decided not to use Instagram anymore. Instagram is owned by Facebook and we decided to focus on our Mastodon account and our Telegram channel. On December 19 Instagram banned CrimethInc.
Continue reading Surviving the Social Media Crackdown – The Instagram Ban—and How to Keep Following CrimetInc
In the United States, liberal opposition to Donald Trump’s bid for reelection crystalized around his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions charging that his government has not done enough to contain the spread of the virus. Yet in Europe, where governments have taken a more hands-on approach, their efforts have also provoked popular unrest, as the vast majority of their interventions have focused on expanding the power of the police, not extending resources to those struggling to survive the virus and the economic crisis. On the eve of a Biden presidency, we should revisit the question of whether we can trust any government to prioritize human life over capitalism and how we can respond when the government uses the pretext of protecting our lives to intensify social control.
Continue reading Second Wave: Another Lockdown, Another Rebellion – What the Riots around Southern Europe Tell Us about the Pandemic and the State
Every campaign season, political parties publish platforms detailing their promises plank by plank. These platforms are not binding—politicians rarely fulfill their promises, and it’s often worse when they do—but they do offer an outline of the vision each party claims to represent. Anarchists take a different approach: rather than offering a prefabricated blueprint, we propose to work things out together, dynamically, according to the principles of self-determination, horizontality, mutual aid, and solidarity. Still, whenever people encounter anarchist ideas for the first time, there is a certain kind of person who always demands to see a clear template. In response, one of our contributors has put together an example of an anarchist program—a set of proposals that could be put into effect in the course of a revolution—as an imaginative exercise, to make it easier to picture what sort of practical changes anarchists might aim to implement.
Continue reading What would an anarchist program look like? [Zine]
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