Action

When night falls, the bats come out to dance

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Aug 212016

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Last Tuesday, August 16, a widespread power failure plunged Hochelaga into darkness. No more light in the streets, no more functioning cameras… When we realized what was happening, we quickly exchanged knowing looks and smiled under the glow of candles. We gathered our rain jackets and several tools, then left to play in the night. The torrential rain had disrupted the stifling machine of the city and its system of surveillance. The storm offered us a respite, a moment of chaos to not be missed. Completely drenched, with joyous hearts, we strolled in the streets, improvising our targets with excitement. We took several precautions: planning an exit route for each location, and having lookouts. Darkness was our accomplice. We hurried to play until electricity returned, then headed to our homes without any problems.

We smashed the windows of three gentrifying stores : the restaurant Burrito Revolution and an e-cigarette store on Ontario, as well as the yuppie cafe Le dîner on Ste-Catherine.

We slashed the tires of two luxury cars.

We covered several spots in graffiti. On the Arhoma bakery, which has already been targeted by a similar action in the past, we wrote : On vous lâchera pas / Hochelag ≠ Plateau (We’re not gonna let you get away / Hochelag ≠ Plateau). On the Jean Coutu : Toi aussi tu fais partie du problème / Fuck ton empire (You’re also part of the problem / Fuck your empire). On the Dollorama : Fuck l’exploitation / Solidarité sans frontière (Fuck exploitation / Solidarity without borders). On the real-estate office Royal Lepage : On veut pas de vos condos (We don’t want your condos). We also redecorated all the cars in the car dealership on Ste-Catherine, where they plan to build 120 condos, using classics such as Pas bienvenus (Not welcome) or Mange ton bourg (Eat it, yuppie), but also funky inspirations like Spaghetti.

The next time that such an opportunity presents itself, we hope to run into you in the street!

Graffiti in St-Henri, St-Remi tunnel

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Aug 082016

For the end of prisons

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Jul 222016

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Friday, March 18, 2016

a few individuals crossed the fences surrounding Leclerc penitentiary to make an action in solidarity with the prisoners who had just been transferred to Tanguay.

The eastern facade of the old prison was redecorated with yellow, blue and pink paint eggs and the inscription «Feu aux prisons, Fin aux systèmes d’oppressions!» (Fire to the prisons, end to the systems of oppression!) was written with spray cans.

The action was a call to multiply actions of vandalism and sabotage against the infrastructures of oppression and to show solidarity with people undergoing them.

«In modern republics, the function of prison is said to be correction. When individuals break laws that uphold the common good, the conventional wisdom goes, they need to be punished or otherwise taught to be more socially cooperative and generous. In my experience with incarceration, however, the only thing that prison teaches is obedience. A “corrected” citizen is one who internalizes prison bars even on the streets.» -Gelderloos-

Theft, direct action, solidarity

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Jul 042016

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Today is July 1st, the day when the founding of the state of Canada is celebrated. We have chosen this day to announce that over the past months we have stolen and freely redistributed a number of quality objects and food obtained from bourgeois stores to marginalized individuals and families from oppressed communities in Montreal, occupied Kanien’kehá:ka territory. This text is to explain why we have done this, to express solidarity with related actions, and to encourage others to continue taking similar initiatives.

We publish this text on Canada Day because we are against all states, and in particular, against the violence of settler colonial states like Canada that are founded on genocide of indigenous nations, and on racist exclusion and exploitation of non-white people. We believe the well being of the majority of the world depends on fighting against industrial and imperial states like Canada that are the main promoters and beneficiaries of global capitalism. This is why we are breaking the laws of this state, stealing from capitalist businesses, and redistributing goods to communities who are being actively oppressed by this system. Theft is a direct action that so many of us carry out in our daily lives, to get what we need and want from a system that refuses to share. This time we have done it collectively and intentionally, as part of a broader struggle against oppression, and for freedom and self-determination for everyone.

We have been inspired by recent struggles that are both politically and geographically near to us, and we would like to express our solidarity with the brave actions we see all around. First, from Indigenous nations and communities continuing their centuries long struggles of for survival and defence of water, land and life. Algonquins against condo development along the Ottawa river, Innus against the hydroelectric damming of Muskrat Falls, Ojibway for the cleanup of mercury contamination at Grassy Narrows, and Mohawks of Kanehsatà:ke continuing to prevent any niobium mining in their community. There have been numerous occupations in recent months of government offices by those fighting state killing and complicity in the deaths and violence against oppressed communities. The Black Lives Matter occupation in front of the Toronto police headquarters, the indigenous occupations of numerous INAC (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) offices in solidarity with Attawapiskat, and the Solidarity Across Borders occupation of CBSA offices here in Montreal against the violence of immigrant deportation and detention.

We are equally inspired by the daily resistance of those struggling for dignity and survival in less visible ways without a ‘legal identity’, such as those who are undocumented, criminalized, homeless.

Finally, we applaud the impressive direct action by anti-gentrification looters in the Montreal neighbourhood of Saint-Henri who collectively expropriated thousands of dollars of food from a gentrifying grocery store. They are close to us not just in terms of their politics and geography, but also their choice of tactics. The forced displacement and marginalization of neighbourhood residents by gentrification is the direct result of the capitalism of urban real estate markets. Looting and attacks on gentrifying businesses is an important way of fighting back, alongside the numerous campaigns, actions, and organizing that have been challenging gentrification across Montreal for many years.

The Saint-Henri action was successful at drawing a large amount of media attention and public discussion to the issue of gentrification. Throughout this discussion, there have been arguments made to which we would like to respond. Some argue that gentrification is caused by big real estate developments, therefore small businesses should not be targeted. This stubbornly ignores the reality that although the condos are the driving force behind gentrification, the process is also facilitated and reinforced by the expensive new stores catering to the condo dwellers, the police that protect them, and the city government that gives their stamp of approval in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Others agree with opposing gentrification, but do not support illegal tactics like the looting of a gentrifying business. In response, we argue that the connected systems that we are struggling against, including gentrification, Canada, and global capitalism, inflict terrible violence and misery around the world every day, and have been doing so for hundreds of years. To survive means to stop and destroy these systems. It is a massive undertaking, one that is carried out daily by so many, and it is one of the most important things we can do on this planet. You say we have gone too far with our illegal actions? We say that we have not gone nearly far enough. Breaking a few laws is the least we can do. We hope for everyone’s sake that together we are able to do so much more, using whatever means are required.

In love and solidarity with all those in struggle!

Politician attacked during vigil for queers killed in Orlando

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Jun 252016

Submitted to MTL Counter-info

On the afternoon of Thursday, June 16, some respectable gay organizations held a ‘vigil’ in Montreal’s Gay Village for the victims of the recent shooting at a gay club in Orlando. The Collectif carré rose (CCR), which campaigns for more cops and security in the Village to counter ‘homophobic attacks’ (read: rich people getting mugged), disgustingly invited a slew of local and provincial politicians to speak to the crowd, including Quebec premier Philippe Couillard. While the politicians pretended to not be complicit in violence against queer and trans people, mining the crowd’s grief for political capital, the CCR and their buddies salivated at the promise of new lobbying possibilities for their pro-cop bullshit.

So we were thrilled to hear that a member of the crowd, trans activist Esteban Torres according to prosecutors and media, physically attacked Couillard when he began speaking, forcing the premier to be evacuated from the event. It was reported that Esteban’s ‘weapon’ was a simple ball of paper, thrown from a few feet away and hitting its target – seemingly an intelligent choice for an individual act in which one is unlikely to avoid arrest, as one imagines few other methods, acting alone, of forcing a political leader’s evacuation that won’t likely bring jail time.

We wish we could have been there to follow up with a few bricks.

No cop, no politician should feel protected in the Village.

Solidarity with Esteban!

Fuck the Collectif carré rose!

SPVM out of the Village!

– anarchists

After-party riot at Francofolies: fuck la police

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Jun 242016

Submitted to MTL Counter-info

Triggering fomo (fear of missing out) in anarchists across Montreal who aren’t francophone music fans, over a hundred Francofolies festival-goers rioted last friday night after a performance by french rapper MHD. The crowd, mostly under the age of 20, threw bricks, bottles, and traffic cones at police, smashed the windows of at least 20 businesses between St-Denis and Drummond street, overturned vending carts, and attacked the headquarters of the SPVM, breaking multiple windows along its Saint-Urbain street facade. Six cops were reported injured.

Accounts say that cops had mounted the stage to confront fans who had went on stage during an earlier performance. At this moment, chants of ‘fuck la police’ could be heard, and when the show ended, the crowd proved that even the smallest indignity, relatively speaking, at the hands of police in this city is grounds for a full-fledged riot. Unfortunately, there were two arrests, and few participants wore masks.

It seems that over the last few months in Montreal, events in which anarchists have participated have created a climate in which hostility towards the police is more widely shared and more readily translated into violence against our enemies, among not just anarchists but all people living in the city who have reason to hate the police.

Anarchists, though, could be more ready to intervene in those eruptions of revolt that are possible outside of political demonstrations and anarchist-initiated attacks. Let’s recognize and act on the potential of these moments to expand the space and time of lawlessness, to create breaks with normality unforeseen by power and therefore more likely to get out of control, to shake the faith of activists in their social movement calendars, and to link anarchists with others in unpredictable complicities.

One more time: Fuck the police!

Balade in Saint-Henri loots expensive grocery store

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Jun 082016

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

A balade for de-gentrification took to the streets of Saint-Henri on the evening of May 28, 2016. About 30 people, all in black bloc, strolled down rue Notre-Dame and looted the yuppie boutique grocery store “Le 3734”. As most of the crowd held down the street outside the store, a few people went inside and filled duffel bags with fresh and dry sausages, cheese, maple syrup, and other items. Meanwhile, the storefront was redecorated with graffiti reading ‘Fuck Empire’ and wheatpasted posters that communicated some of the intentions behind the action. After throwing smoke bombs ahead of and behind the crowd on Notre-Dame, people dispersed via the train tracks before police could arrive, and no arrests have been made. In the days that followed, we re-distributed the food to people in the neighborhood who wouldn’t regularly have had access to it. The poster left behind read as follows:

With the arrival of the condos in Saint-Henri, a multitude of expensive businesses, hipster restaurants, and bourgeois grocery stores followed. Nevertheless, despite this affluence of food, the neighborhood remains practically a food desert for people with little money. Such a paradox it is to live in a world that produces so much food, but that isn’t accessible for those who are hungry!

May 28^th, we tried to recalibrate things a bit, to the extent of our means. We put on masks to protect our identity, we entered one of these extravagant businesses, we took everything we could and we left to redistribute the goods joyously in the neighborhood. Inspired by the recent actions against the police in different neighborhoods and knowing that they were going to show up to protect the property owners, we brought what we needed to protect ourselves.

Everyone deserves to eat well and there is enough food for everyone! It is with great pleasure that we organized this pillaging, which is a slap in the face to the forces that impoverish and starve us. We invite everyone to do the same!

Long live de-gentrication!

Tonight is the great banquet, we celebrate complicity and abundance!

11 x 17″ | PDF

For the proliferation of the balade: some thoughts on the anti-police demo in Hochelag’

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May 102016

From Anarchistnews

After having participated in what was called as a demo against the police in Hochelaga on Thursday April 14th, we had the urge to share some reflections outside of our living rooms (towards yours perhaps?).

First off, we were fucking excited to see a flyer circulate that was calling for a neighborhood demo in Hochelag’. We want to be able to participate in moments of struggle in the neighborhood and not only downtown and/or in demos called on Facebook.

We can clearly point out that the demo felt more like an action than a demo, because only around thirty people answered the call. Could it still have been a demo even if it was called in this way? Probably not. It seems difficult to subtly circulate flyers, less than a week in advance, and have a hundred people show up. But we don’t feel like people should have called it an action either, in which case we would have the impression that the invitation can’t be public (for safety reasons) and that there would be a clear objective, that people must follow. So we fall into the trinity cul-de-sac typical of Montreal; demo/action/demo-action. We don’t feel like what happened was a demo, and we don’t want it to be called an action either. We propose employing another term for this kind of offensive march: a ‘balade’ (roughly translates to stroll). It maintains the spirit of a march, which can be wandering, and we would add a connotation of combativity – no matter the form that this offensiveness could take. And the invitation could be made publicly, and people would know that there is space in the balade for them to take their own initiatives. The balade is open like the demo, offensive like an action.

Onwards.

This moment was called as a demo and the offensiveness wasn’t specified, so the situation lacked transparency for people who came and participated – this is dangerous for everyone. The vagueness of the call-out meant that some of the people who showed up weren’t adequately prepared for this kind of moment. It would have been worth mentioning in the flyer that people should come ready to participate in a black bloc, or to wear clothing to disguise their identity. This would have then allowed people to expect to participate in a combative demonstration. Although we understand that people don’t want to necessarily reveal the details of what they have in mind when they send out an invitation, we nonetheless believe that people should have a minimum of information to decide if they want to participate, and if that’s the case, to prepare themselves mentally and physically. It’s a matter of security and confidence, and these are essential in the long-term for our capacity to hold this type of offensive position.

Also, the starting point of the demonstration was highly problematic. Around thirty masked-up people in a park is going to freak out the neighbours, and this is how we found ourselves with two cop cars on our backs even before anything had really began. In the future, we need to find places that are more subtle to assemble or else the same scenario will repeat itself. Consequentially, because the cops showed up from the get-go, the people who had more information to share weren’t able to – or only in a highly rushed and even shouted manner as we attempted to get onto Darling street to go up to Ontario. Having a better starting point would have probably resolved, to a certain extent, the lack of transparency of the flyer.

Props to the gang, after all, because we knew to stick together from the moment when the cops showed up. We have the strong impression that if everyone dispersed from the beginning there would have been arrests. The fact that we decided to continue together, to trust each other, and to follow the instructions to the exit point clearly saved a good number of us from being arrested.

Props to everyone who charged at the cops to de-arrest that person who got snatched by police.

Props to everyone for the ferocity and the violent tenacity that allowed us to hold the cop cars at a distance while the condo real estate company Royal Lepage was attacked and while people found the way to escape a potential police trap.

Props for having attacked the fucking cops who permit this colonial, patriarchal, and capitalist world to exist against us.

Props for a balade in Hochelag. In hoping that we find all kinds of strategies to continue the offensive.

See you in the next black bloc!

Xox

MayDay march rocks Montreal

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May 032016

From Submedia.tv

For the 9th year in a row an autonomous coalition of anti-capitalists invade the streets of Montreal to celebrate people’s struggles.

A riot for every police murder

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Apr 132016

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On the night of Monday, April 11, a demonstration in Montreal in response to the second police killing in under two weeks attacked the SPVM. Sandy Tarzan Michel, an Anishinabe man, was murdered by police on the anishnabeg reserve in Lac Simon, Quebec, last Wednesday, April 6. Police shot him several times after running him over with a police cruiser. Sandy’s nineteen year-old brother was also assassinated by police in Lac-Simon in 2009.

After Sandy was murdered, other people who live on the reserve confronted local police and tried to block the entry of provincial police (the Sûreté du Québec) who were called to assist the local force, leading to three arrests. When someone is killed by police in Quebec, a different police agency is called in to “investigate”, and the SPVM has since received the assignment in Lac Simon.

Around 100 people gathered outside St-Laurent metro station and listened to speeches from Anishinabe organizers. As the demo took the street, participants could be seen donning and distributing masks. The demo turned east on Ste-Catherine as bike cops flanked both sides of the march at the point where the most masked people were located. Over the next forty-five minutes as the demo proceeded relatively calmly, people were clearly expressing their grief, sadness, and anger in different ways, with some marching silently and encouraging others to do the same, and others chanting slogans wishing violence upon the police.

At the intersection of Ste-Catherine and de Lorimier, members of the crowd struck the flanking bike cops on each side with rocks, while setting off smoke grenades on the sidewalks that obscured the cops’ visibility. The bike cops quickly fled. With no cops in the immediate vicinity of the demo, a few minutes later, people paint-bombed and smashed the windows of the Ministry of Public Security building on Parthenais. The Ministry of Public Security oversees the provincial prisons in Quebec (which are disproportionately populated by Indigenous people) and the Sûreté du Québec – both institutions that maintain colonial occupation in so-called “Quebec”. The riot police charged the demo quickly thereafter, and succeeded in dispersing the demo despite some attempts to fight them off with volleys of rocks. No arrests were made.

As anarchists, we initiated attacks in this space because we’re not struggling for less murderous police, but for the destruction of all forms of policing. When the police kill someone, sexually assault someone, imprison someone, we believe in vengeance, but we don’t want to stop there. By opening up space and time in the streets through attacking the police, people create the conditions to destroy other components of the material infrastructure of colonial society. We believe this is an important step to nurture the relations of care, trust, and reciprocity that are essential to any rupture with the colonial, capitalist, and patriarchal control of life. In the particular setting of this demo, we acted to open the possibility of complicity with Indigenous people who see the inherently colonial institutions of Canadian policing, in their entirety, as enemies. While aware that some Anishinabe participants were calling for a peaceful protest, we hope that others recognized us as possible future accomplices.

After Monday night, we’ve noticed some self-proclaimed settler/white allies reacting harshly to the direct actions that took place against institutions they ostensibly oppose. The way in which they have taken one or two individuals’ call for a peaceful march to represent the interests of a whole community speaks to the failure of allyship politics. The idea of being a good ally by following the instructions of an oppressed group inevitably confronts the problem of contradictions amongst people of the identity category in question. In so-called Canada, there is no shortage of combative anti-colonial resistance to take inspiration from; whether it be from the people who confronted police on the anishnabeg reserve last Wednesday, the struggles against ecological devastation in Elsipogtog and Lelu Island, the fight from the barricades over two decades ago during the ‘Oka Crisis’, or the continual war against colonialism that has been fought on many fronts since settlement began.

There are a multiplicity of ways that people are fighting the systems that harm them and their environment. While some Anishinabe and other Indigenous people want the institutions that dominate them to be violently confronted, others place hopes in the channels that these institutions present to them as means of change, such as symbolic protest. Would-be ‘allies’ need to reckon with this reality, and find our own paths in fighting domination instead of following a representative out of guilt and moralism.

We want to foster relationships of complicity, rather than allyship, with all those who struggle against systemic violence. Fuck the police, fuck quebec, fuck canada.

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