#solidarityisourbestweapon — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #solidarityisourbestweapon, aggregated by home.social.
-
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #4
(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)
🖤🩷🖤🩷
If you go to “No Kings” rallies today, no doubt it will be all you can do—as an anarchist who believes deeply in liberatory practices and politics—to maintain your cool when faced with both liberals’ and authoritarians’ lack of solidarity. Go with other anarchists and be each other’s support system, and debrief (rant, cry, laugh, and/or chill) afterward.
But also go as “friendly anarchist factions” to model what solidarity actually looks like—even if too many nonanarchistic folks don’t yet know what that feels like or how to do it. I always wish that people didn’t need to be, say, tear gassed or arrested to learn that ACAB isn’t just a slogan, and that anarchists will almost certainly be the ones to have their backs. But such is the wearisome “learning curve,” and the more folks who see beloved community self-defense modeled for them, unflinchingly, on the streets, the more they’ll understand how (and why!) to stick side-by-side too—including with us.
Be solidarity.
#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon -
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #3
(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)
🖤🩷🖤🩷
Back in the day, ahead of a big protest, anarchists set up “convergence centers”: big, scrappy, communal spaces where folks could not only find each other, make and eat food, plug into art and media making, etc. in the days before an (often direct) action based on a wide-ranging diversity of tactics—under an umbrella name like “Carnival against Capitalism” or “No Olympics on Stolen Native Lands”—but also skill up together.
There’s no time to do this before the poorly named “No Kings” (aka, it’s fascism) protests tmrw. Yet you could easily do pop-up skill shares. So many “newbies” are open to learning and eager for alternatives!
Remake the urban landscape into temporary autonomous “classrooms.” Use public furniture or gathering spots, or bring blankets or chairs to sit on. Write the skill share topic on cardboard and display it. Run around and announce skill shares as they start. Bored protesters waiting for a march to begin or tired of listening to rally speeches make great participants. Circle up and start passing along handy skills—say, how to help each other rinse tear gas out of eyes or turn a T-shirt into a mask (over your N95), or how to do forms of community self-defense or jail support. Offer an Anarchism 101 or local rad history talk too. Exercise hands and minds, encouraging liberal and progressive folks to (begin to) think and act for themselves.
#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon -
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #2
(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)
🖤🩷🖤🩷
It’s tough not to fume over the “peaceful protest” call for a “sit-down wave” at this Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies, such as one that asserts: if you see so-called infiltrators “destroy[ing] property,” “sit down and leave the provocators” standing. That’s how the self-appointed leaders of these nonprofit-corporate “ally” demos uphold a status quo that benefits them. In practice, it means anyone not falling in liberal line will get the brunt of police violence and state repression.
Enough fuming. My anarcho-prefigurative self says: outorganize the “peace police”! #BeGayMakeFun! Alongside bringing many zines to gift out at these rallies: Set up carnivesque “no kings, no masters” participatory games! Bring screen-printing supplies (stencils, silk screens, or even humble potatoes carved with printable slogans) and let folks print your rebellious designs on T-shirts, patches, or cardboard! Create playful shield-making art station! Become snack faeries, carting around yummy treats in wagons to freely distro! Do some rebel street theater or radical cheerleading! Bring a queer rebel marching band or amplified music, and start a street dance!
Anarchism is not just good politics; make it good fun, and when folks are drawn to you, anarchism will not only be welcoming but irresistible too. Plus, who knows, maybe you can joyfully teach people how do a “stand-up wave” against the real provocateurs (cops).
#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon -
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #1
(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)
🖤🩷🖤🩷
I know it’s no fun to go to liberal-progressive rallies, but thousands of newbies and/or newly awakened folks will be at this Saturday’s “No Kings” protest. Don’t let the nonprofit “ally” complex siphon off the genuine energy of those seeking social transformation—those who don’t yet know that, for instance, “police are not our friends” or “solidarity is our best weapon.”
Instead, print thousands of zines that allow people to “educate themselves in freedom,” especially accessible ones that include rebellious ideas and do-it-ourselves practices! Take those zines to rallies. Walk around and freely gift them to people!
From personal experience, I know that a single zine can change many hearts and minds—and create “accomplices” now willing to experiment with anarchistic forms of street militancy, from varied types of community self-defense to myriad types of collective care and mutual aid.
#MakeMediaBuildSolidarity
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#TryAnarchismForLife -
Für Kurzentschlossene in Freiburg: 18:00 Uhr Protest vor dem Revier der Bundespolizei!
Wo: Wentzingerstraße 25
Gemeinsam gegen die massiven Grenzkontrollen!
Gegen die illegalen Zurückweisungen durch die Bundespolizei!
Seit Herbst 2024 werden die Grenzen zu Deutschland intensiv kontrolliert. Bundesinnenminister Dobrindt ließ die Kontrollen mit tausenden Bundespolizist*innen und Millionen an Steuergeldern am 7. Mai 2025 weiter verschärfen. Am 2. Juni erklärte das Verwaltungsgericht Berlin die Zurückweisungen von Asylsuchenden an der Grenze klar für rechtswidrig. Dobrindt und Co. setzen dennoch weiterhin auf offenen Rechtsbruch und bedienen sich unverändert rassistischer Hetze.
Deshalb wird es gleich eine Kundgebung geben!Keine Zurückweisungen an den Grenzen!
Schluss mit den Grenzkontrollen!
Kein racial profiling!
Solidarität mit geflüchteten Menschen!#bundespolizei #grenze #Grenzkontrollen #Freiburg #solidaritat #noborders #grenzkontrollen #keineGrenzkontrolle #keinegrenzen #Dobrinth #innenminister #FreiburgImBreisgau #freiburg2025 #montag #freiburg25 #antirepression #solidarity #solidaritatstattausgrenzung #SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
-
Für Kurzentschlossene in Freiburg: 18:00 Uhr Protest vor dem Revier der Bundespolizei!
Wo: Wentzingerstraße 25
Gemeinsam gegen die massiven Grenzkontrollen!
Gegen die illegalen Zurückweisungen durch die Bundespolizei!
Seit Herbst 2024 werden die Grenzen zu Deutschland intensiv kontrolliert. Bundesinnenminister Dobrindt ließ die Kontrollen mit tausenden Bundespolizist*innen und Millionen an Steuergeldern am 7. Mai 2025 weiter verschärfen. Am 2. Juni erklärte das Verwaltungsgericht Berlin die Zurückweisungen von Asylsuchenden an der Grenze klar für rechtswidrig. Dobrindt und Co. setzen dennoch weiterhin auf offenen Rechtsbruch und bedienen sich unverändert rassistischer Hetze.
Deshalb wird es gleich eine Kundgebung geben!Keine Zurückweisungen an den Grenzen!
Schluss mit den Grenzkontrollen!
Kein racial profiling!
Solidarität mit geflüchteten Menschen!#bundespolizei #grenze #Grenzkontrollen #Freiburg #solidaritat #noborders #grenzkontrollen #keineGrenzkontrolle #keinegrenzen #Dobrinth #innenminister #FreiburgImBreisgau #freiburg2025 #montag #freiburg25 #antirepression #solidarity #solidaritatstattausgrenzung #SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
-
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE, pt 4
If you go to “No Kings” rallies today, no doubt it will be all you can do—as an anarchist who believes deeply in liberatory practices and politics—to maintain your cool when faced with both liberals’ and authoritarians’ lack of solidarity . Go with other anarchists and be each other’s support system, and debrief (rant, cry, laugh, and/or chill) afterward.
But also go as “friendly anarchist factions” to model what solidarity actually looks like—even if too many nonanarchistic folks don’t yet know what that feels like or how to do it. I always wish that people didn’t need to be, say, tear gassed or arrested to learn that ACAB isn’t just a slogan, and that anarchists will almost certainly be the ones to have their backs. But such is the wearisome “learning curve,” and the more folks who see beloved community self-defense modeled for them, unflinchingly, on the streets, the more they’ll understand how (and why!) to stick side-by-side too—including with us.
Be solidarity.
#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon(photo: pink and black circle A heart spray-painted on a wall in Athens, Greece, during a queer+trans International Women’s Day march on March 8, 2025)
-
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE, pt 3
Back in the day, ahead of a big protest, anarchists set up “convergence centers”: big, scrappy, communal spaces where folks could not only find each other, make and eat food, plug into art and media making, etc. in the days before an (often direct) action based on a wide-ranging diversity of tactics—under an umbrella name like “Carnival against Capitalism” or “No Olympics on Stolen Native Lands”—but also skill up together.
There’s no time to do this before the poorly named “No Kings” (aka, it’s fascism) protests tmrw. Yet you could easily do pop-up skill shares. So many “newbies” are open to learning and eager for alternatives!
Remake the urban landscape into temporary autonomous “classrooms.” Use public furniture or gathering spots, or bring blankets or chairs to sit on. Write the skill share topic on cardboard and display it. Run around and announce skill shares as they start. Bored protesters waiting for a march to begin or tired of listening to rally speeches make great participants. Circle up and start passing along handy skills—say, how to help each other rinse tear gas out of eyes or turn a T-shirt into a mask (over your N95), or how to do forms of community self-defense or jail support. Offer an Anarchism 101 or local rad history talk too. Exercise hands and minds, encouraging liberal and progressive folks to (begin to) think and act for themselves.
#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon -
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE, pt 2
It’s tough not to fume over the “peaceful protest” call for a “sit-down wave” at this Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies, such as one that asserts: if you see so-called infiltrators “destroy[ing] property,” “sit down and leave the provocators” standing. That’s how the self-appointed leaders of these nonprofit-corporate “ally” demos uphold a status quo that benefits them. In practice, it means anyone not falling in liberal line will get the brunt of police violence and state repression.
Enough fuming. My anarcho-prefigurative self says: outorganize the “peace police”! #BeGayMakeFun! Alongside bringing many zines to gift out at these rallies: Set up carnivesque “no kings, no masters” participatory games! Bring screen-printing supplies (stencils, silk screens, or even humble potatoes carved with printable slogans) and let folks print your rebellious designs on T-shirts, patches, or cardboard! Create playful shield-making art station! Become snack faeries, carting around yummy treats in wagons to freely distro! Do some rebel street theater or radical cheerleading! Bring a queer rebel marching band or amplified music, and start a street dance!
Anarchism is not just good politics; make it good fun, and when folks are drawn to you, anarchism will not only be welcoming but irresistible too. Plus, who knows, maybe you can joyfully teach people how do a “stand-up wave” against the real provocateurs (cops).
#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon(photo of a brick wall with a circle A spray-painted on the concrete foundation below it, as spotted on the stolen lands of Tioh’tià:ke/Montreal, June 2025)
-
ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE:
I know it’s no fun to go to liberal-progressive rallies, but thousands of newbies and/or newly awakened folks will be at this Saturday’s “No Kings” protest. Don’t let the nonprofit “ally” complex siphon off the genuine energy of those seeking social transformation—and don’t yet know that, for instance, “police are not our friends” or “solidarity is our best weapon.”
Instead, print thousands of zines that allow people to “educate themselves in freedom,” especially accessible ones that include rebellious ideas and do-it-ourselves practices! Take those zines to rallies. Walk around and freely gift them to people!
From personal experience, I know that a single zine can change many hearts and minds—and create “accomplices” now willing to experiment with anarchistic forms of street militancy, from varied types of community self-defense to myriad types of collective care and mutual aid.
#MakeMediaBuildSolidarity
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#TryAnarchismForLife -
Shout it from the rooftops, or at least paint it: “freedom to Palestine & destroy all prisons.”
#ArtOfResistance, or better yet, #ArtOfLiberation, as seen on a #FuckFascism stroll before sunset & Shabbat in Exarchia, Feb 7, because if nothing else, we should dream aloud, so others hear & join us.
-
Books as solidarity: a fundraiser for @gazamutualaid
Examples of solidarity weave their way through all of the (increasingly relevant) book projects of mine pictured here, so it’s apropos that these titles, in your hands, will become a form of much-needed solidarity beyond borders with Palestinians in Gaza, thx to on-the-ground mutual aid.
While supplies last, grab a copy of one or more of the following books at the sliding scales below, and I’ll send 100% of the money raised (minus shipping in US only) to Gaza Mutual Aid.
“Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy” — $8 to $19 (or more)
“Anarchism and Its Aspirations” — $6 to $12 (or more)
“There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists” — $11 to $23 (or more)“Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief” — $10 to $20 (or more)
“Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle” — $10 to $20 (or more)
You can find full descriptions of the first four books on publisher @akpressdistro’s website and a full description of the last one on publisher @tangled_wilderness’ website.
That said, the edited anthologies “Deciding for Ourselves,” “Nothing So Whole,” and “Rebellious Mourning” are all overflowing with stories and art about real-life examples of messy beautiful practices of remembrance, resistance, and especially, prefiguring otherworldly ways of self-determining and self-governing our lives. They all contain magical, emotional, and inspirational words (as weapons against the social order and salve for our despairing hearts), and I trust that the same is true of the two books I wrote, “Aspirations” and “Try Anarchism for Life,” which also includes an array of gorgeous drawings of circle As embodying the beauty of what anarchism is, does, and envisions.
All five books are direct counters to this fascist present, particularly in how they illuminate actually existing alternatives, and thus possibilities in the here and now.
To donate to this fundraiser and dive into reading (or gifting) one or more of these books, email me at cbmilstein [at] yahoo to work out the simple details.
-
Sparks of rebellious inspiration have a funny way of not staying put in one time or space. They traverse borders. They congregate without permission in all sorts of unexpected places. They defy the logics of commodification, freely sharing with and borrowing from each other, while also defying the logics of colonialism and states, offering life-giving solidarity to weather and contest their death machinery.
We never know, when we release tiny sparks into the enormous darkness of this social order, where they will end up, if they manage to stay alighted at all. Or who will see them, or where or when, much less what they will make of those sparks. Most often, we never know, and don’t really need to.
Yet we do need to remember that each and every one of us who aspires to kindle the flames of a new world does indeed put out sparks into the night via all our many gifts. And just as we find inspiration in those random sparks that we stumble on and run with, others will likely do the same with what we release into the wind to stir up social transformation.
But occasionally, we get to see and feel the fruits of reciprocal inspiration—proof positive that our liberatory strivings can soar above walls and fences to magnify resistance. Or simply to supply each other with the further inspiration to keep fighting and dreaming.
The past two days in Montreal, some 85,000 students went on strike in solidarity with Palestinians, timed to coincide with NATO meetings in that city. This student strike, in turn, finds echoes of inspiration in years of powerful student and social strikes in Montreal. And just as I was feeling FOMO that I couldn’t be there for this strike, a Concordia student texted me these photos (used with consent) of an altar they’d set up as both a blockade in their classroom and collective space of grief, inspired by the stories in my edited anthology #RebelliousMourning (@akpressdistro, with striking design by @eff_charm).
May our arts of inspiration, resistance, and remembrance burst into rebel bonfires, illuminating our ancestors there alongside us and honoring them as we journey toward freedom.
-
Support the “AVL 4” Appalachians against Pipelines!
On March 4, four of our Asheville, NC, friends were arrested along with three other people after being aggressively chased by police through the woods of Poor Mountain in West Virginia. Only one of these seven has been bailed out so far, with others hopefully released soon—but all with hefty bond amounts and legal expenses ahead. That same day on that mountain, two other people locked themselves to an immobilized car and shut down Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) work for eleven hours.
The repression against MVP resistance has continued to escalate of late. In recent months, local and Indigenous pipeline resisters have been charged with felonies, hit with egregious civil lawsuits, and faced months of jail time for protesting the devastation of this delicate ecosystem. If completed, the MVP will contaminate sensitive water sources for poor communities across West Virginia and Virginia, perpetuating a legacy of resource extraction and disregard for human and nonhuman life in Appalachia.
Our AVL buddies need your support! Let’s shower them with love and solidarity!
DONATE to the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund: bit.ly/applegaldefense
#NoMVP #StopMVP #NoPipelines #FTP #SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
-
Support the “AVL 4” Appalachians against Pipelines!
On March 4, four of our Asheville, NC, friends were arrested along with three other people after being aggressively chased by police through the woods of Poor Mountain in West Virginia. Only one of these seven has been bailed out so far, with others hopefully released soon—but all with hefty bond amounts and legal expenses ahead. That same day on that mountain, two other people locked themselves to an immobilized car and shut down Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) work for eleven hours.
The repression against MVP resistance has continued to escalate of late. In recent months, local and Indigenous pipeline resisters have been charged with felonies, hit with egregious civil lawsuits, and faced months of jail time for protesting the devastation of this delicate ecosystem. If completed, the MVP will contaminate sensitive water sources for poor communities across West Virginia and Virginia, perpetuating a legacy of resource extraction and disregard for human and nonhuman life in Appalachia.
Our AVL buddies need your support! Let’s shower them with love and solidarity!
DONATE to the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund: bit.ly/applegaldefense
#NoMVP #StopMVP #NoPipelines #FTP #SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
-
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)
-
Defend the forest!
Teach each other!
Free the @stopcopcity codefendants—and drop all of their charges!I’m delighted and honored to join this Saturday with so many rad, queer, and feisty folks for a day of workshops, teach-ins, and gathering to benefit the @defendatlantaforest codefendants facing terrorism and RICO charges (look up DTAF RICO for more info)!
Here’s the scoop, as pictured—pretty in pink—in the infographic (plus I’ll be tabling with anarchic zines related to Palestinian solidarity, because our struggles and freedom are intertwined, across and beyond borders):
Saturday 11/11/23
Asheville, NC
Noon-6 @ Twelve Baskets12-1 Riley — safe in the sheets, dangerous in the streets: safety planning and threat modeling for parties and actions
1:15-2:15 @cindymilstein — Repression vs Solidarity
2:30-3:30 Poptart — Understanding RICO and the law: Breaking down the RICO
3:45-4:45 Kaylah Brathwaite — AntiBlackness and Genocide
5-6 V — HARM REDUCTION SAVES LIVES: Doubling down on the failed Drug War and criminalizing proven solutions
The teach-in space is free y’all. We want to share a room and discussion with you so that we can continue to build together in the face of increased repression.
We ask that attendees wear a mask inside of the workshop space. KN95s will be provided.
In the evening, a benefit dance party at a secret location will commence.
Donations at the door encouraged to support our friends facing repression. No funds required, but we do ask that y’all respect each other and the space. Plenty of (warm) outdoor space too at this event!
Text 828-771-6249 for address+questions.
#ForestsNotFascism
#CareNotCops
#ACABmeansIOF
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#UntilAllAreFree -
As a morale booster and tender form of solidarity following the latest twist in state repression against @defendatlantaforest, @stopcopcity, anarchists and forest/water/land defenders everywhere, and especially the 61 people named in the RICO indictment of two days ago, at long last the recording of the “Cultivating Resilience and Care” webinar is available for watching/listening.
Big and abiding gratitude and love to @firestormcoop for hosting, and crucially, Mar, Siihasin, and Lyle for agreeing to share their experiences, wisdoms, and hearts as former defendants in prior moments of state repression, but more important, as folks who all do so much to put communal care into their varied practices aimed at mending this world. I was supposed to facilitate the webinar, held in July 2023, but as you’ll see, Mar, Siihasin, and Lyle ran (beautifully) with it, so feel free to fast-forward past me and soak up the power of their words and conversation!
As a brief description, also noted in the graphic here:
“When we're experiencing state repression, our fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and loss of control can be so overwhelming that we turn on each other with lateral aggressions, crushing us and our solidarity. How do we resist state repression and come out stronger? In this discussion, three panelists reflect on the tools and strategies they've used to build personal and collective resilience.”
You can find the recording at:
-
[Update: #FuckTheState! So much anarchist baiting and painting jail support/solidarity as sinister in the court today—and the judge denied bond to 8 folks, leaving them in jail. #FreeThemAll.]
Tomorrow is the second bond hearing for the nearly two-dozen people snatched by cops from a music festival in Weelaunee Forest on March 6, jailed ever since, and charged with “domestic terrorism” for caring about this planet and all of its inhabitants. May our hearts and solidarity be with all the arrestees and their many loved ones and supporters on what may be an extra stressful day.
Defend the codefendants.
Defend the earth.
Donate toward the long solidarity struggle ahead against this state repression. Contribute to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund at http://www.atlsolidarity.org.
#AllCourtsAreBrutal
#AllCopsAreBad
#DropTheCharges
#StopCopCity
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon(photo: One of many, many #ACAB tags spotted on the wintery, inching toward springlike, streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal)
-
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 -
Shavua tov: toward a good week, a blessed week, a week of joy, a week of fighting fascism in all of its forms.
#HavdalahAgainstHate
#FlamesAgainstFascism
#CandlesNotCops
#CommunitySelfDefense
#TryJewishAnarchismForLife
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon(photos: #FuckNazis tag spotted on the frigid streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal; closeup of this evening’s Havdalah candle and its #BlessedFlame)
-
It’s doubly impossible tonight to lean into the practice of Shabbat as a time-space of inhabiting “the world to come,” the world we dream of and deserve—Jews and non-Jews alike.
For one, this is the first Shabbos in the new Jewish month of Adar, which holds out the notion that joy will increase. But what joy can one find in Christian fascists, neo-Nazis, and their fellow brethren calling for a “Day of Hate” against Jews tomorrow, on our Shabbat, with its joys?
And second, how is one to disengage from the world of work—as we’re “commanded”/invited by Shabbat—and instead rest in light of this? How is one to dwell in the sacred, leaving behind the profane, the common (like, say, the hegemony of Christian patriarchal white supremacy), for the 25 hours of Shabbes when a Day of Hate against Jews is unrestfully launched and thus there’s so much antifascist work to do, including community self-defense?
Of course, every day under fascism—and the United States is already there—is a day of hate, a day of targeting, a day of no rest for the weary antifascist.
Yet just as we rebels call for “days of action” to direct our love and solidarity toward the direct action of dismantling various forms of hierarchy and domination, the fascists are likely putting special effort into their Day of Hate. And even if their direct actions fall short of their aims, which include, as one flyer asserts, being “loud and clear” that “the one true enemy … is the Jew,” like our days of action, such moments can have many impacts, from visibility for a message to bolstering one’s ranks to causing a certain amount of trouble. And in this case, not the good kind—toward liberatory lives for all—but the kind that hurts and even kills people, and for sure is already paining Jews.
This Day of Hate isn’t “just” a Jewish concern—though please check in on and offer solidarity to your Jewish friends. Their conspiracy theories and genocidal fantasies tie us all together—all of us in fascism’s crosshairs. But so, too, should our common dream of a world to come—and without fascism.
(photo: hot pink and black “antifascist action” sticker seen on my #FuckFascism walk in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal today)
#WeMustOutliveThem
#CommunitySelfDefense
#BeTheGolemYouWantToSee
#SolidarityOnShabbat
#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)
-
Sunday afternoon #FuckThePolice (and their allies) stroll amid signs of fresh snowfall and the fresh fallout of what allegedly was a #StopCopCity vigil late last evening on the stolen Anishinabeeg lands of so-called Lansing, Michigan.
#MourningOurDead
#RestInPowerTort
#RebelliousMourning
#FightingLikeHellForTheLiving
#ForestsNotFascism
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon -
[Part 1 of 2]
[Update: Although fascists and unfriendly media have already publicly shared the defendants’ names, there isn’t consensus among those doing jail support on our side about whether to further circulate the names. So until a consensus emerges, and one based on the defendants’ wishes, I’ve deleted their names here, and urge you not to share them publicly. There’s now a workaround, though! Send your postcards to P.O. Box 5390, Atlanta, GA 30307, attn: Atlanta Books to Prisoners and they’ll get sent from there to the defendants!]
If trees could talk, they wouldn’t talk to police.
Or, for many of us, since we know that trees can and do talk in various ways, we’re sure that they would never, ever talk to the police. Especially since many of those cops want to cut them down!
We also know that trees can and do lend solidarity aplenty, whether to the ecosystems of which they are a part, those humans who sit with them, or by nonconsensually giving up their lives and limbs to be turned into paper for, say, postcards.
The trees’ sacrifice doesn’t have to be in vain. Postcards, too, can lend solidarity, and in defense of the trees and, particularly right now, those humans who are forest defenders.
This week, six folks were arrested in Weelaunee Forest on the stolen lands now called DeKalb County, Georgia, as police cracked down hard on @defendatlantaforest and @stopcopcity. They were charged with “domestic terrorism” and then denied bond.
The trees know, as we also do, that protecting forests—including by gathering in them to make and share food, engage in sacred rituals, offer and learn skills, play music and dance, and assorted other communal, life-giving activities—is the exact opposite of those charges, and that trees and people should be free.
For now, that forest (and all trees, no doubt) and those who are doing on-the-ground jail support in the Atlanta area are asking for all of us to send postcards to the six jailed forest defenders. (Scroll through the infographics here for exact instructions.)
Each postcard will not only bring care and comfort to the six forest defenders who are likely going through a range of hard/scary/stressful emotions and times but is also an implicit #ACAB to the cops and courts.
Somehow, if those postcards that used to be trees could talk, I suspect they’d glad to be bearers of solidarity—but remember, make sure your postcards don’t inadvertently talk to the cops either (again, read the instructions here carefully!).
(photo: taken in mid-October when I had the blessed pleasure of visiting this forest during sukkot 5783/2022)
#ForestsNotFascism
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#AllCopsAreBad #AllCourtsAreBad
#DefendAtlantaForestDefenders -
A list of 5,000 “antifa” accounts on Twitter has been circulating today, with the fascist aim of purging these voices—an eclectic mix including liberals and even some conservatives, but mostly made up of anarchistic folks of many genders, races, cultures, etc. The responses on our side—the side firmly against fascism—are varied, but overwhelmingly, there’s been palpable and tangible solidarity. That’s crucial. We’ll need more and more of that—fierce, empathetic, unflinching solidarity. Taking the side of antifascism, and sticking side by side together.
What struck me more than anything was the shift this seems to mark. From such “antifa” lists being shared on shadowy, “fringe” platforms, or ones that mostly attract fellow fascists, to now being mainstreamed on one of the world’s biggest and oft-turned-to news platforms, owned by one of the world’s wealthiest people. This, in turn, mirrors what increasingly feels like the mainstreaming of the most explicit, virulent, violence-inspiring racist, transphobic, anti-Black, antisemitic, misogynist, homophobic, etc., sentiments on purportedly/formerly liberal, progressive, and/or “neutral” platforms, whether in the form of Chapelle’s jokes on Saturday Night Live or the vacuous “condolence” statement by Biden after the Club Q murders.
When it becomes “controversial” or scary or dangerous in a society to say one is against fascism; when it becomes “common sense” to see and treat antifascists as scary or dangerous, or more plainly, the enemy to be eradicated—we are already in fascism. It is the sea in which we must swim, or sink, as antifascists, not some surface or even subterranean phenomenon now.
Whether Twitter survives or not isn’t the issue. It’s whether whole categories of us—all the beautiful, varied identities, traditions, and experiences, and their rich and frequently millennia-long practices of communal care, mutual aid, and life-giving rituals, that are represented on that list of 5,000—will survive Christian fascism in the States and other fascisms globally.
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon, in all of its beautiful diversity of forms.
#FascismKills #FuckFascism #SmashFascism #CommunitySelfDefense #WeMustOutliveThem
#TowardAWorldWithoutFascism(photo: #AntiAntiAntifa sticker seen in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal’s anarchist bookstore, 2021)
-
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)
-
In a time of rising and “more successful” fascism around the globe, not to mention its white Christian supremacist version in the so-called United States, along with fascism’s virulent and violent conspiracy theories that weave antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant, and other racist, ableist, queer/transphobic, misogynistic (etc.) worldviews into an always-genocidal worldview/practice (aka they hate and want to eradicate everyone who isn’t them)—it feels extra sweet to be among anarchist(ic) friends and accomplices here on Mastodon, including feeling so wholly/holy seen by #Kolektiva’s emojis :anarchismhebrew: :anarchoheart3: :queeranarchy: :antifa: :anfem: :anarchoheart2: (to share only a few)
#TryAnarchismForLife #TryJewishAnarchismForLife #TryQueerAnarchismForLife #TryFeministAnarchismForLife #SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon #TryAnarchismForLove (photo: proofreading a picture-prose piece about a month ago from my just-birthed new book, “Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle” [published by @tangledwild and available via @akpressdistro], with circle alef here by Naomi Rose Weintraub)