#crimethinc — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #crimethinc, aggregated by home.social.
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Make Ready: Safeguarding Our Movements against Repression
How to Respond to Donald Trump’s Threats
#CrimethInc, 2025-09-18
"In a post on Truth Social yesterday, Donald #Trump declared that he is designating '#Antifa' as 'a major terrorist organization.' What does that mean? How can we prepare to weather the storm? Everyone should read this guide.
"It’s always difficult to tell how seriously to take Trump’s performative declarations. He makes wild statements to see what plays to his audience, throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, and then doubles down wherever there is no pushback. But this time around, his administration has stuck very close to the classic fascist playbook, with one supporter going so far as to declare without any irony that the shooting of #CharlieKirk 'is the #AmericanReichstag fire.' The obvious next step in that playbook is to expand from targeting immigrants to go after #anarchists, #leftists, and other opponents of the #regime as well.
"Yes, Trump has previously declared that he would designate 'Antifa' a 'terrorist organization,' most famously at the outset of the #GeorgeFloydRevolt. But at that time, the rest of the federal government largely acted as a brake on his impulses — whereas today, the entire executive branch of the federal government is comprised of toadies and sycophants who are incapable of distinguishing their interests from his.
"Granted, there is no law authorizing the president to designate domestic terrorist organizations. But even without new legislation or an executive order, Trump has direct control over the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and other federal agencies. What he says on social media is probably indicative of what he will direct his underlings to do.
"The fact that 'Antifa' is not an organization at all, but rather a nebulous category that could include virtually anyone who disapproves of Trump’s #autocratic agenda, is convenient for Trump.
"This means that, regardless of who you are or what you do, you, too, could become a target. That’s why everyone should review the following suggestions, whether or not you think they apply to you. Rather than spreading panic, preparing ourselves in concrete ways will enable us to approach this situation calmly and effectively.
"While no 'domestic terror organization' designation currently exists — and nor does any obvious mechanism to establish one — far-right prosecutors already have a track record of groundlessly pressing trumped-up terrorism charges as a means of terrorizing activists and supporters of social movements. Trump has explicitly called for the use of #racketeering charges to suppress his critics. #FarRight Republican senators are already sponsoring a bill that would add rioting to the list of offenses that the Justice Department can use as part of a probe under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations [#RICO] Act.
"There are obvious precedents for how this might go. Two years ago, a wide range of defendants in #AtlantaGA were randomly charged under the RICO act as part of the repression of the #StopCopCity movement. The cases have been endlessly delayed—and earlier this month, a judge dismissed most of the charges on a technicality.
Under Donald Trump, many federal agencies are disorganized and focused chiefly on managing perceptions. This precisely describes the authorities who brought the haphazard RICO charges in #Georgia two years ago. If the trajectory of the Stop Cop City RICO case offers any indication of how other RICO persecutions of accused activists might go, the chief threat may not be that the crackdown Trump is calling for will send people to prison, but rather that the charges will discourage and immobilize people, creating the conditions for the Trump administration to eventually supersede this form of repression with something worse.
"It remains to be seen how seriously the administration will carry out Trump’s threats, and whether they will start by attacking #grassroots groups or proceed from the top down, targeting massive liberal institutions and fundraising platforms. In either case, our long-term prospects will depend on whether we can enable large numbers of people to act in solidarity with each other, taking up the kind of grassroots direct action tactics that can be effective regardless of whether the people who control the state wish to listen.
"We all live in Atlanta now.
"Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself and your community, proceeding from the immediate to the general."
#SolidarityIsPower #Solidarity #Authoritarianism #TrumpIsAFascist #NoDAPL #Resistance #SilencingDissent #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #ResistICE #ResistFascism
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Reports from the Festivals of Resistance / Day of the Forest Defender
#Crimethinc, 2025-01-20"January 18 is the Day of the Forest Defender, honoring the life of Manuel '#Tortuguita' Terán, who was murdered by Georgia State Troopers two years ago while protesting the construction of Cop City in Atlanta, and everyone else who has given their lives in the fight against those who would render the earth uninhabitable in the course of their pursuit of profit. This year, a call circulated for people to organize festivals of resistance in their communities on the weekend of January 17-19. Here, we share reports from some of these events.
"The situation is grim. Despite acknowledging that Trump represents #fascism, Democrats have nonetheless welcomed the arrival of #despotism, dutifully voting for new legislation targeting immigrants and doing their best to keep protesters out of the streets. #TechCEOs have followed suit, pouring millions of dollars into his inauguration and crowding into St. John’s Church to worship at the feet of their new master.
"#ElonMusk made the #Nazi salute twice from the podium during the inauguration, leaving only just enough plausible deniability to confuse the most naïve. Musk has posted fascist dog whistles on Twitter before, even before he purchased it in order to reintroduce Nazis to the platform, ban anarchists, and promote the fascist agenda.
"From this point forward, nothing should surprise us. The incoming government has made it clear that they intend to inflict as much harm as possible on those who are vulnerable while concentrating as much money as possible in the hands of the ultra-rich. These are the central points of their agenda. Attempting to spread information about their misdeeds in order to provoke popular outrage is a waste of time. From here out, all that matters is developing the capacity to defend each other from their attacks while preparing to go on the offensive as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
"The faces of the #oligarchy looked craven and servile as they lined up at the inauguration to toady to Trump. #Capitalism concentrates power in the hands of the most rapacious, but they can only hold on to power by being completely subservient to its demands.
"Fortunately, not everyone is taking this sitting down. #Anarchists around the country called for 'festivals of resistance' the weekend before the inauguration in order to bring communities together prepare to resist. Here follow reports from a few of these. You can read the original call to organize festivals of resistance here, along with a list of dozens of events around the country."
Read more:
https://crimethinc.com/2025/01/20/reports-from-the-festivals-of-resistance-day-of-the-forest-defender
#FestivalsOfResistance #DayOfTheForestDefender #JusticeForTort #StopCopCity -
Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight against #CopCity
Six More Months in the Movement to Defend the Forest
2023-12-12 via #CrimeThinc"Escalating Repression: #RICO and the Furtherance of the Conspiracy
"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the 'tactics of organized criminals' language Governor Kemp used on July 2 was not just boilerplate copy drafted by an intern, nor was the August 2 press conference simply propaganda to assure backers that the state could still protect their investments. These phrases and statements were shaping operations, carefully crafted interventions designed to position the government for their next operation: the blanket criminalization of the entire movement.
"On August 29, the Attorney General of #Georgia, Christopher M. Carr, filed an indictment with the Fulton County Superior Court, bringing charges against 61 people under Georgia’s version of the Rackeeter-Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act O.C.G.A. § 16-14-4. The indictment became public on September 5. The document, which is over 100 pages long and very poorly written, claims that the 'conspiracy' (which it names 'Defend the Atlanta Forest') was 'founded' on May 25, 2020—the day that #MinneapolisPolice officers murdered #GeorgeFloyd, precipitating a nationwide #uprising.
"This was a serious escalation. It did not catch everyone by surprise: the #AtlantaSolidarityFund has been braced for such charges since February. The authorities and their extreme-right proxies had been demanding a full-scale crackdown on the movement for over a year, spreading a conspiracy theory that the movement was a mafia controlled by a shadowy and well-connected group (a narrative some activists also reproduced, apparently with no sense of irony). According to one version of this conspiracy theory, circulated by far-right trolls, the Network for Stronger Communities (a Georgia-based nonprofit organization) operates a number of financial enterprises, including the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, that coordinate acts of terrorism in order to accumulate wealth and influence. Of the 61 accused, three were members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The 42 people already facing #DomesticTerrorism charges were also indicted, as well as a number of other people whose connection to the movement was unclear. The indictment alleged that some people had committed acts in 'overt furtherance of the conspiracy' such as buying #GlueSticks for #SignMaking. [UK is using similar tactics, arresting people for just having #Superglue or #BikeLocks in their possession.]
"The RICO indictment was not a legal procedure but a political act. It was not a judicial intervention to suppress criminal activity but a government measure to crush what the text describes as '#anarchism,' '#collectivism,' '#SocialSolidarity,' '#MutualAid.”
"It is not simply 61 people who are on trial. By dating the case to the murder of George Floyd, the prosecution showed that their real target was the entire population of millions that participated in the consequent revolt. This is not an unusual court case, but a new chapter in the fight between those who seek to preserve the hierarchies of a structurally white supremacist society and those fighting to destroy it root and branch. The indictment does not present a list of crimes. It describes the contours and values of a rival society emerging within the movement to stop Cop City, aspiring to reinvent the world according to a different logic.
"The Fulton County Judge assigned to the RICO case immediately recused himself. Until then, judges had not recused themselves from cases related to the movement even when they possessed obvious ties to the Atlanta Police Foundation."
#JusticeForTort #StopCopCity #ACAB #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SLAPPs