CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective

In Atlanta, where Atlanta City Council is taking comment before a vote on whether allocate tens of millions of dollars towards a police militarization facility, they've just gotten to the 86th speaker—with countless more scheduled behind them. After the first few speakers, some of whom were plants supporting the agenda of the police, every single speaker has argued passionately against Cop City. Chants of "Stop Cop City!" are resounding within the chamber. Outside the hall, hundreds have been chanting "If you build it, we will burn it." The power is not in the hands of the police, nor the representatives they extort—it is in the hands of those who organize together in defiance of their oppressors. Background on the movement: https://crimethinc.com/AgainstCopCity #StopCopCity

A massive crowd has turned out at the Atlanta City Council meeting today to take a stand against the Cop City facility. City officials been trying to prevent hundreds of people from spreaking, but the pressure is building. It's been a long fight and it's not over yet. Background: https://crimethinc.com/ForestintheCity #StopCopCity

In today's bond hearing for the organizers from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund that Atlanta prosecutors are charging with “money laundering” and “charity fraud,” the defense emphasized that the charges are baseless: "The allegations include $37.11 to make yard signs... They have receipts for all of these expenses. [One of them] gets reimbursed for her travel expenses, and that is being misrepresented as charity fraud." Contrary to the demands of the prosecutor, who is trying to make it a crime to provide basic legal support to arrested activists, the judge set bond for the arrestees, saying: "I'm concerned about some of the same things that the defense attorney mentions about the line between legitimate free speech and illegal violent acts... Paying for camping supplies and the like—I don't find it very impressive. There's not a lot of meat on the bones of the allegations that thousands of dollars are going to fund illegal activities." Background: https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023 #StopCopCity

Atlanta Police and Prosecutors Target Legal Support Activists https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023 Seeking to protect their cash cow, Cop City, Atlanta police have arrested three legal support organizers connected to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, charging them with “money laundering” and “charity fraud.” This comes less than a week before Atlanta City Council will decide whether to allocate additional millions of dollars to fund Cop City. This marks a new low for Atlanta police and prosecutors in their descent into totalitarian tactics. Since December, in addition to murdering one protester, they have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against practically every defendant they have arrested. Now, in order to ensure that defendants in the movement to protect the forest cannot get proper legal defense, they are attacking activists who help to raise bail and provide legal support. We discuss the precedents and implications of this attack on all forms of solidarity organizing. #StopCopCity

Today we observe the birthday of Louise Michel—schoolteacher, poet, fiction author, and popularizer of the black flag as the symbol of anarchism. In the article "Heroines of the Revolution," the daily paper of the Paris Commune described her thus: "An energetic woman is fighting in the ranks of the 61st battalion. She has killed several police officers." Nonetheless, a square is named for her in Paris today. Read about her role in the Paris Commune: https://crimethinc.com/arch18 Read about her role popularizing the black flag: https://crimethinc.com/TheBlackFlag

Erdoğan's victory in the Turkish elections is another gain for autocracy in the Mideast and around the world. We have to study the roots of Turkish fascism, understand how it relates to the steady gains of authoritarians around the world, and strategize as to how to stop them everywhere. Voting is not enough. https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/12/the-roots-of-turkish-fascism-and-the-threat-it-poses

In May 2020, the police discovered that you can only brutalize and murder for so long before people stop putting up with it and take action in response. Yet in the three years since then, the authorities have continued to rely on brute force to control an increasingly inequitable and volatile society. Democrat politicians have channeled more money towards police; police departments have hired PR firms to try to polish up their veneer of legitimacy. But the whole situation is unsustainable, and it will surely come to a head again. In that regard, the text we published in the first few hours of the George Floyd uprising remains relevant today: https://crimethinc.com/2020/05/28/minneapolis-we-have-crossed-the-rubicon-what-the-riots-mean-for-the-covid-19-era

Brazilian artwork from 2020 in solidarity with the George Floyd Rebellion: "Fire to the racists" https://crimethinc.com/2020/06/02/international-solidarity-with-the-minneapolis-uprising-demonstrations-graffiti-hacking-and-riots-on-six-continents

At last, we present a full audio version of "The Forest In The City," covering two years of forest defense in Atlanta, Georgia. https://crimethinc.com/exworker96 The government of Atlanta is attempting to destroy the Weelaunee Forest in order to build a vast training compound known as Cop City where police will train to suppress social movements. Because Cop City represents a tremendous financial incentive for police and their allies, they have begun to charge everyone who protests against it with domestic terrorism, a clear move towards outright fascism. Listen here to hear how courageous activists have blocked the construction of the training compound for two years. #StopCopCity

Three years ago tonight, protesters in Minneapolis demonstrated the power of direct action, catalyzing a countrywide movement. In this analysis, participants in the siege of the Third Precinct describe the strategy via which they triumphed over the police who murdered George Floyd. https://crimethinc.com/thirdprecinct

Three years have passed since Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd. While politicians encouraged protesters to seek redress through the "justice" system, nothing could bring back his life, nor the lives of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, or any of the other people murdered by police in a structurally racist system. The conviction of the officers who murdered George Floyd was an exceptional case aimed chiefly at pacifying an outraged population. Over the past three years, police have continued to murder Black and Brown people at the same pace. What will it take to stop the police from killing? https://crimethinc.com/endpolice This is the question we must all ask today.

In the new episode of our podcast, supporters of the movements for liberation in the regions of Bakur and Rojava and supporters of the revolution in western Syria discuss the impact of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria—and the ways that the governments of those countries have worsened the consequences of the tragedy while taking advantage of it to accumulate power for themselves. https://crimethinc.com/exworker95 "We have to understand both the earthquakes and the state as aspects of the same catastrophe and take action against both of them."

A year after the Uvalde shooting, neither Republican calls for more guns nor Democrat demands for gun control have served to address the epidemic of mass shootings in the US. The problem runs deeper than either party admits. https://crimethinc.com/TheirGuns Republicans don’t want to hinder gun access, because they see white vigilantes as essential to preserving the prevailing social order. Democrats want the state to have a monopoly on force, because they believe that this is the best way to preserve that same social order. Democrats have done everything they can to rehabilitate the image of police. But as we saw in Uvalde, the role of police is not to protect—it is to control. Police don't prevent crises—they just determine who suffers in them. What would the parents in Uvalde have needed to be able to address the shooting themselves, in defiance of the police? What grassroots institutions, what resources and skills? How can we foster those? It’s horrifying, but we really have no better option.

To celebrate the reprinting of our anarchist cookbook Recipes for Disaster, we present a guide to installing unsanctioned mosaics in asphalt streets and parking lots: https://crimethinc.com/asphaltmosaics Some people know of these as the mysterious "Toynbee Tiles," the stuff of urban legend. Our researchers cracked the method two decades ago. Ever since then, we have been trying to make these as ubiquitous as spray-paint. Will you help us?

We've reprinted our classic manual for direct action, Recipes for Disaster. You can order a copy here: https://store.crimethinc.com/products/recipes-for-disaster 400 pages of tactics and strategy! 62 chapters! 82 instructional illustrations! This book covers everything from Affinity Groups to Wheatpasting, including Black Blocs, Blockades, and Supporting Survivors of Domestic Violence. The contents range from collective organizing structures and mutual aid projects to skills for confrontational street action.

"One either writes, paints, composes, or otherwise engages in creative enterprises on behalf of humanity—or against humanity." -Lorraine Hansberry, born on this day in 1930.

"One either writes, paints, composes, or otherwise engages in creative enterprises on behalf of humanity—or against humanity." -Lorraine Hansberry, born on this day in 1930.

A CrimethInc. sticker sighted in the high mountains of the country of Georgia. We are everywhere! https://crimethinc.com/stickers/you-cant-kill-an-idea

À la mémoire de Dmitry Petrov Biographie incomplète et traductions de son œuvre https://crimethinc.com/2023/05/03/a-la-memoire-de-dmitry-petrov-biographie-incomplete-et-traductions-de-son-oeuvre-1 Lorsque Dmitry a été tué, ses camarades ont révélé qu’il avait participé à certaines des initiatives anarchistes les plus importantes de la Russie du XXIe siècle, notamment en tant que cofondateur de l’Organisation de Combat Anarcho-Communiste. Nous donnerons ici un aperçu de ses efforts comme un instantané des deux dernières décennies de lutte dans le monde post-soviétique, en concluant par une traduction d’un de ses textes : « La mission de l’anarchisme dans le monde moderne ». #Français

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