from anarchistnews
In the spirit of March 15′s past, a cop car was set on fire on the evening of March 15th,
at the Poste 33 police station in Parc-Ex, Montreal. This action was taken to complement the 17th
annual demonstration against police (and their brutality) that took place earlier that day.
We also send a message of support to Marco Camenisch in his struggles from inside prison in Switzerland.
from SabotageMedia
During the night of February 26, inspired by the demonstrators that afternoon who attacked the police and refused to be dispersed, we used a fire extinguisher filled with paint to spray a CCTV camera and a large (A) on the walls of Cégep du Vieux Montréal. During the night of March 3, we broke a CCTV camera at Cégep Maisonneuve by dropping a slab of concrete onto it from the roof. The front entrance windows were also smashed with a hammer.
Because we’ve had enough of student democracy. Because the “50% + 1” functions to control revolt and isolates ideas and individuals. Because the majority is often found on the other side of the barricades, or simply in front of their TVs. Because we are enraged by this system of social control, the cameras scrutinizing our movements, the guards in every hallway, the police in the streets, the snitches who betray us, and we will act against all these forms of domination regardless of a vote in a general assembly.
Let our rage live in the streets and not only in the general assemblies. Let’s clear the streets of the eyes of power. Let’s live revolt.
-some anarchists
To fill fire extinguishers with paint:
– Only some extinguishers can be refilled; they are usually silver, come in smaller backpack sizes and larger sizes, and the top can screw off.
– Empty the extinguisher of its contents and pressure, and unscrew the top. For the large version, pour a gallon of latex paint into the top with a funnel, and then half that amount of water. There should still be enough room for air.
– Replace the top and shake for a few minutes to mix its contents.
– Pressurize the extinguisher to the green zone on the gauge with a bike pump.
– Wipe down with rubbing alcohol to remove any prints.
– Useful for out-of-reach cameras, enormous graffiti, riot police visors and police vehicle windows to obscure their vision during demonstrations – the possibilities are endless!
This action was claimed securely by using Tails on an anonymous laptop (not linked to anyone, with the Media Access Control address changed), and by accessing an unlocked wifi network found on the street and hidden from the view of any cameras.
From Anti-dev
Dozens of masked intruders have raided a gold mining operation in northern Greece, officials say.
The attackers used petrol bombs and flammable liquid to set fire to machinery, vehicles and containers, neo-Nazi police told the Associated Press.
The Hellas Gold site is due to open in 2015 and expected to create new jobs in the recession-hit Halkidiki region.
But it has faced protests from environmentalists who say development would cause irreversible damage.
Citizens’ groups have been trying to halt the project since 2011, when the Greek government allowed Hellenic Gold, a subsidiary of Canadian company Eldorado Gold, to dig in the region.
In January, hundreds of Greeks took to the streets of Athens to demonstrate against the new mine.
‘Barely exploited’
Up to 50 intruders raided the complex at Skouries after midnight on Sunday, fire fighters and police told AP on Sunday.
The arson attack caused extensive damage to machines, trucks and containers used as offices, authorities said.
A security guard was reported to have been injured in the attack.
Police detained 27 people, who were later released.
The Halkidiki area has a long history of mining for gold and other minerals, making it the centre of frequent bitter debates between residents and politicians.
Eldorado boss Eduardo Moura said the Hellas Gold project would « generate approximately 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Greece ».
Authorities hope it will help to fight the crippling unemployment in the region as the country heads into its sixth year of recession.
« No-one doubts any longer that northern Greece is a source of mineral wealth, with a total wealth in metals exceeding 20bn euros (£17bn), » Deputy Energy and Environment Parasite Asimakis Papageorgiou said in a recent parliamentary debate on mining operations in Halkidiki.
« We can no longer accept this being left unexploited or barely exploited. »
Critics, however, say the mining operation will destroy forests in the area, contaminate groundwater and pollute the air with chemical substances like lead, mercury and arsenic.
Opponents argue this will drive away tourism and damage farming and fishing.
Last year, residents launched legal proceedings to try and to stop the project.
But the country’s highest administrative court ruled in favour of Eldorado, citing Halkidiki’s high unemployment rate.
Judges also said there were no environmental concerns stemming from the investment.
Taken from Occupied London:
An arson attack took place on the worksite of mining company Hellas Gold in the Skouries forest in north-eastern Halkidiki in the night from 16 to 17 February 2013. An initial report, posted by the pro-mining blog “Citizen of the Aristotelis Municipality”, stated that 50 to 70 individuals wearing full-face hoods and armed with shotguns and petrol bombs entered the site shortly after midnight and set equipments and vehicles on fire. The report further claimed that the assailants immobilized the two security guards who were on the site and held them hostage after dousing them with petrol and threatening to set them on fire. The value of the shares of the majority owner of Hellas Gold, Canadian company Eldorado Gold, dropped by 6% in the Toronto stock exchange following news of the attack.
The Skouries forest is at the centre of a hot dispute between the mining company, Hellas Gold, which is owned at 95% by Canadian mining giant Eldorado Gold and at 5% by Greek public works company Hellaktor, and local communities. The company claims that a pharaonic plan for mining of gold and copper in the area will benefit the region through the creation of some 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, while local residents argue that not only the dubious terms under which mining rights were transferred to Hellas Gold mean that the Greek State will receive no financial benefits from the mining project, but also that activities planned by Hellas Gold will cause massive damage to the environment which will in turn lead to the loss of many more jobs in the existing sectors of the local economy (farming, animal husbandry, fisheries, beekeeping, food processing and tourism). The residents’ claims are supported by research conducted by various independent scientific institutions such as the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Technical Chamber of Macedonia. The fact that the company has the support of the government in the name of “securing foreign investments” has often resulted in extremely heavy-handed police tactics against protesting residents, for example during a demonstration on 21 October 2012. More radiobubble reporting on this issue is available on the tag Skouries (in English, French and Spanish) as well as here, here and here (in Greek).
There was considerable confusion as to what happened exactly on the mining worksite in the night of 16 to 17 February. The claim that the security guards were taken hostage, tied up and doused with fuel spread through the media even though it was not confirmed in the press release of Eldorado Gold or the statement issued by Hellas Gold. According to Greek news website TVXS, local media reported that police officers denied that there had been a hostage situation following the attack on the site, as security guards pulled back after seeing the group of 40 or so people who were coming. [1] The official statement issued by the Ministry of Public Order after Minister Nikos Dendias travelled to the regional capital of Halkidiki, Polygyros, did not mention any specific events; it merely reported that the Minister said: ” First, Greece is a European State with the rule of law. Second, we all have the obligation to secure the possibility of foreign investments in this country. It is well-known that this is the only solution to face the huge and dramatic problem of unemployment. Thank you.” Security camera footage of the attack, which was released to the media, also shows no evidence of a hostage situation. All indications are therefore that the claim that guards were taken hostage and doused with fuel by the assailants does not stand, even though it was repeated ad nauseam on TV talk shows and included in the statements of security guards to the police.
The police proceeded to a first wave of random detentions in the morning of 17 February. Local residents contacted by phone told us that, of the first 27 people who were detained in the moutain villages near Skouries, some were company employees who favour the implementation of the mining project. This first group was released before another group of 4 people was detained, who were also released within hours. Things became more serious however when an arrest warrant in flagrante was issued in the night from 17 to 18 February against three prominent community members who oppose the mining project, Lazaros Toskas, Tolis Papageorgiou and Maria Kadoglou. The warrant was based on statements by the worksite’s security guards to the police, which repeated the claims that they were taken hostage and doused with petrol by the assailants. At the end of his statement, one of the guards argued that these three individuals were the moral instigators of the attack, as “all three, in posts on the internet and statements to the media, incited opponents [of the mining project] to acts of violence.” Another one argued that “Tolis Papageorgiou said in a recent speech in Komotini that he opposes mining and doesn’t care if his struggle against it results in the loss of human life, Lazaros Toskas is present in every protest against the company and Maria Kadoglou, through the web page she administrates, incites people to protest against the company.”[2]
The police managed to locate and arrest Lazaros Toskas, who was taken to the Polygyros court for trial on 18 February (Papageorgiou and Kadoglou could not be located before the in flagrante arrest warrant ran out in the evening of 18 February.) His arrest generated an outpouring of solidarity on the internet due to the flimsiness of the charges brought against him. As a prominent member of the local chapter of opposition party SYRIZA, Toskas also had the full backing of his party, which expressed outrage at the fact that his arrest was clearly targeting the party itself. A large solidarity gathering of friends, neighbours, party members and fellow residents of Halkidiki was waiting for him outside the courthouse and broke into applause when he walked free after the trial. Upon his release, Toskas filed a counter-lawsuit against his accusers for false statements and diffamation.
The Polygyros prosecutor returned the indictment documents to the police, demanding that the investigation be continued and a stronger argument be made in order to continue pursuing the case. The case file has now been transferred from Polygyros to Thessaloniki, where an investigator has been appointed to determine if the attack on the worksite can be defined as an act of terrorism.
The assault on the Skouries worksite generated extensive coverage on Greek media on 18 February, giving the mining issue more exposure on mainstream media than it had for the several previous months. It must be noted however that evening talk shows essentially provided a platform to local and national politicians who support the mining project (in particular to the mayor of the mining region, Christos Pachtas, whom opponents accuse of being behind the dubious transaction through which the mines found themselves in the possession of Hellas Gold in 2003 when he was deputy minister of finance), while giving little air time to the grievances of local residents and to the damage the project would cause to the environment. TV talk shows also spent considerable time discussing the alleged hostage situation, despite the fact that all indications are that the allegations are false.
As of 19 February, the police is still conducting detentions of residents in the villages of Ierissos and Megali Panagia near Skouries, without however having been able to indict or arrest anyone on credible accusations. Local activists report that the police are demanding that detainees handover DNA samples and threaten them with prosecution for insubordination if they refuse to comply.
Update 20 February 2013 – 10:20am
A local resident we contacted on the phone confirmed that the police is taking DNA samples from detainees, threatening with arrest for insubordination if they fail to comply. Furthermore, there were police cars staffed with two hooded individuals outside the anti-mining coordination meeting in Ierissos yesterday, taking down the registration numbers of vehicles parked outside the meeting venue. The coordination meeting decided to hold an anti-mining demonstration in the village of Megali Panagia on Sunday 24 February.
Further reading:
– detailed liveblog of developments since 17 February on Alterthess (in Greek)
– background documentary on opposition to mining in the area: “Gold in the time of the crisis: the treasure of Cassandra” by the Exandas Documentaries team (in Greek, English subs to be available soon).
[1] The police made several statements to the media through its spokespeople and by e-mail but had not published any official press release on its website at the time of writing.
[2] The blog managed by Maria Kadoglou, Hellenic Mining Watch, is a valuable source of information about mining plans and activities in Greece (in Greek).
That’s about the only time when they clean up their mess.
The Corporate State’s reaction (taken from Greekreporter)
Greece’s government and major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) are battling over blame after an arson attack on a gold mine in northern Greece that officials said could trigger fear by foreign companies to invest in the country.
A 54-year-old man has been charged in the aftermath of the fire on equipment at the Skouries mine in Halkidi, a project being developed by the Canadian company Eldorado Gold. Residents are divided between those who want the jobs it will bring and environmentalists who fear it will harm the environment and ruin tourism.
The man arrested was said to be the “moral instigator” and a local resident, while authorities said as many as 50 people may have been involved in the raid, which destroyed a number of vehicles. Two guards were also tied up and doused with a flammable liquid, police said. Four security guards were injured and a number of containers, vehicles and earth-moving machinery were destroyed.
The assailants are also alleged to have been carrying guns, which they fired into the air. A total of 33 people were detained, prompting residents of the nearby village of Ierissos to hold a public rally to protest what they saw as being random detentions by the police said.
Lazaros Toskas, a member of main leftist opposition SYRIZA’s prefectural committee in Halkidiki, was detained by police after he commented on his blog that he opposes the Halkidiki project and his alleged participation in protests opposing the mine.
A prosecutor returned his file to police, describing it as “incomplete,” according to sources, the newspaper Kathimerini said. Toskas and three of the security staff injured legal suits against each other – the staff against Toskas for allegedly being one of their attackers and Toskas against the guards for slander.
SYRIZA, which has backed opposition by local residents to the Halkidiki mining project, condemned the arson attack as “unacceptable” but expressed anger at the arrest of Toskas, referring to a “general attempt to stigmatize social struggles.” The government has accused SYRIZA of fostering political violence.
Sources told the newspaper Kathimerini that police collected evidence attack and are expecting the results of forensic tests. Officers have apparently gathered droplets of blood, a ski mask, cigarette butts, a torch and a surgical mask. Hellenic Gold, which is 95-percent owned by Canadian Eldorado Gold, insists that the mine is legal and has all the necessary environmental permits.
Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias stressed that authorities would do everything possible to protect crucial investments. “Greece is a European state of law and order,” he said. “We have a duty to safeguard the foreign investments taking place in the country. Investments are the only way we can confront the huge problem of unemployment.”
The President of Vancouver mining company Eldorado Gold condemned an attack as “violent extremism,” according to the Vancouver Times. Paul Wright said the attack on the project should set operations back no more than two weeks.
Eldorado is developing a combination open pit and underground mine that has been a focal point of environmental protest in a region that has witnessed mining protests for over a decade. Wright said it is important to separate the violence, believed to be the work of political extremists, from legal protests (sounds familiar?). While the main local issue is that the mining is to take place in a forested area, Greece has been wracked by political violence focused on the broader unrest over austerity measures.
Antigold Greece blog (in Greek)
Camover 2013
The GAME;
The idea of the game is to smash and destroy as much cctv-cams as possible. For this we decided to announce a competition. For joining in you need a group with a name that starts with command…, briagde…, etc. and ends with a historic person. The only other requirement for you is to be aware of internet-safety.
Now you should not only do the action as you do all the time but also make a documentation with at least a report published on german indymedia or linksunten.indymedia.org. If you have pictures, videos or other evidence for the destroyed cameras, you get extra-credits. CAMOVER.blogsport.de will give you the attention your action deserves.
The CAMOVER game ends with the 19 February 2013 — the day when the European police congress in Berlin is being held. The winner may walk in the first line of the demonstration against the cops on 16 February and crouch down to avoid being hit by flying cams
http://camover.blogsport.de/spielidee…
official mobi-video for the legendary offlining-game
http://camover.blogsport.de
http://camover.noblogs.org/
Over 50 people gathered in Montreal to carry on the tradition of anti-prison noise demos at prisons on the new year. The demo assembled at the designated meeting place and took to the streets behind a banner reading “Pour un monde sans patrons, ni flics, ni prisons” (for a world without bosses, nor cops, nor prisons) with a heavy police escort trying in vain to control traffic. Some of the crowd distributed flyers explaining the action and detailing the recent legislative changes the government has designed to fill up the 22 new prisons they are building.
When we reached our first destination, the Tanguay women’s prison, the chanting crowd entered through the open gate across a parking lot while the pigs held back at the entrance. Around the back entrance many speeches were given over a mega-phone addressed to the prisoners in hopes of them hearing the words of solidarity in both French and English. Bursts of chants, horns and fireworks were used to get the attention of our friends inside. Soon into the visit we heard calls of response from the windows, “Bonne année” (happy new year) which fired up even more noise and love from the crowd. The crowd spent 20 minutes exchanging chants of solidarity and well wishing with the women before promising to return and marching on to our next target.
Another 15 minute walk brought us to the Bordeaux men’s prison which is the largest provincial prison in Quebec. This time the crowd had to duck around a swing gate and confront a much grander fortress with 30 foot walls surrounding it. Exploding fireworks announced our presence and speeches were again delivered expressing our desire to abolish prisons and all authority. After much noise-making and then listening, responses came from the men inside. Again “happy new years” was heard loud and clear, we’d respond with “solidarité avec les prisonniers”. Many different voices joined in on the yelling from beyond the walls from every corner of the monstrous building. This riled the crowd up even more as we shot off the rest of our firework arsenal. The opportunity was presented for anybody to take the mic and give a personal message which would also be broadcast on local radio as the event was being documented by independent media comrades. Upon leaving we once again took the four lane street chanting “police partout, justice nulle part” (police everywhere, justice nowhere) and “our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons”. The demo dispersed with out any pig interference at the metro station where it had begun.
A video by Média Recherche Action
An edited audio recording of the event has been published here.
The following is the text of the two sided bilingual flyer distributed during the march:
Noise demonstrations in front of prisons and deportations centers are an ongoing tradition in many parts of the world to remember those who are detained by the state. It is a way of showing solidarity to the people imprisoned inside. Prisons were created to isolate people from their communities, so these demos are a way of coming together to fight against repression and break that isolation.
Prisons exist to enforce the authority of those in power- there can be no austerity measures, nor capitalism, without prisons who can’t, or chose not to fit into this system. In fact, prison expansion and austerity measures go hand in hand. As the government cuts more social services, it is equally busy expanding the prison system. The state is currently spending an estimated $4 million building 22 new prisons and expanding many of the existing ones across the country, while also passing new laws like Bill C-10 and C-38, which seek to put more people in prison for longer and ensure the mandatory detention of refugees. This gives the state more leeway to imprison both those who are fighting it, such as those jailed as a result of the student strike this spring or the G20 protests in Toronto 2010, as well as those who challenged its laws merely to survive. People are ripped from their communities and once inside end up serving as a pool of slave labour for industry.
Let’s let those inside know that they are not forgotten- we can share our opposition to the bars, the guards and the world of misery and exploitation that needs them. Because no one is free until we are all free. Inside as well as out, let’s revolt!
Over several months of struggle, there have been more than 2000 arrests. Today, over 500 hundred people are facing criminal charges. It is in solidarity with our arrested comrades, as well as in response to the ongoing repression against our struggles, that about 150 people assembled for a demonstration at Carré St-Louis on Friday, October 26. The cops of the SPVM were also assembled facing the park, trying to create a climate of fear and panic with their presence. These pigs quickly declared the gathering illegal. Despite this, the demo took to the streets towards 7 pm. As it started to move, a speech was read explaining the reasons for the demo:
“After six months of striking, of battles, of riots, of solidarity, and of the ‘palais de justice’ (the court house), it seemed that pacification had taken over. Tonight, it’s time to change this. We can’t stay calm when over 500 people are facing criminal charges. These 500 people with whom we have shared the streets. These comrades who were arrested while we’re still here. Together we have faced pigs that tried to beat us, arrest us, and who are always looking for new things to charge us with. It is because of these pigs that some comrades are now risking prison or living under conditions, having their lives dictated by fear. Whether inside the walls or out, we are all prisoners of a system that stops us from living. The social peace means total alienation, the dogs of this society control our lives, isolate our comrades, and have the audacity to expect us to remain calm and just accept it. But there is nothing in this rotten system to accept. Over the last six months, three people have been exiled from the island of Montréal. The first person to be exiled is still banished from the island. Six months to watch what was happening without being able to participate. Six months of isolation. Let’s not allow state repression to derail our solidarity. The struggle is nothing if it forgets its prisoners. Tonight, let’s honour our comrades who can’t be here with us. Let’s recreate a space of solidarity, let’s not allow these dirty pigs to try to disperse us again. Let’s fight until the end. Let’s not give them a reason, let’s not allow them to take another of our comrades. We’re going to walk together and we’re going to resist together. A demo only lasts one night – the struggle lasts our entire life. The comrades who have disappeared under a pile of conditions are still a part of this struggle. They are not victims, but comrades. It’s time to find them, and to move to action. Here, tonight, and for the rest of our lives.”
After the speech, the demo departed with a lively vibe and people shouting slogans like “Solidarité avec les arrêté.es” (Solidarity with those arrested), “Les prisons en feu, les screws au milieu” (Fire to the prisons, with the screws in the middle), and “La lutte n’est rien si elle oublie ses prisonnier.es” (A struggle is nothing if it forgets its prisoners). There were several large banners at the front that said “Grève étudiant! Lutte populaire! – Solidarité avec tous ceux qui font face à la répression pour avoir participé à la lutte” (Student strike! Social struggle! Solidarity with everyone facing repression for having participated in the struggle) and “Solidarity with the smoke bombers – ‘Terrorists’ are the pigs who try to club the struggle into submission! – Not one step back in the face of repression“. Many demonstrators were dressed in black. The message of solidarity was clear to passerbys, a solidarity that allows for collective action. Along the demo route, posters with an anti-repression analysis were put up all around downtown. In this way, we re-appropriated public space that is all too often dominated by media and advertising. While the demo was being followed by bike cops and many SPVM cars, the riot squad wasn’t deployed. About 45 minutes after the start, the demo dispersed at Philips Square near McGill metro. There were no arrests.
This demo is a show of our solidarity with comrades who have been criminalized and are facing heavy conditions of release. The state’s tribunals sabotage our struggles, try to isolate us and sow fear. It is with strength and passion that we will respond. We have nothing to gain or hope for from their justice. The struggle continues, unconditionally.
From Blockade, Occupy, Strike Back
First, put on your cloth gloves. This will keep your fingertips (and the paint bombs) clean. You should work on a soft surface (like a fold towel) to protect your bulb.
1. First, use needle-nose pliers to cut off the metal fitting. You can either cut two vertical slits in the fitting and wiggle it off, or simply cut around the entire thing.
2. Next, remove the glass tube and filament from inside the bulb. If they haven’t already broken in the process of cutting off the fitting, try gently poking them from the bottom with a screwdriver.
3. Fill the bulb with paint (use a funnel or dish soap bottle and add some water if the paint is thick), seal the hole with paper, clay or similar, and seal with electrical tape or melted wax. Mixing indoor and outdoor paint makes it much more difficult to remove.
4. Wipe down the bulb with rubbing alcohol to remove any prints.
From Blockade, Occupy, Strike Back
While people can participate in demos with their crew, sometimes it makes sense for crews to act together in a contingent or a bloc. The form chosen should fit the context. Here is a collection of tips for acting within demos – some are applicable more broadly, others are more specific to a bloc.
The way a demo moves can determine its outcome. While there are situations where moving quickly can be strategic, running blindly in a panic is the worst thing people can do. The police often attempt to disperse rowdy demos, and being able to hold our ground, not panic, and fight back is crucial.
A snake march—weaving up and down different streets and changing direction often and unpredictably (but strategically) – is a good way for spontaneous demos to evade police. Marching against traffic on one-way streets makes it difficult for the police to control the march.
It is important to pay attention to what’s happening around you. Stay aware of your surroundings. Notice any police lines that are being reinforced. Kettling is another tactic police use in mass arrests wherein they try to surround a demo from all sides, either in a street between intersections, or inside an intersection. This is why, if the demo is large enough, it should always try to hold two intersections at a time to leave an alternate route open.
Structures for quick communication need to be developed. People can spread messages and plans quickly by going from crew to crew.
Never take photos of anything that can be incriminating. If putting media online, black out faces – police routinely use footage posted online as evidence. Placards, banners, and paint can be used to block unfriendly cameras.
Don’t come to a demo as a passive observer, hoping others have a plan. Come prepared to participate actively and have your own goals and plans.
The purpose of the bloc as a tactic is to have everyone look as similar as possible, so that no single individual can be identified within the anonymous mass. Blocs are not necessary for acting in the street – people can also self-organize into contingents, or act as individuals – but they can help to keep everybody safer. If only some people within a bloc take these precautions, the cops can more easily spot and target individuals and groups, which is dangerous both for those who are acting within the bloc and for those who are not. Those who make the effort to stay anonymous can draw extra police attention; those who don’t can be more easily identified, which can make them easier targets. Neither of these situations is desirable.
If you’re going to wear a mask, keep it on at all appropriate times. If you are captured on camera or witnessed at any point with your mask off, you can thereafter be easily identified with it on. Don’t just cover your face. Bandanas are popular and convenient, but they don’t conceal enough. Cover your head completely so your hair cannot be seen – especially if it’s distinctive. In a bloc, you can do this by wearing a ski mask or making a mask out of a t-shirt – stretch the neck hole across your eyes and tie the sleeves behind your head, with the rest of the shirt covering your head and shoulders.
Be extremely conscientious about where and when you change into and out of your mask and other anonymizing clothing; there should be no cameras or hostile witnesses. If possible, explore the area in advance to find appropriate spaces for changing. Remember that police are especially likely to target masked individuals who are not in a crowd that is similarly dressed.
Wear different outfits layered one upon the other. Ideally, you should have one outfit for getting to the site of the action without attracting attention, your anonymous gear for the action itself, and then another outfit underneath so you can look like a good citizen as you exit the area.
Do not march in a bloc wearing your regular clothing, especially if it’s distinctive. Cops may be stupid, but they can probably match the pictures of the masked-up person with the purple polka-dotted pants to pictures of the same person in the same outfit minus the mask – even if the pictures were taken on different days.
Backpacks and shoes are also used to identify people from demos. Rather than using the same ones you wear in everyday life, use different ones. Consider covering shoes with large socks if appropriate.
Cover or remove anything that can identify you: patches, piercings, and tattoos.
If possible, cover your eyes with goggles to protect from pepper spray or tear gas. If you wear glasses, wear non-descript ones. Contact lenses are not recommended in situations where you may come into contact with chemical weapons. If in winter your glasses fog up with a mask, you can wear contacts but have goggles on hand.
Be careful not to leave fingerprints. Wear cloth gloves—leather and latex can retain fingerprints and even pass them on to objects you touch. Wipe down tools and other items with rubbing alcohol in advance to clean fingerprints off them – you never know what might get lost in the chaos.
Banners along the sides and front of a bloc can function to obscure surveillance, and can also help to protect people from being snatched by police.
Placards and flags made with heavy wood can be used for self-defense in a pinch (and are longer than batons!). Barricades, fireworks, paint bombs, fire extinguishers, rocks, and other creative means can keep enemies at a distance.
Knowing the terrain can be invaluable.
• where are there barricade materials, action targets, and stash spots for tools to be picked up during the demo?
• where are there alleys, backyards, hiding spots, crowded areas, cameras, and public transit locations for dispersal?
Do not let any of this give you a false sense of security. Be careful. Assess your relationship to risk honestly. Make sure you know and trust the people you’re working with, especially when it comes to high-risk activities. Practice security awareness at all times. Know and assert your legal rights when dealing with police. Doing so may not make things better, but failing to do so will certainly make them worse.
From Blockade, Occupy, Strike Back
Instead of hoping for a bureaucratic organization to do something for us, we can take our lives into our own hands by self-organizing. The formation of a crew is a step in this direction. A crew is a collection of close friends that trusts one another enough to organize together. This means having shared intentions, ideas, and practices, having each other’s backs, and never talking to police. In other words, this means sharing affinity. Some people refer to crews as affinity groups. While who is in your crew can be somewhat flexible depending on what you’re trying to do, it does imply having people with whom to consistently participate in social struggles and develop a more long-term term strategy. It often involves sharing your day-to-day life and knowing people well. This means knowing what is shared, but even more importantly, knowing where real political differences exist.
A crew is a small group of people who organize without hierarchy – there are no leaders or followers, and everyone chooses how to take part in the activity. Crews can form anywhere: in school, on the street, and on the job. This is an effective way of organizing because, in a small group, you are making decisions and setting goals with people that you already share affinity with, without needing to vote or use formal processes. Doing so sidesteps the alienation and stagnation that happens as a result of the bureaucratization of the student movement – however, self-organization requires a lot more initiative and creativity, since nobody will put your ideas into action for you. Another benefit is that the decentralization of action planning renders repression of social movements more difficult.
Larger endeavors that are beyond the organizational capacity of a given crew, such as occupations or demonstrations, may require assemblies or other means to coordinate with others. This larger coordination structure based on autonomy stands in contrast to the standard idea of general assemblies, which require voting or consensus, whose ultimate function is to control and limit the struggle.
As people realize their own power as individuals and communities, the power of those in authority (i.e. the administration, the politicians, the police, and the bosses) weakens. This is what happens in any community garden, any occupation, and any riot. Individuals see that they can grow their own food and help others do the same; they see what they can do with just a few others. They see that they can take and hold space, and make entirely new ways of interacting together possible, while fighting off the institutions that stand in their way. When space is liberated, when we fight authority, we see that capitalism is not absolute. We realize that most of the things around us that we value are of our own creation. Contrary to the widespread myths, authority is in fact unnecessary and harmful.
When more people realize their actual capacity to determine their own lives, they, along with others, become a material force. One of a physical nature, unlike the voting polls that only act as a means to confuse where our true power lies – in our own hands. Those who wish to play puppet master know this. The people who fancy themselves our rulers and keepers – politicians, bosses, police, judges, and many others – long ago organized themselves into a force that can in actuality change things, move things, and control things. Crews act as a counterforce to those whose goal is to profit by dominating us.
Crews, then, serve a role in protecting ourselves from those who would like to exploit us for the sake of the economy, from those who would like us to continue working for scraps and piling up huge debts. Crews can come to demonstrations prepared and with clearly formulated ideas and plans about what they want to see happen, opening up interesting possibilities in otherwise ritualized processions from point A to point B. Crews can organize to disrupt the functioning of the economy, both on campus and off, through blockades, sabotage, occupations, and other forms of action. Crews can get together and articulate their ideas on the walls of the campuses and city streets with graffiti and posters. They can make sure that advertisements never stay up for long, and that police stations, banks, and gentrifying apartments or restaurants are never safe. Crews can steal from big businesses, such as by expropriating groceries to pass out for free in their neighbourhoods. They can take money from capitalism and give it to social projects autonomous from the state, or initiate those projects themselves. Crews form to act as a force against those who would rather see us subservient or behind bars.
Crews can form to approach the police when they are hassling someone on the street or in the métro. They can attack the immigration machine that deports and imprisons. They can stop the landlord trying to evict their neighbours. They can de-arrest someone at a demonstration without hesitation, even if they don’t know them. They can smash banks and other spaces which exist to reproduce capitalism. They can build up their communities through solidarity, so that the police hesitate before following someone into a neighbourhood or a campus.
On campus, crews can extend the reach of the strike. Open up the universities as social spaces for students and non-students alike to come in and use freely. Appropriate the copy machines and spread news of the revolt to other sectors of society. Take over the cafeterias and bars and begin preparing the communal feast. Burn the debt records. In short, create not an ‘alternative’ that can easily be accommodated within capitalist society, but rather liberated space in which power is built to destroy capitalist society.
The point of acting is to gain control over our lives and to further our own power, as well as the power of those who have always been dispossessed in this society.
Crews strike back.
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The month of June, 2012 marks two years since the G20 summit in Toronto and the courageous resistance shown to it. It also marks the sentencing of our comrade Charles Bicari to seven months behind bars for smashing the windows of two police cars, two stores and an ATM with a hammer. To mark the occasion, we spent a few evenings spreading anti-system and solidarity slogans with the G20 prisoners in the streets of Montreal.
Continued solidarity with the G20 prisoners!
No comrades left in the enemy’s prisons without a response!
Here are some pics:
