Comments Off on Open Letter From The Estamos Aquí Collective
Nov292024
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
In response to the media’s attitude towards the demonstration of Friday, November 22, 2024 in Montreal
If we are writing these lines today, it is because for several days, the media have been endlessly focusing on broken windows and spilled paint following last Friday’s anti-NATO demonstration. This obsession with the destruction of material goods, however, obscures a much more fundamental question: why is anger exploding in this way?
Where the media focuses on inanimate objects, they neglect a much more complex emotional response: this violence is not gratuitous. It symbolizes a cry of helplessness in the face of destroyed human lives, erased memories, and persistent pain that, far from being heard, is reduced to statistics or isolated facts. The debate should not be limited to broken windows, but should ask what motivates this desperate gesture: a distress, a cry of revolt in the face of insidious and omnipresent violence.
We, members of the Colectivo Estamos Aquí, went to this demonstration to express a legitimate anger: that of the survivors of a military dictatorship in Guatemala, which caused more than 250,000 deaths, 45,000 disappearances, and destroyed hundreds of Indigenous communities. This is the memory that we came to defend. A memory that the authorities of the Americas and Europe seem to want to relegate to the background, under the pretext of political and international issues that are too complex for the populace. But what about the integrity of the colonized, displaced, and killed people? Their emotions and traumas, their own issues? This violence, that of the oppressed, seems to have been normalized, even forgotten.
Anticolonial struggles, whether in Latin America or elsewhere, are all linked by common roots: exploitation, domination, and dehumanization. These struggles, despite the diversity of their forms and contexts, all attack a global system of injustice and repression.
However, the media prefer to divert attention from the root causes and focus on the material damage. In doing so, they minimize the violence of a system that destroys human lives in favor of commodities. It is as if, somewhere, the roles have been reversed and that it is now objects—and not human beings—that embody the soul of the world.
In this hierarchy of values, where possessions are elevated to the highest rank, human beings are gradually reduced to simple functions: those of producers, consumers, tools of capitalism. The real violence here is not the breaking of windows, but the systematic disregard for human lives.
Everywhere, Indigenous peoples are reduced to exotic symbols or exploitable resources. Their lands are plundered, their cultures marginalized, and their voices stifled. This dehumanizing treatment reflects a persistent colonial vision, where the dignity of human beings is denied to justify the exploitation of resources.
We are told that violence has no place. Yet, faced with institutional violence of monstrous force and magnitude, the question deserves to be asked: is violence not sometimes the only possible response?
Comments Off on Fire to Kaefer! Let’s Sabotage the Armaments Industry (Germany)
Nov292024
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Kaefer is a multinational industrial service contractor working with the armaments industry, the oil and gas industry (including the extraction of tar sands and fracking in canada), and the nuclear industry. The following communique was first published in german on tumulte.org.
The destructive must be destroyed.
On the night of November 9th to 10th, 2024, we set fire to two company vehicles at the KAEFER Group’s branch in Bremen-Walle. The vehicles were parked a long way away from the building and other vehicles, so there was no danger to people.
Kaefer is a global group with headquarters in Bremen. According to its own information, Kaefer is primarily active in the areas of insulation of industrial plants, access technology, surface protection, fire protection, electrical and mechanical services, interior fittings for the marine, offshore industry and the construction sector.
The Kaefer Group
In 1918, a peat merchant from Bremen founded a company for cooling technology. Around a hundred years later, Kaefer is one of the leading industrial service companies and not only has 25 locations in Germany, but also employs around 33,000 people in a total of 30 countries and recently achieved a turnover of 2.3 billion euros. How did a Bremen craft business become a global corporation? Well, Kaefer has very successfully specialized in industrial technology and focused on two aspects of the capitalist economy that are inextricably linked: the destruction of the earth and the war industry.
But what does that mean in concrete terms? Let us go into a little more detail:
If we look at the arms sector, for example, it quickly becomes clear that Kaefer is not just a small supplier: KAEFER has a long-term contract with the multinational British arms company BAE Systems. BAE is one of the top ten global arms companies and is one of the largest contract partners of the US military, but also supplies Turkey (e.g. BAE is involved in the construction of the Turkish TF-X fighter jet), Israel (e.g. components for F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets with which the Israeli army terrorizes the civilian population of Palestine), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India and several other countries. At BAE Systems, Kaefer is responsible for insulation technology on Type 26 frigates. In addition, Kaefer is responsible for specialised insulation on the hull, cabins and cold rooms as well as piping, heating and ventilation of S-83 and S-82 submarines of the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia. Also on behalf of Navantia, the Spanish subsidiary KAEFER Servicios Industriales has installed structural insulation on at least 5 Avante 2000 corvettes for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. Navantia itself is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world.
Kaefer, global arms race and the armaments sites in Bremen
A good example of KAEFER’s armaments activities and indicative of the connections at the Bremen armaments site is the work on the A400M transport aircraft: KAEFER Aerospace was involved in the construction of the insulation and the air conditioning system right from the development phase: “We are responsible for the design, production and delivery of the primary insulation and the air conditioning pipes,” says Daniel Max from the A400M program management, “In addition, the installation of the primary insulation and the delivery of spare parts are also in KAEFER’s hands.” The A400M is not only the current transport aircraft of the German Armed Forces, but an international armaments project involving numerous companies and countries. The development was commissioned by Germany, France, the UK, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, South Africa and Malaysia. Responsibility for the project lay primarily with Airbus Defence and Space. Partners in addition to Kaefer included Turkish Aerospace Industries, Thales, Liebherr, Avia, BAE Systems and Europrop (which in turn is an international consortium including Rolls Royce, Safran and the German MTU Group). In addition to Airbus and Kaefer, Rheinmetall is also involved in production at the Bremen site.
At least 10 A400Ms were delivered to Turkey and are an important part of the Turkish military’s logistics apparatus. Responsibility for the Erdogan government’s massacres of the Kurdish population also lies with arms companies such as Kaefer, which can mostly produce undisturbed here on our doorstep. We can see without a doubt that Kaefer is not only an important supplier to the arms industry worldwide, but is also closely interwoven with the military-industrial complex in Bremen, as well as being directly involved internationally in the development of military equipment.
The Space Tech Expo Bremen, which is taking place next weekend, should be seen in this context. Space Tech is not a civil aerospace trade fair. This is not only evident from the fact that numerous arms companies are represented there (e.g. OHB, Honeywell, Airbus, Safran, and many more), but rather the hype surrounding the commercial space industry is inextricably linked to armament and surveillance in space. Last year the trade fair was attacked for precisely this reason; burning barricades blocked the street and employees of arms companies were briefly frightened when stones and paint rained down on the windows while the trade fair was in full swing.
Kaefer as a global player in nuclear energy, oil and gas production
In the following, we will use a few examples to show that, in addition to armaments, Kaefer is also an important player in the global exploitation of resources. We must necessarily limit ourselves to a few particularly blatant examples, simply because Kaefer seems to have its fingers in everything.
Kaefer and the tar sands mining
Tar sands are a relatively new, unconventional oil source. To put it simply, oil is pumped from deep wells in a liquid state in conventional extraction and then processed in refineries. Oil sands, on the other hand, are, as the name suggests, a mixture of sand and oil, or bitumen, and must be processed using very high energy expenditure, producing unimaginable amounts of toxic waste products. The CO2 emissions from the use of oil sands are around 31% higher than those from conventional heavy oil. In addition, some of the largest mines are extracted above ground, which means that huge areas of forest are cleared and turned into toxic wastelands. Oil sands extraction was long considered unprofitable, but in the last 20 years it has become interesting for corporations due to massive government subsidies and the desire for North American self-sufficiency in gasoline.
Kaefer has installed 17 kilometers of pipeline insulation for a small Canadian company called Cenovus Energy (with an annual turnover of just around 47 billion Canadian dollars). The pipeline was part of an expansion project for the Christina Lake oil sands mine. The Christina Lake Mine has been producing 62,000,000 (yes, 62 million!) liters of bitumen a day since 2002. Kaefer is not only proud of this project, but also points to a long-standing good relationship with Cenovus Energy – a probably good economic decision, as Cenovus has applied to continue operating the mine until 2079. The Christina Lake Mine is located in the Athabasca region. The oil produced here in several oil sands deposits is transported to the west coast of Canada via the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline (Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, TMX for short, completion in May 2024); with the expansion of the TMPL, Canada’s oil export capacity has been increased several times over.
Kaefer cooperation with LNG Canada
Kaefer also participated in the construction of an LNG terminal for LNG Canada. LNG Canada is a consortium of the companies Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Korea Gas, led by Shell Canada. In detail, Kaefer (Kaefer China & Kaefer Australia) insulated the pipeline that transports the LNG gas from the storage facilities via the piers to transport ships. The terminal is being built on the Canadian Pacific coast in Kitimat and is primarily intended to supply the Asian market. The gas itself comes to Kitimat via the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline (CGL) and comes from the deposits in Montney where the gas is extracted by fracking. The CGL crosses the Rocky Mountains for 670 km and runs 100% over stolen land and through the territory of the Wet’suwet’en. Insulation work may sound unimportant, but LNG (liquefied natural gas) is natural gas that is cooled to a temperature of −161 to −164 °C, so the insulation of the pipelines and tanks is extremely important throughout the entire transport chain. This process is extremely energy-intensive, but reduces the volume of the gas by six hundred times, which makes the transport of relevant quantities economically “sensible”. To illustrate the scale and the crucial importance of this project and thus of Kaefer’s work, a few figures are worth mentioning: the terminal in Kitimat alone costs 40 billion dollars, the construction of the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline cost over 11 billion dollars, and there are other gigantic investments for the gas liquefaction plants.
The Wet’suwet’en and their allies have aggressively opposed the construction of the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline because the pipeline threatens life in and around the Wedzin Kwa River with its salmon and eel stocks, endangers water supplies and destroys fragile ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains. The Coastal Gas Link Pipeline has been built, but there is determined resistance to many other destructive industrial projects such as the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline (also LNG) or the Northvolt battery plant in the Montérégie region.
Other LNG projects supported by Kaefer (that we know of) are in Indonesia (Tangguh, West Papua), Qatar, Kuwait, Peru, Australia and Bahrain. It is absolutely safe to assume that Kaefer is involved in numerous other LNG projects. The ones mentioned are just those that Kaefer cites as references. Kaefer will also have a stand at the Canada Gas trade fair in Vancouver in 2025, which indicates a deep involvement in the LNG business. In addition, Kaefer is involved in numerous projects in the field of oil and gas production globally, for example offshore production in Brazil and Norway, pipeline construction, surface and insulation technology for refineries, terminals and oil fields … and all of this is just a fraction of the involvement.
Kaefer and the Nuclear Industry
Kaefer describes itself as a major player in the global nuclear industry. We know, for example, that Kaefer has carried out major contracts at the Ringhals (Sweden), Sellafield (UK), Hinkley Point (Ireland), EDF Gravelines and various other nuclear power plants in France, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Switzerland. The group boasts an excellent reputation among nuclear power plant operators worldwide and is responsible for the insulation of the pressurized water reactors that the French Framatome group exports all over the world. In France, Kaefer also works for EDF, Orano, and the Naval Group. The group also has a factory in Pompignac to manufacture components for the nuclear industry and a research facility for the nuclear division in Saint-Cyr-sur-le-Rhône. One of Kaefer’s products is Reflective Metal Insulation, a modern reactor insulation that is marketed internationally in cooperation between Kaefer France and the Bremen site.
The entire chain of nuclear energy use, from extraction, enrichment, use for energy production, not to mention military use, to final storage, is highly destructive and has terrible consequences. The fact that a company from Bremen is involved in the development of the nuclear industry shows that a local “exit” from nuclear energy is of little importance; the know-how from the German nuclear industry is simply exported and can now be used elsewhere. An attack on Kaefer is therefore also an attack on the French nuclear industry. Many people in the north of France near Bure are currently fighting with impressive determination against a final storage facility planned there.
The core aspects we have mentioned, armaments and fossil fuels, cannot be understood separately. Of course, all militaries in the world rely on gigantic quantities of uranium, oil and gas (for example, the US military is by far the largest consumer of oil in the world) and control over these resources is the trigger for many military conflicts. In view of the globally escalating military violence, we can and must act here and now. Because the war machine that is killing in other places in the world is being set in motion in the industrial areas of this city. The armies mentioned as examples for which Kaefer produces here, i.e. Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and Spain, are among the countries that are most active in the current global arms race. These are not empty phrases; in 2023 alone, around 2.5 trillion euros were invested globally in armaments, more than ever before. In addition to Kaefer, companies such as Rheinmetall, Atlas Elektronik, OHB, Airbus, Lürssen and Thyssen are profiting from these trillions in Bremen.
The example of Kaefer’s involvement in the A400M shows that modern armaments projects depend on a highly diversified and specialized supply chain. No tank, aircraft, fighter jet or satellite is produced at a single location or planned by a single corporation. We should take advantage of this fact and identify and attack the weak points in these supply chains.
This incomplete list clearly shows that although the company appears to be based in a small house in the port of Bremen, the corporation is active worldwide wherever money can be made from the destruction of the earth and the war industry.
We want to show with our research and sabotage that the destruction and exploitation of the earth is inextricably linked to the destruction and exploitation of people. The pursuit of power, control, resources, economic growth and national greatness finds its expression in the global trend towards armaments, war and fascism. The election of Trump, the rise of fascism in Germany and many other countries is an expression of this, but the same tendencies are also reflected in the policies of “liberal” governments. Even if who holds parliamentary power has many practical consequences for our lives, it is important that we recognize and attack these tendencies.
We therefore focus on those, like Kaefer, who profit from warlike politics and enrich themselves through militarism and racist oppression. We have the greatest possible empathy for the pain of people who have to live under constant war. And we are always on the side of those who fight for freedom. Everywhere, beyond state, nation and religion.
Against war, fascism and the destruction of the earth, for social revolution!
Our thoughts are with the grieving, injured and fugitive companions in Greece. We send you love and strength!
Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en and all those who resist the destruction!
Switch off the system of destruction – Switch off KAEFER!
As of 11/22/2024(MM/DD/YYYY), no-one working on this project, nor the project itself has ever received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, has been contacted by law enforcement, contacted by any government entity, has been served a subpoena for a Grand Jury related to this project, or any other classified request for user information. If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know.
This project has come to a close.
The noblogs team Autistici/Inventati decided to shut down this blog shortly following the republication of the Heritage Foundation dox from againstbeltwayfascism.noblogs.org and after the dox of the Elbit Systems of America. This blog hosted a great deal of antagonistic content over the years, and we are thankful to the Autistici/Inventati team for allowing a majority of the content to remain up for so long. They undoubtedly tolerated a great deal of resistance – we trust that their decision to shut down the blog did not come lightly.
This site served as a nexus for anonymous publication, a space for engaging in dialogue with other rebels, and a place to spread complicity and proliferate autonomous activitiy.
Please keep those who are languishing in jails for accusations related to this movement in your hearts- better yet, send them letters.
Continue fighting for the end of RICO charges.
Never forget Tortuguita, a hero whose bravery cannot be understated.
Continue fighting for a world without markets, hierarchy, and fascism.
For a time, the struggle in the atlanta forest was one of the powerful torches that carried the flames of antagonstic anarchist destruction. We hold our actions in this struggle proudly, and hope you do as well.
We will never forget the weelaunee forest, we will never forgive those that perpetrated its destruction.
In summer 2022, 2000 copies of this book were printed in French and 2000 in German. The french version is now sold out, and the Publisher «Éditions du Commun» had now reissued the book.
The book was written with the intention of serving as a tool of self-defense against the manipulative interrogation strategies employed by the police. As stated in the introduction, “It addresses readers in various countries in which legislation may differ“. And indeed, we soon received feedback that the content conveyed by the book is equally applicable to countries such as Turkey, Morocco, Serbia, Italy, Denmark, and many more. And soon a number of supportive people were offering to translate the book into other languages. This is what happened with the English version, and we’d like to take this opportunity to warmly thank our translator and proofreader for their fine work.
As a consequence of imperialism and colonization, English is spoken today in contexts as diverse as Kenya, Australia and, of course UK and the USA. So many different places from which you may be reading these words, and where the contexts of repression are very different. Most of what is conveyed in the book applies to all these contexts, but, in case of doubts, it makes sense to keep an eye out for certain elements that differ and check them with your local legal team.
Our network lacks relays in the English-speaking world, so let us take this opportunity to pass on the message that we are looking for a publishing house or a collective that would be interested in printing and distributing the book in its geographical regions.
With these words, we wish you a pleasant reading.
Project-evasions – network of anarchist friendships
“If you are at a table with a Nazi, and ten other people are hanging out with him, you have a table of Nazis”
This dictum may sound like a joke, but the idea it expresses is nonetheless poignant, accurate, and relevant. We are firmly convinced that the contagion effect of complacency in the face of the most reactionary, racist, and hateful far-right currents can only pollute any environment where they are tolerated.
That’s why, a few weeks ago, we launched a campaign to denounce and have cancelled the presence of several NSBM (neo-Nazi) bands booked to play the 2024 edition of the Messe des Morts black metal festival, organised by the Sepulchral Productions label and its main manager, Martin Marcotte.[i]The campaign will culminate in a demonstration on November 29 at 6:00 p.m., in front of the Théâtre Paradoxe, 5959 boulevard Monk, in Montreal.
Since the publication of our dossier on these bands on October 27, we’ve received an outpouring of outraged comments from black metal fans who, following a well-known script, accuse us of demonizing or seeking to “cancel” the entire milieu. For the most part, what these reactions have in common is a complete disregard for essential issue at hand and the use of all sorts of fallacious arguments to defend tooth and nail the countercultural milieu in question.
To be perfectly clear, we aren’t criticizing this milieu for being fundamentally neo-Nazi—we don’t, and we never have, regardless of our critics claims. What we do criticize is the fact that the black metal scene is too tolerant of the neo-Nazi elements that persist within it, as shown by the presence of at least four bands with greater or lesser links to NSBM in the 2024 line-up, including the headliner, the Swedish band Marduk, which cultivates a profound ambiguity in this respect.
The purpose of this post is to respond to our critics and to once again invite all black metal fans to take measures to clean up their scene once and for all.
We’re not talking about the 1930s, or the 1980s, but November 2024, in Québec, Canada, and the US. It would be facile in the extreme to pretend that fascist movements don’t present a real threat today. For at least a decade, the populist right has been on the rise in many parts of the world, and in its wake, the far right has been rearing its ugly head, with a constant parade of fascists and far-right supremacists of all stripes.
This is the alarming context of our campaign to denounce the Messe des Morts.
It’s an established fact that neo-Nazi NSBM current has always had a parasitical relationship with black metal. It’s not always openly displayed in this milieu, but it persistently permeates it, and, above all, it is widely tolerated. Elements of the black metal scene that explicitly condemn and reject the neo-Nazi movement (such as the Black and Anarchist Black Metal movement) are the exception.
The most common approach to denouncing this reality is the one we’ve seen over the past few weeks: a superficial reaction characterized by categorical denial and inordinate defense of the black metal milieu. As the type of music they love forms a central part of their identity, fans “take it personally”: they’re black metal fans, and they’re not personally Nazis, ergo, black metal can’t be Nazi. What we’re talking about, however, is not the adherence of this or that fan of the genre to the principles of National Socialism but the complacency toward the NSBM subgenre that runs through the milieu.
We routinely encounter the same basic handful of arguments, which together form a sort of circular reasoning:
It’s just not true!
NSBM as such, or its alleged influence within the black metal milieu, is some kind of myth perpetuated by “communists” and other “bad people.” This is the easiest position to refute. NSBM is unquestionably one of the constitutive currents of black metal, and has been since the very beginning of the genre.
NSBM does exist (somewhere else. . .), but here it’s a negligible phenomenon, or at least it’s non-existent at Messe des Morts, which is above suspicion.
According to this line of argument, NSBM is a hyper-marginal phenomenon, best ignored altogether. As always in such cases, we strongly contest this ostrich approach. The NSBM current may be in the minority in its explicit expression, but its implicit “cultural” presence in the milieu is chronic and its influence widespread. The presence at the festival of three or four groups with notoriously suspect associations and/or dubious obsessions with Nazism—not unlike the inclusion of Graveland in 2016—testifies to the fact that links with NSBM, and cryptofascism in the case of Marduk, are never far away at the Messe des Morts. We also know that Martin Marcotte, the main person behind Sepulchral Productions and the promoter of the Messe des Morts, distributed NSBM material in the 2000s, as well as organizing shows with neo-Nazi groups. To the best of our knowledge, Marcotte and Sepulchral Productions have never issued a retraction, publicly denounced the neo-Nazi current in black metal, or taken an official anti-racist stance, which would, at the very least, have the effect of redressing the current ambiguity. Vague claims that the event is “apolitical” just don’t cut it.
It’strue that there are more or less Nazi elements in the milieu, but “you don’t understand,” that’s part of the genre’s codes; it’s a culture of transgression, and, for the most part, it’s “not political.”
The NSBM elements in the scene should, thus, be seen as entirely folkloric and strictly meant for “shock value.” This is an absurd position. Any event or environment where Nazi elements are tolerated is by definition political. To paraphrase the African-American activist Angela Davis, in a milieu notoriously teeming with neo-Nazis, it’s not enough not to be a Nazi; you have to be actively anti-Nazi. Otherwise, there will be no reason not to always suspect the milieu of complacency and complicity. The cultural manifestation defense does not hold water: culture and politics are, in fact, inseparable and often consubstantial.[ii] Any claim to apolitical status on the part of cultural or countercultural movements must, therefore, be taken with a grain of salt.
It’s true that there are Nazis, but that’s “no big deal”; it’s “their right.”
Do we really need to explain what a pile of shit this argument is? Fascism, and a fortiori Nazism, are not ideas like any other. They are hateful ideologies that have a concrete effect on the lives of the targeted people and groups and when they succeed have absolutely catastrophic consequences. History leaves no room for question. It’s perhaps not surprising that a musical genre that cultivates a fascination with the morbid should revel in both the occult and the “evil” aspects of Nazism, but, in this case, there’s a fine line between morbid fascination and complacency. And it’s precisely this complacency that we reproach the black metal milieu for.
It’s “just music”; I listen to NSBM, but that’s just a matter of taste and a question of individual freedom; it doesn’t mean I’m a Nazi.
We seriously doubt that. You need to take a good long look at yourself if you like music that promotes genocidal thinking and glorifies the actions of the Nazis. In any case, you shouldn’t be surprised that anti-fascists consider you to be part of the problem. Freedom of expression is not and must never become a smokescreen for the promotion and trivialization of hateful ideas. This, of course, is what the new far-right populists are trying to do at the moment,[iii] using this defense, combined with misinformation and confusionism, to promote the worst reactionary reflexes in the mainstream, which, obviously, favors their political advance. We shouldn’t fall for it.
Anyway, anti-fascists are far worse (and far more violent); you say you’re anti-fascists, but you’re the real fascists!
Some commentators have used personal anecdotes of altercations to try to demonstrate that anti-fascists are, on the whole, eminently violent beings who seek only to intimidate and repress anyone who doesn’t think like them. It’s a well-known ploy. It’s easy and convenient to decontextualize isolated incidents to deflect the conversation and avoid addressing the problem. It’s no secret that anti-fascists seek to “cancel” Nazis. It’s even part of their job description. In this instance, what we have asked of the management of the Théâtre Paradoxe, and indirectly of the promoter of the Messe des Morts, is to remove from the bill the three groups examined in our article (plus the one identified by Pivot in an article addressing this polemic). We’re not necessarily seeking to have the entire festival cancelled (although, at this stage, the problem seems to be ubiquitous), but primarily to encourage self-examination within the black metal community. We remain committed to this goal.
Clearly, given the reaction to our campaign denouncing the Messe des Morts, bad faith is as much a part of this subculture as confusion and complacency. All too often, its followers go to considerable lengths to ignore, or at least deny, the problematic nature of the elements reported.
To return to the quote that opened this piece: if you’re at a party where a neo-Nazi advertises his presence, and everyone tolerates him being there, puts up with his antics, and does nothing to actively exclude him, you’re, in fact, at a Nazi party. This is all the more true if the bands hired to entertain the party have had Nazi members, have played with Nazis, have bought Nazi propaganda articles from Nazi websites, and specialize in songs glorifying Nazi exploits. And if the party organizer himself has already distributed music by Nazi artists. . . Are you starting to see the pattern here?
There is a way out. It would be entirely possible for these groups, events, promoters, and even the fans of the genre who all get lumped together to take a clear and unambiguous stand against any hateful ideology, including racism and antisemitism, sexism and homophobia, and in particular fascism and Nazism. Such a public stance would remove any ambiguity. There would, of course, be consequences to such a statement of principles—the genre’s NSBM adherents would no doubt feel betrayed—but that is the price to be paid to clean up a countercultural milieu that would be better off not permanently dragging around this ball and chain.
It can be done, and it has been done. In the 1980s and 1990s, the neo-Nazis tried to leech onto the punk and skin counterculture, and the community mobilized to completely and permanently exclude them. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but, even today, these elements are systematically ostracized, and the boneheads still have to hide and play circle jerk.
This is an invitation to take a stand and clean up the scene once and for all. To do so, you have to take off the blinders and face the problem head-on.
[ii] It’s becoming increasingly clear that political transformations proceed from cultural transformations, and that the political developments we’re seeing today—the rise of the right and the far right—are the result of patient manipulation of mass cultural codes by skilled ideological actors over the last several decades.
[iii] Among the weapons used by these ideologues (think Trumpism and Elon Musk) are disinformation and confusionism, the method of deliberately blurring the meaning of words and political concepts to confuse and undermine people’s sense of reality, thereby encouraging them to buy into various conspiracy fantasies and the false solutions promised by demagogues. Another of their favorite weapons is “gaslighting,” a form of mental manipulation that involves misrepresenting or distorting information in such a way as to make people doubt their perception of reality. One of the main challenges facing us in the post-truth era is precisely to combat the perverse effects of these stratagems on the political sphere and on society in general.
[I am writing as an insurrectionary anarchist in the u$a and speaking to that context]
Unity Of Fields is a counter-info project that emerged in August of 2024. They describe their project as “a militant propaganda front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism.” It used to be Palestine Action US and has since changed its orientation. It has a website and some social media accounts, some of which have are banned at the time of this writing, they seem to be most popular on Telegram. Although it links to mostly anarchist sources for technical knowledge, Unity Of Fields does not seem to be an anarchist project and their political reading and media suggestions are all over the map. They suggest classic decolonial texts by Fanon and Cesaire, Black liberation writings from the BLA and BPP, texts from various Palestinian resistance factions, as well as authoritarian communists like Lenin and Mao among others.
Mostly their website is a clearing house for news, action analysis, and communiques. Many of the communiques posted are original submissions though they also repost from other counter-info projects and from social media. They also post some of their own original writings to their website. The fact that they post sketchy criminal stuff and link to technical advice on how to better carry out insurrectionary forms of struggle is probably a large part of why they are discussed in anarchist circles at all.
What does the emergence of a project like Unity Of Fields mean for us as anarchists? For one thing Unity Of Fields expands some spaces we occupy as anarchists — the combative struggle space and the digital counter-info space. We are clearly not the only ones re-coloring walls, opening windows, and carrying out our little sabotages and then writing about it, though at least for now others seem to look to our collective knowledge and experience for technical guidance. We are sharing a struggle space, one which is not limited to riotous moments and combative demonstrations, with other rebels who have made themselves visible to us. We are being included (at least some of the time) in a dialogue with other rebels through the sharing of our words and news of our actions, and anarchists have shared writings from Unity Of Fields on our own websites.
Local struggles against zionism, imperialism, and colonialism are visibly taking on more destructive, decentralized, anonymous, and autonomous approaches, a long-term dream of insurrectionary anarchists, yet new questions arise for us. How do we want to contend with other rebels with whom we have ideological differences and tactical similarities? How do we avoid getting lost in the vanguardist, unifying, nationalist tendencies that often accompany revolutionary leftist approaches to combative struggle? Are we interested in conspiring with these others outside the spontaneity of spiky demonstrations, occupations (and potentially riots), and if so how?
As anarchists we both seek to expand and connect anarchic forms of struggle yet also hold a healthy skepticism of unity with people who don’t hold anti-authoritarian views of freedom. Our history includes many betrayals by the left and progressives, from peace policing at demonstrations to executions and imprisonment from newly established revolutionary governments. The question of who to coalesce with and why is not an easy one, and one that is best addressed on a case by case basis. The appearance of Unity Of Fields potentially facilitates the dialogues and understanding that can help us better decide if and how we want to team up. As anarchists can often find ourselves isolated from others who we may have some political parallels with, the opening up of a “militant propaganda front” is a bridge to dialogue and learn across. This is not a call to join forces with anyone on the basis of being anti-zionist or anti-amerikkkan, it’s simply a reminder to always be analyzing the changing terrain around us and to think critically as we carry forward our struggles.
“Towards The Last Intifada” and “Towards Another Uprising” seem to be the beginnings of a dialogue among anarchists that address some of these questions. I look forward to more.
Many if not most of the actions posted to Unity Of Fields are accompanied by some visual media, usually photos, sometimes videos. I want rebels to consider some pitfalls of spectacularizing our struggles. Every photo or video is another crumb for the state to eat up as part of their investigations. Digital media can offer up metadata about where and when and what kind of device it was recorded on if not properly removed. Footage that shows rebels gives the state valuable information, such as number of participants, approximate time of day, whether any passersby were present, as well as biometric data even when a person is masked. Height, skin tone, gait, approximate weight, and other information can be determined from even grainy footage.
Additionally there are the downsides of understanding our struggles in a quantitative way. This approach may blunt the qualitative changes that participating in struggle can bring us individually and collectively. Of course propaganda is useful, the seductive appeal of revolt is made easier with imagery, and these things must be weighted out, no struggle will be pure. I want to remind us that though this is the path that is being worn into the ground, it is not the only one, and should we choose it let us choose it intentionally.
This text is addressed to the international anarchist movement, which we’ll define as the sum of individuals fighting for anarchist ideas around the world. This movement is in conflict with its natural enemies — the State, fascist groups, and so on — and must protect itself if it is to survive in this conflict. In this text, we make three proposals for the international anarchist movement to consider in the coming years in order to allow anarchists to continue attacking while limiting their chances of getting caught.
1. Share knowledge internationally
Our enemies organize internationally through cooperation between police and intelligence agencies and new developments in science and technology — the increasing precision of DNA forensics and the proliferation of drones being just two examples. This means that a repressive technique used in one country may soon appear in another where it is not yet being used. It also means that an effective countermeasure used by anarchists in one country may be effective in another. We should therefore share knowledge of repressive techniques and countermeasures on an international level.
Ideally, any experience of repression or experimentation with countermeasures that might be of interest to other anarchists should be written up, translated into several languages, and made public. When anarchists are arrested and brought to trial, we can often obtain court documents that reveal how they were caught: we should exploit this and publish analyses of such documents, bearing in mind that information obtained in this way may be partial or distorted. We should experiment with new countermeasures and write and publish reports on these experiments (except in cases where the State might adapt and weaken the countermeasure by reading the report). We should try to collect information at the source: read police training manuals, steal police files, analyze data leaks from police servers.
A specific feature of the international anarchist movement is its decentralization. We see this not as a weakness but as a strength: in addition to preventing the hierarchies inherent in centralized organizations, it makes it harder for our enemies to target us because they cannot topple the whole movement by disrupting one part of it. However, this decentralization also makes it harder for us to share knowledge across borders. To overcome this, we see two options: developing informal bonds with other anarchists by meeting at international book fairs and other events, and using the Internet. We propose using the No Trace Project as an international platform to share the knowledge that is suited for sharing on the Internet, not as a replacement for informal bonds but as a useful supplement to spread information beyond existing informal networks.
2. Establish a security baseline
Anarchists who carry out direct actions should analyze the risks associated with their actions and take appropriate precautions: dress anonymously, be mindful of video surveillance and DNA traces, and so on. However, this is not enough. If only those who carry out actions take precautions, it is easier for our enemies to target these individuals. This is, firstly, because they stand out: if only a handful of comrades always leave their phones at home, for example, this could be an obvious starting point for an investigation with no other specific leads. And secondly, because our enemies can get information about them through their friends who do not carry out actions: if someone doesn’t use social media but is mentioned on their friends’ social media, for example, an investigation could query their friends’ social media to get information about them. We should therefore establish a security baseline that everyone in anarchist networks agrees to follow, including those who have never carried out direct actions and have no intention of doing so.
We can’t say what this baseline should be, as it will depend on each local context, but we can give some ideas. As a bare minimum, everyone should help hide information from our enemies by not speculating about who is involved in an action, not bragging about one’s own participation in an action, not talking to the police, and encrypting any computer or phone used for conversations with other anarchists using a strong password. Discuss sensitive matters exclusively outdoors and without electronic devices, and don’t make it obvious to your social environment who you are having sensitive conversations with (e.g. don’t ask someone to “go for a walk” in front of people who aren’t involved in the project being discussed). In addition, we think everyone should stop using social media (and definitely stop posting photos of other anarchists, even with their consent, because this helps the State map anarchist networks) and leave their phones at home at all times (not just during actions). Carrying your phone with you has security implications for everyone you interact with.
It can be difficult to convince people to follow such a security baseline, especially if they think they have no personal interest in following it. If someone is reluctant, we should remind them that it’s not just their security that’s at stake, but also the security of other anarchists around them who may be carrying out or planning to carry out direct actions. Everyone who wants actions to happen has an interest in making anarchist networks as difficult as possible for the authorities to repress.
3. Explore new horizons
Our enemies evolve over time as they refine their strategies and techniques. We should prepare not for the battles that already took place, but for those yet to come. We should therefore go beyond our current security practices, anticipate the evolution of our enemies, and develop new countermeasures.
Here are three issues we think the international anarchist movement should explore in the coming years.
Drones
Aerial surveillance is rapidly becoming cheaper and more efficient. How should we react to the presence of police drones at riots, anarchist events, and so on? How can we detect or take down drones? Should we prepare for the risk of drones being used for routine aerial patrols, and if so, how?
Facial recognition technologies
In 2023, a journalist tracked down German left-wing militant Daniela Klette, who had been in clandestinity for decades, by using facial recognition technology to match a decades-old photo of her with a recent photo from Facebook taken during a dance class. What can we do against this threat? How can we prepare for the increasing integration of facial recognition technology into public video surveillance systems?
Lack of insight into police activity
Until a few years ago, radio scanners were used by anarchists to monitor police frequencies, for example to learn about nearby police activity while carrying out a direct action. In most contexts, this is now impossible because police communications are encrypted. Can we develop new techniques to functionally replace radio scanners or, more generally, to gain insight into police activity in a given area?
About the authors
We’re the No Trace Project. For the past three years, we’ve been building tools to help anarchists understand the capabilities of their enemies, undermine surveillance efforts, and ultimately act without getting caught. We plan to continue in the years to come. We welcome feedback. You can visit our website at notrace.how, and contact us at notrace@autistici.org.
This text is available as a zine (in Letter and A4 dimensions).
Let’s prepare ourselves, and may luck be on our side.
So the fascists won in the united states, in france, in italy… and they’re banging at our door. What do we do now? Well, we do what we’ve always been doing: We organize!
Build an immigrant support network
Lots of people will be forced to flee the states. The threat of “denaturalization” (a fancy word for deporting anyone non-white) means that a lot of racialized people might be forced to leave the united states in a hurry. A lot of LGBTQ+ people, and especially trans folks, will be looking for shelter very soon, due to transphobic and queerphobic laws.
Americans are currently looking to build an underground railroad to help bring people to safe places. We should therefore make sure that there are actually safe places for them here. As long as canada marks the united states as a safe country, a lot of these people might end up here without a legal status. The drawback of a more social state like ours is that we rely on that state for a lot of our services. Therefore, infrastructure for people without a legal status here in Tio’tia:ke is rather limited.
The Immigrant Workers Center (iwc-cti.ca) works with people with precarious status and will need support. Solidarity accross borders (solidarityacrossborders.org) is also building support for people with precarious status and will also need help.
Assist your local antifascists
We’re not exactly in a safe place either here. Fascism is also on the rise here. The legault government is inching everyday to full-blown fascism, and the federal conservatives might be elected on a very far-right mandate. And that’s without taking into account the actual nazis and their apologists. Contact your local antisfacsist crew (in Tio’tia:ke see montreal-antifasciste.info) to see how you can help, or create your own crew! At the very least, take down any sign of fascist presence. Don’t let them take any hold in your neighborhood!
We’ve also seen a recrudesence of punk and metal shows, despite the recent closure of friendly scenes. These shows have been mostly apolitical, and if we’re not careful, they can be taken over by fascist crowds. Hosting friendly merch tables can help remind people of what is at stake, and the importance of kicking out fascists and nazis from our shows.
Build alternatives to lost services
One of the main issue in the united states, and possibly soon in canada, is access to abortion services, and gender-affirming hormones. But there was a time when we could take care of most of these services ourselves. The older trans generation might remember a time when trans people would meet at people’s home to learn how to cook their own estrogen and testosterone. The american Four Thieves Vinegar Collective (fourthievesvinegar.org) provides this service by teaching people some basic pharmaceutical skills.
Another solution could be to build a health clinic cooperative. The Clinique Communautaire Pointe-Saint-Charles (ccpsc.qc.ca) is an example, and have been providing health services to the Pointe for decades now. While these cooperatives are theoretically bound by the laws of the land, it could be a lot easier to do some additional services on the side than at an hospital or state-owned clinic. This might be crucial for people without status, for instance.
Prepare for climate catastrophes
At this stage, climate catastrophes are to be expected. The current “leaders” of the world have made their policy to ignore the climate crisis. We cannot expect any action to address it in the forseeable future. Protective measures will probably protect richer neirghborhoods, to the expense of others. We’ve already seen sea walls being built to protect white-owned houses, and consequently pushing the water surges into racialized neighborhoods.
We got hit hard this summer in Laval, but it was nothing compared to what we’ve seen in Asheville (north carolina) and Valencia (spain). The Firestorm Books collective in Asheville provides some information of what they did after the catastrophe. There are also a number of anarchist mobile intervention units ready to intervene following a tornado storm or a hurricane. They are often quicker to respond than state resources, especially less affluent areas.
While we’re not currently in a tornado or hurricane-prone area, this might change soon. We could use such resources.
Learn to disobey
While it can be tempting for some to perform a highly visible action, this is not something that most people can do. That doesn’t mean that you can do nothing! Every little can help : Forget to ask for identification before giving a service. Mark a lifesaving medication as lost, and give it to people without status. Loose the police’s request for information, or return it with the wrong information, to the wrong address. Confer with colleagues to refuse to apply racist, sexist policies.
The legault government recently pass the racist bill 96, which forces government employees to speak french to the people who come for services. What we’ve seen in practice is that almost every worker disobey that law, despite having received a stern directive to apply it. Most government employees will speak to you with the language you prefer, despite the law forbidding them to.
This refusal to obey is significant. This is what we need in a fascist state. Well, we won’t cry if certain (or all!) embassies were to burn down during the night, but this is not something most people are willing to do. Learning to disobey, this is something we all can do, and should learn to do.
Conclusion
This aim of this little article is just to give you some hints on what you can do. There are many other things we will need! The key is to be curious, observant, and imaginative. Look around you, talk to your comrades, and see what people are missing, determine what needs to be done. The old approaches got us into this mess: maybe it is time to find new ones.
One thing is certain: they want to drag us all into the night. The least we can do is to be kicking and screaming!
As of August 2024, construction work has started on the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline. The project is owned by Western LNG and the Nisgaa Nation, the latter which has allowed for construction to start on their land first, the rural Nass river valley that sits adjacent to the Pacific ocean. State and industry are committed to developing an “energy corridor” through the remote region. The nearly completed and fiercely contested Coastal Gas Link pipeline was the first pipeline in the southern energy corridor, and PRGT is the first pipeline projected for the northern energy corridor. The line is set to end at Ksi Lisims LNG terminal (Nisgaa owned as well) where liquid and natural gas would be stored and prepared for export to international markets by tankers. LNG is being sold as a green alternative for those looking to shift away from coal. But the green transition is a lie. We know that energy, and its current reorganization, is inseparable from domination, capitalist exploitation and the extractivist logic that devastates the land. We propose attack.
Social tension is rising against PRGT. Multiple sites of resistance have been brewing across North-Central BC. In 2016, during the first attempts at construction, the Madii Lii camp was set up to blockade access to the pipeline right of way in the Suskwa valley in Gitxan territory. The camp remains to this day. Northwest of there, another Gitxsan blockade has been set up on the Cranberry Connector, the northern of the two roads into the Nass valley. Gitxsan people have a long history of defending their land, notably some anti-logging struggles in the 80-90’s, and expressing their solidarity with their Wet’swuwet’en neighbors by blockading railways. We stand in solidarity with native resistance, which will likely snowball into more blockades in key areas of the project. Conjointly, as anarchists we have our own projects of destruction. Autonomous attacks allow us to expand the methods of struggle, to engage in conflict at our own pace, how and where we sit fit, and to not compromise our visions and values. We propose an offensive struggle of diffuse blows carried out by affinity groups in dispersed formation, as others have said, to act without forming compact columns, without building permanent indefensible encampments. Instead, we seek to extend diffuse hostilities over a large terrain.
An autonomous struggle against the PRGT pipeline project begins by looking at the tool and capacities we currently have, identifying what we need to learn and acting from that without delay. The project spans thousands of kilometers, the offices, homes and interests of the companies behind it are spread throughout Canada and beyond. An expansive practice of attack can identify and target these diverse sites. Below are lists of companies involved in the project as well as links to a map of the project’s right of way. More work should be done to identify additional companies involved and the findings should be shared via counter info sites.
Companies involved in PRGT project
Ledcor – Is a construction company operating primarily in Canada and United States. Ledcor operates in a wide range of industries, including the construction of buildings and civil infrastructure, technical services such as communication networks, forestry, mining, property development and management, transportation, marine operations, and several energy projects, including oil, gas, and Liquefied Natural Gas. Ledcor is leading the current phase of infrastructure upgrades necessary to begin pipeline construction. Ledcor is currently upgrading or maintaining roads, bridges, man camp sites etc.
Bechtel– Is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company. Bechtel is managing the construction of the PRGT pipeline.
McElhanney – provides surveying, engineering, GIS & remote sensing, community & transportation planning, landscape architecture, environmental services, and more. McElhanney has been and continues to be responsible for surveying and monitoring of environment for the PRGT project. They have over 30+ locations across Western Canada. A McElhanney office near the PRGT project was the target of an anonymous arson in late September: https://bccounterinfo.org/2024/10/12/arson-attack-in-terrace-bc/
From November 22nd to 25th, NATO’s parliamentary assembly will be in Montreal for its mortifying circus. From a military alliance during the Cold War, NATO has today become the armed wing of Western countries, imposing its bellicose policies throughout the world. Faced with these war profiteers, it is imperative that we make our voices heard and combat their destructive logic.
The impact of NATO on our policies is huge:
Increases to military budgets: This summit comes at a time when NATO is pressuring the Canadian government to increase the share of its GDP devoted to the armed forces to 2%, a 50% increase, while the Canadian government has already increased its military investments by 41% from 2014 to 2021.
Destruction in the name of United-Statesian imperialism: Let’s not be fooled by the sterile language of Western forces; NATO’s interventions, far from being strategic and precise, are rather excessively powerful, disproportionate and imprecise. NATO destroys everything in its path, spreading misery and encouraging the multiplication of armed groups, all to preserve the interests of its member states, principally the United States, pillar of the alliance and giant of the military-industrial complex. This imperialist logic keeps the peoples of the Global South poor and dependent on the Global North.
Aiding and abetting the Palestinian genocide: So-called Canada is complicit in the genocide in Palestine by contributing to the supply of weapons, facilitating economic and academic partnerships and, above all, by its unwavering support for Israel, NATO’s central ally. It is through military support for Zionist forces that NATO is able to maintain a strategic foothold in the Middle East, in order to advance the political and economic interests of its members.
Peace will not be won at the point of a gun, but by putting an end to imperialism and capitalism. It is in honor of all the colonized peoples of yesterday, today and tomorrow, here and elsewhere, that we call on your courage and determination to walk the streets with us!
On November 22, let’s take it to the streets en masse to make our anger heard! Let’s unite to remind States the world over that their hands will always be stained with the blood of the exploited, no matter how much they try to hide it in velvet gloves or laughable summits!
Together, let’s block NATO and affirm our rejection of militarism, imperialism and colonialism!
Date and time: Friday, 22 November 2024 – 17:30
A journal written in 3 weeks in preparation for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from November 22 to 25, 2024. The full document in pdf. Or just the English or French version.
