Let’s be honest, this was a fucking summer camp: a postmortem of the failures of UofT’s so-called People’s Circle for Palestine

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Jul 232024

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

As the zionist entity’s siege on Gaza enters its ninth month, the now-dead People’s Circle for Palestine at UofT joins the ashes of Northwestern, McMaster, and numerous others as an exemplar of liberal cowardice in the face of a livestreamed genocide. Not only did this encampment fail to deliver on its stated goals of disclosure, divestment, and termination, it betrayed both the people that made it possible as well as the movement at large. Far from opening up new terrains of escalatory struggle, the organizers of this People’s Circle spent the sixty-three days of its existence working tirelessly to make it a remarkable case study in defanging and dismantling the budding militancy of the local movement. It perverted its own promises, violated every principle of liberatory organizing; it wasted multiple weeks sabotaging the efforts of its own comrades while thousands in Gaza continued to be murdered. It turned something that could have been revolutionary for the city’s organizing scene to a summer camp that years on will likely be remembered with nothing but shame. It was a disappointment and a disgrace.

Red flags had existed right from the moment it was launched, but one could be forgiven for having been optimistic back when the encampment was still within its infancy. For many in the city who were disillusioned by months of pointless rallies and hungered for more, there had initially been a few things to be optimistic about. By Toronto’s unfortunately low standards, breaking open the fences of an enclosed privately-owned space to set up camp while multiple banner-wielding crews physically blocked the police from interfering was pretty damn militant. Yet this sole act of breaking and entering, it soon became clear, was where the line was drawn. In the two months following the breaching of King’s College Circle’s fences, UofT saw not one single large-scale escalation for Gaza: no building occupations, no disruptions of Board of Governor meetings, not even convocation ceremonies were meaningfully targeted. In fact, forget escalation: even simple attempts to strengthen the encampment’s defenses were constantly shot down. Autonomous actors were repeatedly prevented even from building barricades and had to defy the organizers in order to reinforce the preexisting fences, and the tactics trainings independent crews had started in the camp were forced to a halt halfway through.

While encampments all across the world were courageously confronting police forces and taking on their universities in ever more creative ways, the organizers of the so-called People’s Circle chose to abandon the very possibility of a principled defense or strategic escalation, not only failing to build a movement that could sustain such a struggle but actively ensuring any elements that were interested in doing so were killed off. Rather than focusing on building up the community’s material capacity to defend itself and keep on escalating, the organizers focused on pandering to corporate media, on ‘deescalating’ confrontations with the pigs, on preventing any autonomous actions that might make them ‘look bad’ or ‘invite’ police repression. They devoted their time not towards principled resistance but towards crafting an image that portrayed them as ‘peaceful’ and ‘nonviolent’ in a futile attempt to initiate ‘good faith dialogue’ with a system that understands no language but violence. Instead of focusing on what they could do to continue targeting the infrastructures sustaining this genocide, they focused entirely on whether what they did remained legal, and whether it looked good on camera. And their flimsy excuses for taking this approach – namely that the risks of continued escalation were ‘too high’ to be worth it and that their priority was ensuring the continued ‘safety’ of all participants – remain precisely that. Flimsy excuses, rooted in an illusory liberal notion of ‘safety’ built on centuries of corpses.

Because there is no safety to be found in abiding by the laws of the state, nor is there safety to be found in pandering to its propagandists. It does not truly matter if an action is legal or not, because the law is fundamentally a weapon of the oppressor. If the armed swine that are supposed to enforce it are inclined to inflict violence, there is no law that will stop them. What can, however, is our own ability to evade capture, or to fight back. To defend ourselves not by appealing to the laws of our enemies but by the strength of our own ability. In the same vein, it does not matter if it looks good on corporate cameras – because for starters, no matter how legal and peaceful our actions are, it fucking won’t. Almost a year of witnessing corporate media’s relentless vilification of Palestine and her allies is more than enough proof that its sole raison d’être is to manufacture consent for genocide. Any positive press possibly gained by painting our actions at ‘legal’ and ‘peaceful’ comes at the cost of legitimizing the perceived necessity for legality and nonviolence – yet no act that poses a genuine threat to the state and its interests can ever remain either. Any ‘safety’ built upon seeking recognition and approval from the apparatus of our enemy is a ‘safety’ built on sand – and any ‘safety’ that disavows the praxis of genuine resistance is a ‘safety’ paid for in blood. Liberal notions of ‘safety’ within the imperial core are contingent upon our refusal to take the risks needed to end the continued slaughter of thousands of Palestinians. They are contingent upon letting people continue to face the ever increasing violence of manufactured poverty, of police and carceral brutality, of eugenicist policies, and of ongoing settler colonialism, right here in our own communities. We do not keep us safe by letting others be thrown under the bulldozers and tanks of colonial violence. No, as our friends at Palestine Action US tell us – and as the cowards within OccupyUofT refuse to understand – we keep us safe by escalating.

Yet OccupyUofT’s destruction of militant efforts within the encampment wasn’t merely a result of their deference to optics and legality, nor was it simply a matter of their own refusal to escalate. Organizers, after all, can be ignored, marshalls punched, and cameras smashed. For these liberal tendencies to make a dent, the rot had to go far deeper. The so-called People’s Circle’s steady dismantling of militancy was rooted ultimately in its deeply exploitative relationship to everyone outside its limited organizing circles, to the community at large, and particularly to so-called ‘outside agitators’. For some background, the People’s Circle was launched immediately after the academic year had ended, right as thousands of students were wrapping up with their exams and leaving the city. It could never have been sustained without the critical support of hundreds of local community members unaffiliated with the group and the university. It relied on ‘outside agitators’ since the beginning – yet said ‘outside agitators’ were unsurprisingly neglected at best, and vilified, isolated, assaulted, and forcibly driven out at worst. Organizers constantly demanded unending amounts of labor, love, and logistical support from the community, consistently exploiting people’s goodwill and commitment to the cause to sustain this summer camp, while reciprocating with neither care nor solidarity nor even basic respect.

Rather than empowering people to take independent initiative and do what needed doing, organizers consistently acted on arrogant, authoritarian tendencies, acting not to distribute power but to consolidate it among themselves and the select few they approved of. They withheld crucial information from others, refused transparency with regard to finances even though every cent of their funds was drawn from community donations, and created an internal culture where nothing could be done without asking for permission from the Right People. They refused to listen to criticism, acted as though they knew everything, and repeatedly patronized multiple people with far more experience in organizing. They demanded people trust them yet refused to reciprocate – not granting others any meaningful ability to participate in collective decisionmaking, while also simultaneously trying to sabotage autonomous organizing and telling people they have no right to make ‘unilateral decisions’. This so-called ‘liberated’ zone was marked foremost, therefore, by the almost immediate imposition of a hierarchy between the organizers and everyone else. Not an exit from the social order imposed upon us by those in power, but the recreation of the same within a microcosm that openly – and falsely – branded itself as revolutionary.

Every hierarchy, of course, requires the violence of its maintenance. It is thus entirely unsurprising that the range of tactics OccupyUofT employed to maintain this power structure, in several cases, was nothing short of abusive. Finding a number of natural allies amongst the liberal factions of large orgs like PYM Toronto and Toronto 4 Palestine, they and their extended network of liberal marshals and ‘deescalators’ subjected people to endless tone-policing, shut them off by invoking a supposed need for ‘maintaining unity’ and ‘centering Gaza’, weaponized identity politics even against Palestinians, and if those tactics didn’t work, harassed folks into either shutting up or leaving. They deliberately exposed people to police and Zionist violence, spread rumors about multiple individuals, publicly named comrades who’d explicitly said they did not want to be identified, and recklessly shared around people’s sensitive personal information without ever asking for their consent. Organizers relentlessly badjacketed and even copjacketed several militants, labelled them as ‘wreckers’ who shouldn’t be worked with, and in atleast one instance forcibly kicked them out of the camp after a sustained days-long witchhunt. They created a space that was not only against militant actions but actively hostile to militant presence, isolating, alienating, and traumatizing dozens of our city’s most experienced and committed organizers into no longer wanting anything to do with the encampment.

Perhaps the most powerful weapon in their arsenal of anti-militant tactics, however, was the way the organizers enabled various forms of oppression against the very people whose circle it was supposed to be. OccupyUofT deliberately excluded unhoused comrades with far more experience in encampment defense by enabling repeated instances of harassment against them, denying their offers of organizing support, and in many instances even very explicitly refusing them entry. They tolerated and enabled tokenization and disrespect against the very indigenous aunties whose land they camped on, compelling several land defenders into leaving, dismantling the sacred fire, and denouncing the encampment. They threw around racist slurs at Black and South Asian people; dehumanized queer and trans people, particularly trans women; and perpetuated an ableist culture that treated people as mere disposable bodies worth little more than their labor. They failed to keep out predatory ‘leftist’ organizations with well-documented histories of enabling sexual abuse, and they failed to adequately address instances of sexual assault and harassment when they did occur inside the encampment. They enforced a ‘campers only’ food policy that denied everyone except those staying overnight access to food – all while throwing heaps of perfectly edible meals into the compost every single week.

In other words, the organizers spent multiple weeks shutting down militant actors in the name of keeping the community ‘safe’, yet actively endangering many of its most oppressed members – while sparing no effort whatsoever, of course, in portraying themselves as welcoming and inclusive and even liberatory to their thirty thousand Instagram followers. Over the course of two months, they reduced the word solidarity to a hollow caricature of itself, a performance that meant nothing more than statements and instagram story-posts. They failed utterly to realize that the saying ‘all our struggles are connected’ isn’t some meaningless feel-good platitude, but a material reality – a reality that cannot be ignored if we are to set anyone free. In effectively reducing their efforts for Palestine to a ‘single-issue’ struggle, in alienating, excluding, and actively harming entire groups of potential comrades, in focusing entirely on posturing and performance instead of doing the actual fucking work, the organizers of the People’s Circle deprived the movement of building up its true collective power. Because the fact of the matter is this: liberation starts at home. To paraphrase a recent piece by Dr Ayesha Khan, one worth reading in its entirety: the genocide in Palestine does not exist in a vacuum. It is intricately connected to a global web of violence that includes the daily carnage taking place right at our doorstep. It is this web we must dismantle – and to do so, we must start by pulling at the threads closest to us.

Yet OccupyUofT did none of that. Instead, it operated from a shallow, arrogant, liberal middle-classist framework of organizing that focused almost entirely on political theatre at the expense of any material community- and movement-building. In doing so, it only masterfully engineered its own defeat: by the time the injunction order inevitably came, the organizers found themselves with nearly nobody willing or able to defend the camp, nor were they able to wield the threat of continued disruptions as leverage in furthering negotiations to arrive at a deal they could settle for without looking bad. They can pat themselves in the back all they want, but they know as well as we do that they did not clear out ‘on their own terms’. They did exactly what the university and the pigs wanted, because they had spent the last two months ensuring the very possibility of a principled defense or an escalatory response were rendered impossible. The so-called People’s Circle died the way it did because it had long ceased to be a protest, let alone anything that resembled a liberatory project. That ‘closing press conference’ – that’s right, a fucking press conference – marked only the end of a sixty-three day long summer camp that had all too gladly traded in the very essence of liberatory praxis for the smoke and mirrors of media attention, power-hungry nonsense, and individualist clout building. Its shameful, pathetic, cowardly end was a perfect illustration of the fact that the so-called People’s Circle had been rendered empty of substance long before it was emptied of tents – that all that remained was spectacle.

Yet the encampment is not the movement. As the zionist entity’s genocidal assault on Gaza enters its ninth month, those of us in Toronto that take to heart the phrase ‘by any means necessary’ must not let OccupyUofT’s neoliberal ineptitude demoralize us into inaction. The damage done is immeasurable: far too many of us find ourselves exhausted, traumatized, and isolated from a disintegrating community unable to do anything but watch our networks get torn apart while Gaza continues to be bombed. Betrayed by the callousness and cowardice of those that were supposed to be our comrades, far too many of us feel more hopeless than ever in this fight against the global war machine. Yet hope or no hope, we know this: there is no future for any of us within this existing order, and nothing to be done except to fight. If short-sighted and self-interested actors have harmed our collective ability to do so, we must find ways to nurture it back. We must build the infrastructure necessary for sustained, meaningful, material disruptions against every institution where the hydra of zionism and imperialism rear their ugly heads, and we must start doing so now. There is no other choice. We have never been exempt from the struggle – our task, too, is Intifada, and Intifada means attack.

Key to this task are of course the principles and praxis of solidarity, mutual aid, and community building, which not only constitute direct action in and of themselves but form the building blocks atop which all other direct action is sustained on. The praxis of solidarity can look like joining a weekly mutual aid distro, or running donation drives for unhoused people, or helping to organize jail and legal supports. It could look like inviting your neighbors over for dinner, or letting friends with abusive families crash on your couch, or sharing gatekept meds with those who need them, or bringing extra N95 masks to the function. It does not matter if’s considered capital-O Organizing. What matters is supporting each other, connecting to and building together with the most marginalized among us, and forging resilient relationships – relationships that can withstand both the unrelenting lure of liberalism and the batons of state repression, relationships that remain rock solid when things go to shit, that can form the bedrock of a movement that, in the face of a livestreamed genocide, can actually shut things down. Setting fire to cop cars or mass-sabotaging arms factories is hardly imaginable when so many of us are far too caught up in the daily agonies of surviving capitalism and barely even know each other, let alone have longstanding networks of support, trust, and care. If we seek to build militancy in so-called Toronto, we must build a culture where militants are cared for and care for each other – a culture where people are cared for and care for each other. Faced against the twin threats of state repression and an activist scene dominated by a hostile liberal rhetoric wedded to farcical nonviolence and privileged safetyism, this is a foundation we simply cannot do without.

Rebuilding our communities and support networks is the only first of many steps: we must also push back against both liberal anti-militancy rhetoric and state intimidation, we must equip ourselves with the skills we need to actually disrupt business as usual, and we must foster the radicalization of new militants. We need agitprop, education, training. We need one-on-one conversations, we need zines, we need teach-ins, we need wheatpaste and stickers and spray paint, we need weekly self-defense practice – as our friends at CUNY put it, we need escalation trainings. We need to claim ground against the pervasive rhetoric of nonviolence and stop feeding the cowardly illusion that freedom can ever be won by merely appealing to the moral sense of the oppressor. We need to build a broader collective understanding of what it truly means to support resistance, of why it is imperative for our movements to develop teeth if we hope to even leave a scratch upon the leviathan body of imperialism. We need to remember that pigs and politicians are just as mortal as us plebeians. We need to turn cross-movement solidarity into an inviolable principle and a daily praxis instead of continuing to treat it as a bonus add-on, as something to be acted on only when convenient. We need to remind ourselves that we too live under a colonial monstrosity built on genocide, that our most paramount task in the fight for Palestinian liberation will always be to fight for the death of the settler state that exists right here on these lands. We need to teach each other how to dearrest comrades, how to use Tails, how to care for our suicidal friends, how to make unsanctioned street art, how to administer naloxone, how to liberate food from corporate megastores, how to survive a night in jail. We need to do so frequently and consistently, we need to find ways to scale up our projects, we need to bring in new people, and we need to make sure they are supported single every step of the way.

Most importantly perhaps, we need to step the fuck up and practice the things that we preach. The past nine months have shown us that liberals will gladly continue to pat themselves on the back for mindlessly repeating the same useless tactics over and over again while Gaza continues to burn. The past nine months have shown us that there is no critical threshold of livestreamed Palestinian suffering that when crossed will naturally result in worldwide revolt – if as many as two hundred thousand Palestinian martyrs are not enough, nothing will be. The movement will never naturally shift from one of hypocrites shouting ‘shut it down’ while yellow-vested pigs with megaphones make sure the empire is never inconvenienced to one of principled militants actually following through on the promise of the chant. If we want militancy, we will have to build it, and we will all have to do so by actually being fucking militant. And it will have to involve all of us, because every single one of us has a vital part to play. We will need people who are down to confront pigs on the front lines and sabotage infrastructures in the dead of night, just as we will need people to secure logistical necessities and track enemy movements, just as we will need people to support injured comrades on the ground, to organize jail supports in the aftermath, to make sure we’re fed and cared for and ready to fight another day. We’ve waited for too long – it’s time we remember what we’re capable of and start organizing the sustained material disruptions we wish to see in the world. Gaza demands that we escalate – it’s time you and I heed her call.

Our efforts will never be perfect. New challenges will undoubtedly continue to emerge both from within and without. We will face increasing state repression, just as we will face liberal reaction, just as we will face internal conflicts and fractures. Yet we cannot let these challenges keep deterring us. We owe it to Gaza to try, and when we fail, we owe it to Gaza to keep trying. We owe it to Hind Rajab, to Refaat Alareer, to Mohammed Bhar, to Hamza Dahdouh, to Shireen Abu-Akleh, to Ghassan Kanafani. We owe it to Breonna Taylor, to Regis Korchinski-Paquet, to Nex Benedict and to Pauly Likens, to Corrie and to Bushnell, to Tortuguita, to Fred Hampton. To the countless others that have lost their lives in the struggle against zionism and settler colonialism – in the last nine months, the last century, the last five hundred years. We owe it to those still alive – to those that every single day continue to resist against the global industrial slaughterhouse we are all being led towards. We owe it to ourselves to fight. By any means necessary.

The secret, as always, is to begin.

Reportback from Vancouver Anti-fascists RE: Diagolon Rage Tour 2024

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Jul 232024

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On Friday July 19^th. Anti-fascists around so called Vancouver mobilized to conduct surveillance of the extreme fascist group “Diagolon” on their third official ticketed stop on their cross country tour dubbed “Rage Tour 2024” by Diagolon. The event followed ticketed events in Ottawa and Calgary, and unticketed meet and greets in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Regina, Lethbridge, Kelowna, and Nanaimo.

The email sent to ticket holders is as follows:

“Good evening, bigots!

You will be sent to a pre-location nearby the final location that could be up to a 50 minute drive from Vancouver. This is due to severe cases of Trantifa and Diagolon Derangement Syndrome (DDS) within the city of Vancouver and surrounding areas. We hope any inconveniences will be made up for in our effort to protect ticket holders from Circs. The final location will be emailed 6(ish)hrs in advance via email from this account, (please forward any q’s to inforoadrage@proton.me)

4-7pm volunteers and Road Rage Terror Tour team arrive, set up, eat at venue

7-8pm VIP’s early entry, (please be at the pre-location area 10-15mins prior if possible)

8-9pm General Admission entry, (please be at the pre-location area 10-15mins prior if possible)

9-12pm(ish) Show

– Catered food will be available for cash only purchase. Smokie combo with a drink and chips $19, cheeseburger combo with drinks and chips $19. Chips and drinks available seperately as well

– Alcoholic beverages will NOT be served at the event for insurance and safety reasons. If you arrive intoxicated or become a problem in general you will be removed from the venue. Non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase – cash/coins are ideal.

– Do not bring weapons of any kind or you will be removed from the venue.

– Backpacks, bags and similar cargo carrying accessories may be subject to search for safety and insurance reasons.

– This is a private event. Phones and recording devices must be disabled and hidden during the venue, left inside your vehicle or at home. The contents of the event including visual, audio recording, streams and photos are proprietary to GRIFT CORP. Unauthorized recording of any kind will result in your removal from the venue and GRIFT CORP will pursue civil litigation against offenders.

– Security teams are in place to keep an eye on vehicles and measures have been put in place to avoid Trantifa issues.

– There will be Dag swag for sale via cash or e-transfe.

– Entering the event serves as an acknowledgment and agreement to the terms above.

We look forward to seeing you!

– Jeremy Mackenzie, Alex Vriend (The Ferryman) Derek (Rants) Harrison and Morgan May(hem)

#DiagolonForever \\\

Tickets
www.thegrift.shop/rage-tour-2024/

Website:
www.ragingdissident.com

Anti-fascist surveillance teams were in place to collect information on ticket holders and attendees. A small portion of that information will be shared here.

Location:

The initial location was at the Grove Church (20784 93 Avenue Langley, BC, V1M 2W5) roughly an hour from Vancouver. At any given time there were roughly 7-15 individuals standing out front greeting guests and acting as a stationary security team. There were also roving surveillance teams in pickup trucks and what are currently believed to be rental cars and other vehicles. The perimeter was wide, and vehicles were equipped with cameras. Security was also seen patrolling on foot around the neighbourhood.

The secondary location was the West Langley Hall, 9402 208 St, Langley, BC run by the Langley Lions Club just down the street. Participants walked to the secondary location, and eventually moved the roughly 70 vehicles to the main venues parking lot.

Attendance:

Approximately 70 individuals, including Jeremy Mackenzie and his wife Morgan May were in attendance.

(From left to right) Morgan May, Jeremy Mackenzie, Derek Harrison, currently unknown chud

Spotting the Fash in your town:

The Diagolon team is driving in a 2009 Jayco Melbourne Class C RV (image below). While some vehicles had unmistakably white-supremacist stickers with unmistakably white-supremacist drivers, many vehicles were unmarked, and their occupants unassuming. Obtaining the first location, and locating community halls in a nearby proximity could assist you in quickly finding the final destination. Look for individuals moving between the locations and look for the RV. Security members had headsets connected to radios and some were trying to remain unseen. Inside the venue there was a lot of chanting, raucous applause and yelling of hateful rhetoric.

Some of what we know about Diagolon:

Diagolon is a violent and bigoted group, who often speak of commiting violent acts against racialized people, queers, and leftists. They are highly nationalistic, self described white supremacists, and avowed accelerationist neo-nazis who claim they would die for their cause. Several of their members, including their founder Jeremy Mackenzie have violent pasts, including weapons and assault charges. The group came to national headlines during the Coutts border blockade in relation to the anti-vaxx protests in February of 2022 in which several Diagolon members were arrested in possession of semi-automatic rifles and armour plated vests adorned in Diagolon patches. They have openly boasted about their recruitment success in the Canadian Armed Forces (several of their followers have been confirmed to have served or currently serve in the military), and have at least one former Toronto Police Sargeant in their ranks. In clips pulled from Jeremy Mackenzies podcast The Raging Dissident he often calls for the murder and expulsion of Indians, Sikhs, Chinese, Somalians, leftists, Jews, political opponents and queers while rambling nonsensically about pseudo-scientific racial hierarchies while in fits of barely controlled rage. Jeremy Mackenzie currently lives in the town of Pictou Nova Scotia, according to his Wikipedia page, a town of just over 3100 people.

Where do we go from here:

Diagolon and their growing group of followers emerge through state-sanctioned racist, homophobic, and bigoted world views. Many of their compatriots were radicalized during the lockdowns, and often participate in anti-mask, and anti-sogi demonstrations. While we too desire for another world, our desires are incompatible with celebrations of hate and any white ethno-state-making project. Beyond collecting information, a surveillance mission with a group of trusted friends is a great way to build trust, sharpen your skills, escalate your sneak, and be better equipped for the next time fash bubble up in your town. Be sure to protect each other in tangible ways, and be ready for confrontations. Diagolon members often lament about their wishes to beat up or kill anti-fascists. This should scare you, it should also sharpen your resolve and activate you and your community. The state will not save us, whether they label groups like Diagolon & The Proud Boys terrorist organizations or not. We need to increase our communities capacities to take these groups on and protect each other in the streets and in our homes. Self defense means literally fighting back.

Toronto Police Approaching People to be Confidential Informants

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Jul 132024

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

In case you missed it, Toronto Police have recently been attempting an old tactic against Palestinian solidarity organizers: soliciting arrestees to become confidential informants.

While this isn’t a new tactic, the blatant and concerted attempt to conjure informants in community organizing spaces is.

Writing this, I know of at least four separate individuals approached by police.

Each approach has been similar: the individual is arrested, charged, and then prior to being released, approached by a detective from Toronto Police’s Hate Crimes & Extremism Unit (HCEU).

Many major municipal police forces in so-called southern Ontario have a HCEU, usually nested within their “Intelligence Division”. These are the units that track and gather intel on protests, organizers, and mobilizers. The municipal units together form a provincial network – the Hate Crime Extremism Investigation Team (HCEIT) – which attend trainings together, document and share intel in various ways, and work closely with provincial and federal intelligence bodies.*

The detective’s approach is very straightforward: they inquire whether the individual knows what a “confidential informant” or “CI” is. The detective suggests that perhaps the individual has concerns about the actions of some of their comrades, and they tell the arrestee that if they have information to share it doesn’t need to happen through their lawyer. In some cases there’s an insinuation that the detective could talk to the crown on their behalf if were to provide information, but without promising anything.

It’s worth noting that we have seen police make informational approaches to individuals in the GTHA area before.

In Hamilton during the height of Landback Lane we saw the OPP approach an individual, suggesting they may be concerned about what people they knew were up to. Likewise, Hamilton Police have previously coerced people in to coming to the police station under the guise that they were being charged. Instead they were solicited for information, then released. As well, during escalating anti-line 9 organizing, at least one individual in the Waterloo region was approached by an intelligence body to inform on people.

In each of these cases – as well as the recent Toronto examples – the individuals being approached were “newer” or peripheral to organizing (at least locally). Police intentionally choose to approach these individuals because they believe:

The individual may not have the support of others at that time, and out of duress (real or imagined) may give information
The individual has yet to develop core politics of the struggle (i.e. ACAB/Don’t talk to cops)
The individual may not have developed attachment to the people or struggle they’re being asked to inform on, and more likely to give up information as a result

While police may most often approach folks new to the scene, this isn’t good reason to exclude those new enthusiastic folks from our spaces or movements – but it is a good reason we need to take the time to get to know folks coming in to our scenes and circles as often as possible. Building genuine relational movements means people are better supported (not just in moments of repression, but especially then), and more likely to move us towards building movements that can grow in both size and risk-taking, while resisting repression.

Remember: Don’t talk to cops!

A Mini Primer on Informants

People might agree to inform because of:

Fear/Isolation
- This could be fear of their legal predicament, or something police have done to covertly or overtly threaten them, or both. Especially fear in isolation/without support.
Attention, self-importance
- Making themselves important to someone, even if it’s a fucking pig.
Conflict/Bad Politics
- They don’t have ACAB politics – they believe police will solve whatever issue they have with whomever or whatever, or they’re pissed at someone (in combo with bad politics)

Which leaves us with: What can WE do, collectively, to dissuade or render CI’s useless?

Have and continue building good security culture and OpSec practises
Create opportunities in movements (especially) for people to question and understand anti-cop politics, even if it’s via an anonymous zine library or reading group. Learn to have hard conversations.
Actively & proactively counter fear of repression by discussing it, creating opportunities for connection and relationship building with others experiencing it or likely to experience it – both in private groups and larger ones.
Build a culture of support, debrief, openness & transparency about repression, police & police approaches
Build skills, spaces, and support for conflict resolution in community. Police are adept in creating or inflaming controversy, and it’s only leaning in to hard conversations that will move us clearly through those moments.

Other Things to Remember:

Police don’t need to arrest someone to approach them to be a CI
We give police intel in many other ways – work on things in your control. Security culture. Operational security. Tech security. Be cognizant of everything you’re doing on frontlines while under surveillance: Are you taking photos on your phone and immediately posting to a key social media account? Are you always talking to the same few people right before a big decision is announced?
Someone disagreeing with you, your ideas, or your politics does not mean they’re a cop, informant, infiltrator, or disruptor. This type of thinking can paralyze us, and is ignorant. Large movements attract a huge number of people with difference backgrounds, experiences, ideas, all at varying moments in their political development. Your differences may mean you need to have some conversations or even reconsider collaborating – but that can usually be done amicably.

And finally, some affirmation: Police making a concerted effort to flip people means they want information – which means they don’t have the information they’re hoping to have. This is good news, and in some ways may even indicate that reasonable security practises are already working. Keep at it!

* Further notes on Hate Crime Extremism Units

The following police department HCEU’s form the provincial Hate Crime Extremism Investigation Team (HCEIT): Guelph, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Waterloo, Durham, Halton, Oxford, Toronto, York Region, Peel Region, Stratford, Brantford, Niagara.

HCEIT works with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Criminal Investigation Services Ontario (CISO), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) & Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

It’s worth noting that there have been recent and continuous federal, provincial funding being given to municipal hate crime units to investigate “antisemitism” and anti-muslim incidents. Antisemitism is in quotes because the state and some Jewish bodies sees all pro-Palestinian action as antisemitism, not because there have not been instances of such since October – and prior. Regardless, my point is that we are in a moment of heightened state surveillance & repression around pro-Palestinian organizing with some level of joint national and provincial directives happening. Act like it – but keep f*cking shit up!

More Notes on June 6, 2024

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Jul 032024

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

A summary of events

At around 4 PM, student protesters entered the James administration building of McGill University and disrupted the Board of Governors’ (BoG) meeting to oppose its complicity in the genocide in Gaza. The BoG is the highest instance of the university and decides in which companies its endowment fund is invested, including Israeli, Zionist and arms companies. Hundreds of protesters formed a support rally around the building, with some creating makeshift barricades with fences and furniture. An hour later, on the administration’s request, a strong police presence arrived on campus, including several dozen riot cops. The latter took control of the walkway east of the building and prevented protesters from protecting the north (back) entrance, thus confining them to the south (front) side of the building.

At around 6:30 PM, cops entered the building through the back entrance. They would soon begin arresting the protesters inside, who had tried to barricade the room they were in as best as they could. Simultaneously, cops brutally assaulted the support rally, using their batons, pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the protesters, who did not go out without a fight.

One particularly funny moment captured here is Deep Saini hiding from his students, cowering behind admin staff ushered out

The level of violence from the police surprised some demonstrators, with cops aiming tear gas or rubber bullet guns at people’s heads and intentionally shooting people with tear gas canisters, in addition to using huge quantities of chemical irritants.

At 7:15 PM, a demo started marching from the UQAM (another university) encampment towards McGill. The march symbolized the end of said encampment and had been announced several days prior; it was therefore not in direct reaction to the James building occupation, though its path might have been rerouted for the occasion. Protesters meandered through the Milton-Parc neighborhood to try to reach the administration building, but their attempts were thwarted by police following them and blocking streets. The demo finally tried to break through the police line on Milton street, just a mere hundred metres east of the James building. Protesters were then met with the violence and pepper spray of bike cops, backed up by riot police. In the disorientation that ensued, the protesters ran away and, one way or another, reached the Lower Field.

The UQAM crowd slowly regrouped there, joining forces with the McGill one. Those who were still good to go started marching again, unabated by the torrential rain. The demo meandered through the streets, with riot cops clearly blocking any road that might lead to the James. Once on Sherbrooke, a Scotiabank window was shattered. The protest continued wandering through Milton-Parc and went east, eventually disbanding on St-Laurent.

Some thoughts

The author of these reflections applauds everyone who partook in the occupation or the demos, and hopes the following thoughts are not taken as negative criticisms, but as things to think about, discuss and debate moving forward.

1. On communication: publicly announcing the BoG meeting on social media would have made the James occupation impossible, as the administration would have called the cops beforehand or moved the meeting online. However, I still think it would have been useful if McGill folks had shared the information with trusted UQAM folks. For one, this could have allowed the latter to advance their demo time and thus join the support rally. This would also have facilitated the exchange of knowledge and material, namely rope to allow the occupiers to escape through the windows and things to block the back entrance. On the last point, I think more intel should have been done to make sure every entrance had been dealt with.

2. On meteorological conditions: the heavy rain created unique conditions with some payoffs. While it might have discouraged more people from attending the demo, it somewhat mitigated the spread of pepper spray and tear gas and provided a good reason to bring umbrellas. Of course, goggles and masks still proved useful that day. The wind also made its presence known: there is footage of riot cops teargassing themselves because of it. Weather conditions and terrain geography (elevation, obstacles) still seem to be relatively unexplored areas of demo planning.

3. On objectives: both the march from UQAM and the subsequent one from Lower Field apparently had the goal of reaching the James. Other than its symbolic significance, this objective makes little sense in my opinion, since the cops had already entered the building before the first march was on its way. Also, the long meandering paths taken did not help reach the destination, as the cops could always see where we were headed. Nevertheless, the persistence and temerity of the protesters is worth acknowledging and commending. Older comrades even said the demo reminded them of combative night demos from 2012.

4. On demo formations: the UQAM demo had a few standoffs with the police, who were adamant on preventing it from getting to the James. As explained in the previous point, I still have difficulty understanding that objective. However, there might come a point in time where similar ones prove crucial in achieving wider goals. I will thus share my two cents on two noteworthy standoffs:

– The first one happened with bike cops preventing further advancing on Prince-Arthur street. After stopping for a brief while, protesters started marching again towards the cops, yelling “Bouge!” (Move!) to give them a taste of their own medicine. Some rocks were also thrown (albeit not very powerfully). Despite the comedic value of the whole scene, the cops did not cede, with some deploying pepper spray and others threatening the crowd with their bikes. The demo thus chose to turn away. In my opinion, the demo did not charge fast enough to instill psychological fear in the cops. It is somewhat understandable though, since the protesters didn’t have much in the way of equipment to neutralize the bicycles.

– The second standoff occurred on Milton street, where police vans were spread throughout the street and reduced mobility for both sides. Once again, the protesters faced bike cops, but this time, they made contact, as their resolve had hardened. The first three rows respectively held the following items: banner – umbrellas – flagpoles. The protesters held the line for a while, but fell into disarray after the cops made liberal use of pepper spray and riot cops arrived on the scene. I think that with more training, discipline and experience, the demo could have stayed grouped while the medics attended to those who had gotten sprayed. This would have prevented the ensuing disorganized and individualistic retreat. I also think that expanding the demo onto the sidewalks and attacking by the flanks (while still leaving an escape route for the cops) would have proven strategic.

Another tactic worth thinking about when cops deny entry to an area is the splitting of the demo into two or more groups, provided that they remain big enough. Each would take a different road to try and spread the police force thin. This allows the protesters to increase their surface area, i.e. the number of people directly facing the cops instead of waiting in the middle of a crowd. Needless to say, the successful execution of such maneuvers would require prior training and constant communication between the groups.

5. Be like water: our force stems from our ability to be anywhere and everywhere, whether it be at a protest or other actions. According to many comrades, the riot cops’ priority seemed to be to guard the James building. This limited their range of motion, and other types of cops seemed more interested in following the demo than protecting other potential targets, like the Scotiabank. On a broader level, the events illustrate an asymmetry between the people and state forces: the former, like steppe cavalry, have a harder time defending places, but are more agile; the latter, like heavy infantry, are stronger in direct confrontations (unless at a significant numerical disadvantage), but less mobile. While the police has various vehicles at their disposition, they can be slowed down by dragging objects into the street. Now, I am well aware that habit gets a bad rep because it doesn’t really slow down riot cops and can constitute a tripping hazard for ourselves. That being said, in narrower streets, it proved useful in creating some distance from bike cops and vans and giving protesters some time to regroup after a rout.

Queers, Are You Ready for the Backlash? Preparing for a Poilievre Government

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May 282024

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

A zine version of this text is available.

I’ve always liked connecting with other queer people and talking politics, comparing notes on how we see society and what is affecting us. But lately, this has been feeling quite urgent. The countdown is on until we end up with a reactionary federal government — there will be a federal election no later than October 2025, and if current trends hold, there will be a Conservative landslide that brings Pierre Poilievre to power.

This is soon, but we can still do a lot in 17 months. It feels important to me that queers and their friends use this time wisely, to try to get organized and prepare for a backlash against our social gains of the last few years.

But what makes Poilievre so special? He’s been in government a long time — isn’t he just a regular politician?

Poilievre has said a couple of things that would make for a departure from typical governance in Canada, but I want to focus on two: using the notwithstanding clause to bypass charter protections and rolling back transgender inclusion policies.

The notwithstanding clause (also known as Section 33) is particular to the Canadian political system and basically acts to limit the Charter framework of individual rights (and the courts that enfore it) when a government sees this as going against the public good. It can be used to make laws immune to court challenge for five years, which guarantees there will be an election before it expires, but it can just be applied again. The idea is that governments should be more powerful than the courts, so by invoking the notwithstanding clause, a government can pass laws that they know would be successfully challenged in court based on Charter rights.

Although historically very rare, the context for using the notwithstanding clause has been built up by conservative provincial governments over the past few years. The Coalition Avenir Québec party has used it to go after anglophones and religious minorities, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives used it to force striking workers back to work and limit electoral donations by unions, and the government of Saskatchewan used it to attack trans kids. All this since 2021. Poilievre has promised to use it to bring back criminal sentencing that was struck down as cruel and unusual, but there is no reason to think he will stop there.

The use in Saskatchewan is interesting, since Saskatchewan isn’t the only province that has passed so-called “parental rights” legislation. Alberta and New Brunswick are also bringing in laws restricting the ability of young people to transition, but Saskatchewan’s was the first to be delayed by the courts. So Scott Moe reconvened the legislature in order to break out the notwithstanding clause.

This brings us to what Pierre Poilievre thinks about trans people. He loudly supports the provincial legislation restricting transitions for young people, including access to puberty blockers and even using chosen names. And, as we’ve seen in the US, governments that start out restricting trans youth tend to move on to trans adults. So naturally, Poilievre also opposes the rights of transgender adults. Just this past February, he said he believes washrooms and changerooms should be restricted based on sex at birth, although he added it’s not clear that would be in federal jurisdiction.

Whether or not it has the ability to regulate the washrooms in the public library, a reactionary federal government won’t restrain the provinces or municipalities, leaving an open path for other levels of government to go after trans rights. As a trans person, I’m aware that in two years time, it might be illegal for me to use the washroom in public spaces.

A reactionary federal government probably won’t come right out and take gender identity and expression out as a protected ground in the Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (at least not immediately). Instead, it will allow those rights to atrophy, to get picked apart by reactionary laws passed at all levels of government that are shielded by the notwithstanding clause when necessary. We will end up with a patchwork of restrictions on our ability to live openly and authentically rather than a blanket ban.

What stands in the way of this happening?

Politicians will try to have you believe that electoralism is the only way, that the NDP or the Liberals are the only ones who can stop the Conservatives. But the fact that we are even talking about rights being rolled back shows how fragile legislative victories are. Laws come and go. They are (unfortunately) an indispensable part of political and social equality, but they are not the most important piece.

The most important piece is self-organizing. We need to get organized as queers around issues that affect us — not to lobby politicians, but to build a context in which queer liberation cannot be legislated away.

We need to continue changing the culture and building equality and inclusion in practice (and I realize these fall short of liberation). This can happen on a social level by creating more spaces where people can be out and proud. It can happen on the institutional level — remember that many spaces (social services, workplaces, schools) were trans inclusive long before the law required them to be. We can continue that work, going block by block, regardless of which way the political wind blows.

We also need to organize for collective self-defence. Fortunately, we are used to having to defend ourselves. This might occasionally mean physical defence, like at Pride in Hamilton in 2019 or the drag defence actions that happened across the country. It’s worth repeating that without the ability to be violent, the choice to be peaceful is meaningless.

But just as important is social and spiritual defence. Social defence might look like identifying reactionaries in order to undermine and isolate them. This could be local politicians, business owners, or bureaucrats just as much as far-right jerks. Spiritual defence means taking care of yourself while also looking out for those most targeted and helping them to live with strength and dignity. Because the reaction isn’t going to come for everyone at the same time, even if it will sooner or later get around to all queers if left unchecked.

The rallies about these issues have started — we all come as isolated individuals to feel strong together for an hour. But we need to stop going home alone. It is time for us to talk to our friends and set a meeting to talk about the situation, about our strengths and desires, what we can bring to the table. Once we’ve gotten talking, we can reach out to friends of friends and extend the conversation. Let’s form crews of 3-5 people and practice going demos together. Let’s get on the same page about our analysis and about what kinds of actions we are excited to take.

We still have some time to get ready before the attacks intensify, but the coming months will pass quickly. We can’t trust politicians, but I have nothing but faith in our collective strength. We will weather the coming storm as we always have and might even come out stronger for it.

Download this text as a printable zine.

Solidarity Means Attack – Fuck France, Free Kanaky

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May 192024

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

This week, an anti-colonial uprising broke out in Kanaky, an archipelago in the South Pacific. Kanaky was named “New Caledonia” by British colonizer James Cook and has been occupied by France under that name since the 19th century. The Kanaks are black indigenous peoples of the islands whose cultures face genocide from white French “immigrants” who drive them from their lands and impose capitalism. For more general information:

https://www.infolibertaire.net/?s=Kanaky

France is a member of NATO, an ally of Israel, the capital of anti-immigration racism in Europe, a nuclear-armed state, etc. By attacking France, we support not only Kanaky’s struggle for freedom but also that of many other peoples, including other French colonies in the South Pacific. and Caribbean.

If you live near a city, you probably live near a French political, cultural or diplomatic institution or a company that does business with them. You probably like under a government which maintains links with France. Targets are everywhere!

Solidarity means attack, the lessons we learned in the fight against genocide in Palestine, Sudan and Congo can be applied at the same time to those pushing for the French-led genocide of the Kanaks.

Black Power Worldwide! Death to France!

Campus Building Occupations, 2008-2010 and Today

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Apr 272024

From CrimethInc.

A wave of campus building occupations took place in response to austerity measures following the recession of 2008. As today’s Gaza solidarity movement begins to experiment with encampments and building occupations, it could be instructive to learn from the previous generation of student activists.

On April 22, 2024, inspired by the resilience of the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University and other demonstrators around the country, students at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, California occupied Siemens Hall. This represented the first confrontational building occupation of a wave of student demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine.

Police attempted to storm Siemens Hall in order to evict it; they inflicted severe injuries on some students, but failed to gain entry. The officers established a perimeter around the building, but students and university faculty gathered around them, surrounding them and chanting “De-escalate by leaving!” In the end, local media reported that the police were forced to withdraw:

10:50 pm: All law enforcement have left from in front of the building and appear to be leaving the campus. Scanner traffic appears to confirm that law enforcement has left the scene. One officer said that law enforcement is being “disbanded.” Students are currently pouring in and out of the occupied building.

“Cops go home!” the students chanted victoriously. “People power! We are stronger!”

Taking over a building and forcing the police off campus is no mean feat in the age of police militarization. Yet this is not the first time this century that student movements have employed these tactics. From December 2008 to March 2010, a wave of student building occupations helped to spark a new era of combative grassroots struggle. Starting with only a few participants, these building occupations eventually helped to inspire the Occupy movement, which catalyzed tens of thousands of people into action.

The following text chronicles the emergence of this wave of building occupations from the perspective of those who helped start it, first in New York and then in California. This article originally appeared in issue 9 of Rolling Thunder, our Anarchist Journal of Dangerous Living. It appears here with a handful of modifications reflecting the decade and a half that has passed since.

Students occupied the New School in New York City in December 2008 and again in 2009.

Coast to Coast Occupations

“The coming occupations will have no end in sight, and no means to resolve them. When that happens, we will finally be ready to abandon them.”

–Preoccupied: The Logic of Occupation

This is How We Learn, This is How We Fight

By a participant in the occupations in New York City of 2008-2009.

In December 2008, the month of the Greek rebellion, the widely hated president of New York City’s New School for Social Research fired the Provost and appointed himself. He also cut the library in half, shut down a building where students gathered, and raised tuition. When the Faculty came out with a vote of no confidence in him on December 10, previously apathetic students joined those trained by summit battles to take action. Standard campus activist SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] groups wanted to wait for the right time—”the movement is not ready,” “we need more numbers.” We thought otherwise.

After two grueling meetings, on December 16 at 8 pm, thirty students and non-students took the first floor of 65 5th Avenue, in the middle of Manhattan, blocking the exits with chairs, tables, and trash cans from the cafeteria. Within hours, hundreds of people came out in support, and students who until then had only read Hegel were fighting security guards with tables and blocking the streets outside. This lasted from Wednesday night to Friday morning. Authoritarian groups issued demands while autonomous groups conspired to bring in more people and expand the occupation. At key moments, against the formal consensus of some, friends outside were broken in with spectacular actions. A Greek solidarity march came by and livened up the party with a hundred more anarchists. The president was chased down the street to his home, and conceded to some of the demands soon after. We left with no repercussions, but bitter that the university still functioned at all.

Continue reading on CrimethInc.

Earth Night Call To Action

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Apr 182024

Anonymous submission to Scenes from the Atlanta Forest

As the sun sets on Earth Day, April 22nd, Earth Night begins…

It is time for the sun to set also on the brand of environmentalist activism that always accompanies Earth Day. We have no use for false political fixes or publicity stunts, and nothing but hostility for campaigns which pretend that we can make everything right if we just practice the right habits or lifestyles. We know that the relentless monster of industry is responsible for environmental devestation. Our responsibility is its immediate destruction.

The wild is under constant attack. We see all that is wild being destroyed by the machines of industry. The creeping domestication of civilization would tame the wildness in our hearts, would have us forget that we are animals too, that our flesh and blood are of this Earth. Make Earth Night a night to remind each other how wild we can still be. Lets break with old habits and embrace creativity, take up playful experimentation against the forces of industry. Light fires to gather around or to burn what destroys the Earth. Walk the land, look up at the stars, and think of some way to move towards freedom this night, alone or with friends, in ways big or small. Breaking free of the inertia of daily inaction, let’s rekindle the flames of freedom with the fierce burning joy of seeing our desires realized, seeing ourselves and others transformed through the choice to act. For life, for joy, for freedom, for anarchy!

This Earth Night, let that wildness out of its cage, and leap into action. Let’s sink our teeth into that which destroys us, and have some fun doing it. See you in the darkness!

Carpe noctem 😉

Invitation to the 2024 Montreal Anarchist Zine Fair

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Apr 152024

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Our weapons are courage and beautiful ideas.

Every year in May, the blossoming of spring invites anarchists to reflect upon subversive ideas and practices, from throughout history to present day. Total destruction of all authority is the project that sets our hearts on fire. We are wary of political strategies, and instead propose an anarchy wherein the means and ends are coherent, without waiting for the ‘right moment’, without compromise.

The fight for freedom is infinite, a constant which spans numerous lifetimes, and with endless possiblities. Only through permanent conflict will we create spaces where we can breathe (together) for short while, dreaming of and planning for total freedom.

This Fair is a moment to sharpen the analyses and critiques necessary for the project of insurrection. It’s goal is to nourish your imagination. We’re seeking out those who dream of unlimited freedom, and who are fighting for a complete upheaval of society, not simply it’s re-organization. Books, zines, meet-ups and discussions are indispensible for this project of liberation–they give meaning to our actions, and vice-versa.

We encourage (self)published texts created by comrades who aren’t trapped in the industry of book publishing. We want to free the pen from censorship, and the book from commercialization. We want texts to be distributed through autonomous organization, with the goal of sharing ideas with those who feel inspired by them. This can only occur in a free space, through rejecting copyrights and ‘alternative’ markets. This Fair is organized autonomously, through voluntary association and participation, and without any institutional support.

Join us on the 11 and 12 of May, 2024, under the Van Horne viaduct (North of the tracks). Come for two days of discussions, reading, music, and complicity. There will be several tables with zines and books under the viaduct, and with a few presentations followed by discussions in the little park nearby. There will be shows in the evening, as well as food and coffee onsite.

* We strongly suggest you leave your phones, cameras, and all other technological snitches far away from the event.

* The Fair will take place outside and regardless of weather conditions–come dressed appropriately.

* Details on the discussions topics and schedule to come on our website https://mtlanarchistzinefair.noblogs.org/

DNA you say? Burn everything to burn longer: a guide to leaving no traces

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Apr 012024

From No Trace Project

[READ] [WEB] [PRINT]

Note from the No Trace Project:

We hope that this translation will help English-speaking anarchists to better understand and protect themselves against the dangers of DNA.

We added many footnotes, either to add information or to explain our disagreements with the original text, especially in the section “A protocol for two“. Our footnotes are preceded by “N.T.P. note”, whereas the original footnotes are not.

We did not include the original appendix which listed French forensic police laboratories and their suppliers, because we didn’t think it was relevant to an international audience.

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