#allcomradesarebeautiful — Public Fediverse posts

The ABCs of Anarchism: The Letter K

Of late, I’ve noticed an unfamiliar word slipping into the anarchist vocabulary—so much so, that it felt both a pattern and palpable shift. So I began paying attention, and sure enough, more and more anarchists were using it in DMs to me, or when speaking on a panel, chatting in person, and posting on social media. One new zine I picked up at a free lit table even railed against its opposite—adding “un-“ in front of the word—and called for its banishment from our circles.

This linguistic turn felt at odds with the times at first, and then it started to dawn on me that it’s actually a healthy response to them—to fascism and the attendant disposability of human and nonhuman life.

I ran that thought by a friend who loves etymology, a fancy term for the history of languages and their wordly ancestors, and they instantly exclaimed, “Kin!” We’re queer+trans chosen family, so I didn’t get the connection at first—thinking they were simply glad that I’d called them to talk. “The origin of the word is in ‘kin,’” they added, and to paraphrase, “these days, we especially need to care for each other in that way.”

K = Kind

As a Jewish anarchist, I doubly know that “Jewishness” and “anarchism” share an inherent need to stay in motion, to continually wrestle with and remake our words, ideas, and practices, always delighting in shape-shifting based on the contexts, precisely as how we get free—together. There’s also our double aspiration as anarchists (and to my mind, as Jews): to always critique all forms of hierarchy and domination—the K = kvetch side of things—and always embody forms of freedom in their place—which includes K = kindness. Or should have.

Somehow anarchists have become an especially unkindly bunch over the past decade or so, allowing liberalism and capitalism (and posi rad-liberals) to steal and water down “kindness” into mushy meaningless—when we should have been fighting to keep kindness rebellious!

Now, we’re at a point in human history when *simple* acts of genuine kindness (from the heart, voluntarily, as kin), mean the world, quite literally, to keep us and others from falling into the fascist abyss.

#TryAnarchismForLife

(photo: spray paint, stencil, and sharpie combo of #AllComradesAreBeautiful, with two adorable pink and black cats encircled by a heart, with the letters #ACAB at their paws, as seen on a wall near an anarcha-queer feministic squat in Athens, March 2025, aka #CatsNotCops and for that matter, #KindnessNotCops)

“This is a collection of movement resources compiled by various collectives and individuals that might be of use. … Share, study … prepare.”

#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#AllComradesAreBeautiful

https://open.substack.com/pub/instruggle/p/resources

If May Day, among other things, is about sharing the “wealth” (aka abolishing capitalism), there’s nothing quite like going to a small but sweet Really Really Free Market on this May 1 and being gifted a sheet of freshly printed stickers that feel just right for these suddenly rebellious times. (After all, #AllComradesAreBeautiful!)

Then, soon after, redistributing that “wealth” to others at a nearby May Day rally, made merry because of the danceable tunes of @brassyourheart (which may now have some tiny water jugs on a drum or two because this marching band can #AlwaysCarryABeat!).

There are so many others reasons, of course, to wear one’s #ACAB on their sleeve (or water bottle) this May Day, when so many universities and colleges are liberating spaces of solidarity for Gaza, and in the process, powerfully demonstrating that #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful.

And likewise, so many police are painfully demonstrating that #AllCopsAreBrutal—underscoring that cop cities (aka policing) everywhere must be abolished, from every river to every sea, just as the Haymarket martyrs also fought and alas died for, in part.

Next May Day, in liberation!

#CareNotCops
#CommonsNotCapitalism
#SolidarityNotStates
#TryAnarchismForLife
#UntilAllAreFree

(Ongoing love+solidarity to the brave+bold folks at @occupycalpolyhumboldt for gifting the world the joy of a humble water jug vs. cop during their occupation)

If May Day, among other things, is about sharing the “wealth” (aka abolishing capitalism), there’s nothing quite like going to a small but sweet Really Really Free Market on this May 1 and being gifted a sheet of freshly printed stickers that feel just right for these suddenly rebellious times. (After all, #AllComradesAreBeautiful!)

Then, soon after, redistributing that “wealth” to others at a nearby May Day rally, made merry because of the danceable tunes of @brassyourheart (which may now have some tiny water jugs on a drum or two because this marching band can #AlwaysCarryABeat!).

There are so many others reasons, of course, to wear one’s #ACAB on their sleeve (or water bottle) this May Day, when so many universities and colleges are liberating spaces of solidarity for Gaza, and in the process, powerfully demonstrating that #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful.

And likewise, so many police are painfully demonstrating that #AllCopsAreBrutal—underscoring that cop cities (aka policing) everywhere must be abolished, from every river to every sea, just as the Haymarket martyrs also fought and alas died for, in part.

Next May Day, in liberation!

#CareNotCops
#CommonsNotCapitalism
#SolidarityNotStates
#TryAnarchismForLife
#UntilAllAreFree

(Ongoing love+solidarity to the brave+bold folks at @occupycalpolyhumboldt for gifting the world the joy of a humble water jug vs. cop during their occupation)

If May Day, among other things, is about sharing the “wealth” (aka abolishing capitalism), there’s nothing quite like going to a small but sweet Really Really Free Market on this May 1 and being gifted a sheet of freshly printed stickers that feel just right for these suddenly rebellious times. (After all, #AllComradesAreBeautiful!)

Then, soon after, redistributing that “wealth” to others at a nearby May Day rally, made merry because of the danceable tunes of @brassyourheart (which may now have some tiny water jugs on a drum or two because this marching band can #AlwaysCarryABeat!).

There are so many others reasons, of course, to wear one’s #ACAB on their sleeve (or water bottle) this May Day, when so many universities and colleges are liberating spaces of solidarity for Gaza, and in the process, powerfully demonstrating that #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful.

And likewise, so many police are painfully demonstrating that #AllCopsAreBrutal—underscoring that cop cities (aka policing) everywhere must be abolished, from every river to every sea, just as the Haymarket martyrs also fought and alas died for, in part.

Next May Day, in liberation!

#CareNotCops
#CommonsNotCapitalism
#SolidarityNotStates
#TryAnarchismForLife
#UntilAllAreFree

(Ongoing love+solidarity to the brave+bold folks at @occupycalpolyhumboldt for gifting the world the joy of a humble water jug vs. cop during their occupation)

If May Day, among other things, is about sharing the “wealth” (aka abolishing capitalism), there’s nothing quite like going to a small but sweet Really Really Free Market on this May 1 and being gifted a sheet of freshly printed stickers that feel just right for these suddenly rebellious times. (After all, #AllComradesAreBeautiful!)

Then, soon after, redistributing that “wealth” to others at a nearby May Day rally, made merry because of the danceable tunes of @brassyourheart (which may now have some tiny water jugs on a drum or two because this marching band can #AlwaysCarryABeat!).

There are so many others reasons, of course, to wear one’s #ACAB on their sleeve (or water bottle) this May Day, when so many universities and colleges are liberating spaces of solidarity for Gaza, and in the process, powerfully demonstrating that #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful.

And likewise, so many police are painfully demonstrating that #AllCopsAreBrutal—underscoring that cop cities (aka policing) everywhere must be abolished, from every river to every sea, just as the Haymarket martyrs also fought and alas died for, in part.

Next May Day, in liberation!

#CareNotCops
#CommonsNotCapitalism
#SolidarityNotStates
#TryAnarchismForLife
#UntilAllAreFree

(Ongoing love+solidarity to the brave+bold folks at @occupycalpolyhumboldt for gifting the world the joy of a humble water jug vs. cop during their occupation)

If May Day, among other things, is about sharing the “wealth” (aka abolishing capitalism), there’s nothing quite like going to a small but sweet Really Really Free Market on this May 1 and being gifted a sheet of freshly printed stickers that feel just right for these suddenly rebellious times. (After all, #AllComradesAreBeautiful!)

Then, soon after, redistributing that “wealth” to others at a nearby May Day rally, made merry because of the danceable tunes of @brassyourheart (which may now have some tiny water jugs on a drum or two because this marching band can #AlwaysCarryABeat!).

There are so many others reasons, of course, to wear one’s #ACAB on their sleeve (or water bottle) this May Day, when so many universities and colleges are liberating spaces of solidarity for Gaza, and in the process, powerfully demonstrating that #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful.

And likewise, so many police are painfully demonstrating that #AllCopsAreBrutal—underscoring that cop cities (aka policing) everywhere must be abolished, from every river to every sea, just as the Haymarket martyrs also fought and alas died for, in part.

Next May Day, in liberation!

#CareNotCops
#CommonsNotCapitalism
#SolidarityNotStates
#TryAnarchismForLife
#UntilAllAreFree

(Ongoing love+solidarity to the brave+bold folks at @occupycalpolyhumboldt for gifting the world the joy of a humble water jug vs. cop during their occupation)

Holding in my heart: each and every person (except the police) who was at a music festival in the Weelaunee Forest one year ago today. Those performing. Those dancing and reveling. Those resisting. Those doing logistics and care. Those mourning Tortuguita. Those savoring moments of reinspiration and respite, joy and connection. Those looking out for others.

Especially those brutalized, arrested, and detained that day, and now facing heavy yet absurd charges.

Cops ruin everything, from March 5, 2023, in Atlanta, to yesterday among Appalachians Against Pipelines, to March 5, 2024, in Gaza, to all the days in between.

Courts aren't any better, even when they purport justice or rule something "a genocide." Prisons and militaries, states and borders, continue apace, churning out death.

We know this.

(At this point in human history, everyone should.)

What we too often overlook amid the despair, intensity, and trauma of these times is: we are the ones who make music. Even when it feels a whisper. Or when we feel as if we're humming alone or singing aloud with only a few friends. Our tunes float from forests and rivers to mountains and seas, in melodic forms that no cop, court, or country can see, hear, or comprehend. They take the shape of everything from rituals of resistance to jail solidarity and collective defense, to our many imaginative direct actions, dreamy do-it-ourselves spaces, mutual aid through asundry disasters, and communal care, to our ability to find cracks of possibility even when their walls seem impenetrable.

Still, anniversaries can feel hard. Our bodies remember, even if our minds try to block them out.

Let's all hold all of those (except the cops) who were at a music festival a year ago in our hearts, and others grappling with the state's crackdown on @stopcopcity as a movement, until all the charges are dropped, #UntilAllAreFree—everywhere.

#AllCopsAreBad
#AllCourtsAreBad
#ACABincludesIOF
#CareNotCops
#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

(photo: #ACAB Palestinian solidarity sticker seen recently on Stone Mountain in so-called Georgia; while they last, these stickers are free at @community_books_ga)

I went to a noise demo on this #NotMyNewYear, #NotOurWorld evening, and felt profound love for how anarchists make time and space, day in and day out, for solidarity, deep and reciprocal.

I went to a noise demo that took pauses in the cacophony of @brassyourheart marching band, amplified music by the @pansy.collective, and the banging of pots and pans to give voice to how our solidarity sees intimate kinship between struggles—naming political prisoners and those politically imprisoned because of things like racism and classism; naming criminalization against anarchistic movements both local like @parksareforeveryone and further afield such as @stopcopcity; naming the open-air prison and now genocide in Gaza; naming the injustice system’s logic and our abolitionist ways of troubling it.

I went to a noise demo where DIY solidarity looked like warm pizza and fresh flowers and zines and handcrafted stickers, freely gifted, and the @certaindayscalendar offered as a fundraiser for @avlbail.

I went to a noise demo on stolen Cherokee lands, walking to and from it past capitalist excess drunk on its own delusions and power, and I cried both ways. I wiped tears away during the demo. My body was there, seeing those in the jail flash lights back at us, wanting them to all be free, and prisons and police to be abolished, and a wholly new world take their place. But my heart was far, far away, with the dead. The dead who should still be here were it not for thefts of lands and all that’s sacred, including life.

I went to a noise demo, yet this #NotMyNewYear, #FuckThisWorld, I heard and felt the quiet of absences: three months of tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered or still “missing” under the rubble, and today, one sudden and still incomprehensible death that’s hitting hard for me and many others, @kleebenally. May their blessed memories—each and every of our dead—topple walls and empires, colonialism and fascism, and all that keeps us from being free, from living lives worth living and dying in our own good time, not killed off early by this sick, sick social order.

#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#UntilAllAreFree

Serendipitous promotion for the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, August 11-13, as stumbled on during a riverside #FuckThePolice ramble on the stolen lands called Asheville, NC.

Walk, run, bike, or otherwise get yourself to the @ACABookfaire! For one, I’ll be there, enthused to see lots of friendly anarchist faces (masked up indoors), because it almost goes without saying that #AllComradesAreBeautiful. But also because the bookfair will create a lovely and lively temporary autonomous zone, and #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful! And the bookfair schedule looks amazing, bringing together lots of savvy and bighearted anarchists, including many who are (as befits a bookfair) anarchist publishers and authors, and anarchists love to #AlwaysCarryABook. No doubt, too, there will be lots of anarchist pups along for the ride (if my time in Asheville so far is any indication), and for the most part (even though I’m more of an #AllCatsAreBeautiful person), #AllCaninesAreBeautiful.

And somehow, I suspect there might be a whole lot more #ACAB scribbled around town following next weekend’s anarchist influx (not that I’m encouraging it or anything)—as early promo for next year’s bookfair.

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

p.s. Just in case anyone mistakes my playfulness for something factual, I’m adding this disclaimer from the bookfair collective: “The phrase ACAB is not a copy-written product of the organizers of this bookfair and we cannot take credit for every appearance of it.”

Serendipitous promotion for the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, August 11-13, as stumbled on during a riverside #FuckThePolice ramble on the stolen lands called Asheville, NC.

Walk, run, bike, or otherwise get yourself to the @ACABookfaire! For one, I’ll be there, enthused to see lots of friendly anarchist faces (masked up indoors), because it almost goes without saying that #AllComradesAreBeautiful. But also because the bookfair will create a lovely and lively temporary autonomous zone, and #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful! And the bookfair schedule looks amazing, bringing together lots of savvy and bighearted anarchists, including many who are (as befits a bookfair) anarchist publishers and authors, and anarchists love to #AlwaysCarryABook. No doubt, too, there will be lots of anarchist pups along for the ride (if my time in Asheville so far is any indication), and for the most part (even though I’m more of an #AllCatsAreBeautiful person), #AllCaninesAreBeautiful.

And somehow, I suspect there might be a whole lot more #ACAB scribbled around town following next weekend’s anarchist influx (not that I’m encouraging it or anything)—as early promo for next year’s bookfair.

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

p.s. Just in case anyone mistakes my playfulness for something factual, I’m adding this disclaimer from the bookfair collective: “The phrase ACAB is not a copy-written product of the organizers of this bookfair and we cannot take credit for every appearance of it.”

Serendipitous promotion for the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, August 11-13, as stumbled on during a riverside #FuckThePolice ramble on the stolen lands called Asheville, NC.

Walk, run, bike, or otherwise get yourself to the @ACABookfaire! For one, I’ll be there, enthused to see lots of friendly anarchist faces (masked up indoors), because it almost goes without saying that #AllComradesAreBeautiful. But also because the bookfair will create a lovely and lively temporary autonomous zone, and #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful! And the bookfair schedule looks amazing, bringing together lots of savvy and bighearted anarchists, including many who are (as befits a bookfair) anarchist publishers and authors, and anarchists love to #AlwaysCarryABook. No doubt, too, there will be lots of anarchist pups along for the ride (if my time in Asheville so far is any indication), and for the most part (even though I’m more of an #AllCatsAreBeautiful person), #AllCaninesAreBeautiful.

And somehow, I suspect there might be a whole lot more #ACAB scribbled around town following next weekend’s anarchist influx (not that I’m encouraging it or anything)—as early promo for next year’s bookfair.

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

p.s. Just in case anyone mistakes my playfulness for something factual, I’m adding this disclaimer from the bookfair collective: “The phrase ACAB is not a copy-written product of the organizers of this bookfair and we cannot take credit for every appearance of it.”

Serendipitous promotion for the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, August 11-13, as stumbled on during a riverside #FuckThePolice ramble on the stolen lands called Asheville, NC.

Walk, run, bike, or otherwise get yourself to the @ACABookfaire! For one, I’ll be there, enthused to see lots of friendly anarchist faces (masked up indoors), because it almost goes without saying that #AllComradesAreBeautiful. But also because the bookfair will create a lovely and lively temporary autonomous zone, and #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful! And the bookfair schedule looks amazing, bringing together lots of savvy and bighearted anarchists, including many who are (as befits a bookfair) anarchist publishers and authors, and anarchists love to #AlwaysCarryABook. No doubt, too, there will be lots of anarchist pups along for the ride (if my time in Asheville so far is any indication), and for the most part (even though I’m more of an #AllCatsAreBeautiful person), #AllCaninesAreBeautiful.

And somehow, I suspect there might be a whole lot more #ACAB scribbled around town following next weekend’s anarchist influx (not that I’m encouraging it or anything)—as early promo for next year’s bookfair.

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

p.s. Just in case anyone mistakes my playfulness for something factual, I’m adding this disclaimer from the bookfair collective: “The phrase ACAB is not a copy-written product of the organizers of this bookfair and we cannot take credit for every appearance of it.”

Serendipitous promotion for the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, August 11-13, as stumbled on during a riverside #FuckThePolice ramble on the stolen lands called Asheville, NC.

Walk, run, bike, or otherwise get yourself to the @ACABookfaire! For one, I’ll be there, enthused to see lots of friendly anarchist faces (masked up indoors), because it almost goes without saying that #AllComradesAreBeautiful. But also because the bookfair will create a lovely and lively temporary autonomous zone, and #AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful! And the bookfair schedule looks amazing, bringing together lots of savvy and bighearted anarchists, including many who are (as befits a bookfair) anarchist publishers and authors, and anarchists love to #AlwaysCarryABook. No doubt, too, there will be lots of anarchist pups along for the ride (if my time in Asheville so far is any indication), and for the most part (even though I’m more of an #AllCatsAreBeautiful person), #AllCaninesAreBeautiful.

And somehow, I suspect there might be a whole lot more #ACAB scribbled around town following next weekend’s anarchist influx (not that I’m encouraging it or anything)—as early promo for next year’s bookfair.

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

p.s. Just in case anyone mistakes my playfulness for something factual, I’m adding this disclaimer from the bookfair collective: “The phrase ACAB is not a copy-written product of the organizers of this bookfair and we cannot take credit for every appearance of it.”

The place where I’m currently staying in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal has the best little “welcome” sticker on the front door—making it clear who is welcome and who is not.

#CareNotCops
#AllComradesAreBeautiful

The good folks at @detritus.books said it well yesterday as heavily armed police attacked a music festival for @stopcopcity, arresting numerous people: “One doesn’t have to be in Atlanta tonight to fight cop city. In this world, cop city is everywhere.”

Which is also why—besides basic good solidarity—folks in this world should be concerned about the heavy state repression being waged against Defend the Atlanta Forest; it too is or will be everywhere. For the more that forest defenders and water protectors and abolitionists and those defending bodily autonomy or defying evictions increasingly capture the imagination and grow resistance, the more the state, in allyship with its cops and courts, will up the ante of its brutal tactics.

Last night in Atlanta, 23 people scooped up by the cops were charged with domestic terrorism—this time, for the crime of listening and dancing to music in the Weelaunee Forest. They join 19 other defendants who were also charged with domestic terrorism recently for the crime of caring about and communing with trees—bringing the total to 42.

This tactic, if at all successful, won’t stay put in one city. It’s already sent Jessica Reznicek behind bars for trying to defend this earth in another struggle (see and support @freejessrez). Hence the need, wherever we are, to make sure collective solidarity beats out statist violence. Every time. Everywhere.

Unfortunately, another tool in the state’s arsenal is exorbitant bond/bail fees as part of the exorbitant charges. So our solidarity has to be both immaterial and material.

Materially, hundreds of thousands are needed to bond out and defend forest defenders in Atlanta, as part of our #NoLoveForCops and much rebellious love for each other strategy.

Let’s all give generously and/or help raise funds for Atlanta Solidarity Fund at http://www.atlsolidarity.org.

And let’s continue to mourn our dead and fight like hell for the living, while sticking side by side with each other—toward cops nowhere.

(photo: in every language, “abolish the police,” seen here in French on the wintery streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal)

#ACAB #ForestsNotFascism
#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

We don’t need videos.

As the Ayotzinapa 43 families have been saying since 2014, after 43 beloveds in Iguala, Guerrero, were disappeared and likely murdered, including by police, “We want them back alive.”

Meaning: they never should have been killed.

We shouldn’t need videos to somehow prove that we want every single person murdered-by-cop to be alive. That their names should still be spoken to them, here in this world. That each and every person assassinated by police was loved and lovable, and never deserved that kind of death.

We shouldn’t need videos as evidence that there are no good cops.

The proof is in the grieving people left behind, the uprisings fueled by rage and sorrow, the abolitionist and stop cop cities/academies organizing and direct action, the myriad forms of solidarity, the murals and tags on urban walls, the DIY altars.

“We want them back alive.”

For that to have full meaning, we want and need and fight for a world without police.

#AllCopsAreBad #ACAB
#NoMoreStolenLives
#CareNotCops
#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#TowardAWorldWithoutPolice
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

(photo: downtown storefront boarded up with plywood and then tagged with graffiti asserting #NoGoodCops and #Fuck12 as seen on stolen Ho-Chunk lands in so-called Madison, WI, after the windows were smashed during the George Floyd uprising in 2020)

The anarchist elves have been busily working overtime—voluntarily—to keep the lights on at #Kolektiva, especially as a whole slew of us have finally starting using our long-dormant accounts (like me) or joined in the past few days. And until capitalism is history, anarchistic infrastructure isn’t completely free—at least monetarily.

So if you can spare some change, or better yet, dollars in whatever currency is commodifying your part of this imperiled world, kick some love and cash (like I just did) to our rad admin crew!

http://kolektiva.info/donate/

#WeAreAllWeNeed
#FreeAssociation #CollectiveCare
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#TryAnarchistInfrastructureForLife

(photo: stencil of a can of paint filled with the “greed” of billionaires’ hubris and capitalism’s violence being poured over our home, planet earth, as seen on the wall of some hierarchical infrastructure in summer 2021 in so-called Asheville, NC)