ill will editions

THESES ON THE IMAGINARY PARTY - Tiqqun (1999)

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“The partisans of the Imaginary Party grow and develop in the most complete violation of all the existing rules, without ever having the feeling that they’re breaking them, since they act in total contempt for them all. These partisans do not oppose the legal order, they depose it. They claim a higher justification beyond all written and unwritten laws: the lawless text that they themselves are. They thus unearth and renew the absolute scandal of Sabbatean doctrine, which affirmed that the “fulfillment of the Law is its transgression,” and leave it behind. They themselves constitute a fragment of Tiqqun, inasmuch as they are the living abolition of the old law, which split, divided, and separated…”

THE LONG 1960′S AND THE ‘WIND FROM THE WEST’ - Kristin Ross (2018)

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An excellent and succinct text on the last half century, as seen from the territorial and place-based struggles of today. If you’re wondering what ‘destituent’ politics means in the 21st century, this is a good place to start. 

“The 1960s, whatever else they were, are another name for the moment when people throughout the world began to realize that the tension between the logic of development and that of the ecological bases of life had become the primary contradiction of their lives. Henceforth, it seems, any effort to change social inequality would have to be conjugated with another imperative—that of conserving the living. What the movements of the long 1960s initiated, and what the ZAD confirms, is that defending the conditions for life on the planet had become the new and incontrovertible horizon of meaning of all political struggle. And with it came a new way of organizing, founded on the notion of territory as a praxis produced by space-based relations. ’68 was a movement that began in most places in the cities but whose intelligence and future tended toward the Earth.

[…] Why does the history of the ZAD show us that defending is more generative of solidarity than resisting? Resistance means that the battle, if there ever was one, has already been lost and we can only try helplessly to resist the overwhelming power the other side now wields. Defending, on the other hand, means that there is already something on our side that we possess, that we value, that we cherish, and that is thereby worth fighting for. What makes a designation of this kind interesting and powerful is that it enacts a kind of transvaluation of values: something is being given value according to a measurement that is different from market-value or the state’s list of imperatives, or existing social hierarchies.

[…] But where once what was being defended might have been an unpolluted environment or farmland or even a way of life, what is defended as the struggle deepens comes to include all the new social links, solidarities, affective ties, and new physical relations to the territory and other lived entanglements that the struggle produced.”

ANARCHO-SURREALISM IN CHICAGO (2019)

This zine explores anarcho-surrealist imagination in midcentury and current-day USA, with particular emphasis on the Chicagoland scene. If folks are nearby Chicago, there will be a reading group on this text on May 21 (details here). 

Dreams of Arson & the Arson of Dreams: Surrealism in ‘68  (Don LaCross)

The Psychopathology of Work (Penelope Rosemont)

Disobedience: The Antidote for Miserablism (Penelope Rosemont)

Mutual Acquiescence or Mutual Aid? (Ron Sakolsky)

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THE YELLOW VESTS IN SAINT-NAZAIRE: “WE’RE RELEARNING HOW TO BUILD TOGETHER”

Reportback on the Second Assembly of Assemblies in Saint-Nazaire (April 5, 6, 7, 2019)

(Originally published in Lundimatin #188, April 23, 2019)

Last month, April 5, 6 and 7, the second “Assembly of Assemblies” of the Yellow Vests was held in Saint-Nazaire, after the first one in Commercy in January. The following article is a partial reportback on these meetings, offering an enthusiastic, albeit ambivalent, assessment. When “limits” and “disappointments” are mentioned, the author considers them despite everything as being part of a longer-term process: “democracy must be conceived as a painful learning process.” However, according to echoes reaching us from other sources, it would seem to be the forms of democracy themselves that are at least in part responsible for making those few days painful: obsession with voting, exacerbated formalism, massive presence of veteran activists, etc. While we think it is vital for the Yellow Vests movement to be able to organize nationally beyond virtual channels (Facebook, Telegram, etc.), it seems a bit sad that this process, in many ways, insists on using the same codes of the democracy that we are familiar with: elected representatives who vote on texts and get bogged down in conflicts that no one understands. Why not simply take advantage of moments like these to talk about different local situations, forge a sharper perspective on the state of the movement and its different parts, and even, perhaps, coordinate a few pertinent actions?  —Lundimatin

***

In late January, an initiative by some follks in the small town of Commercy in eastern France sketched out a basis for structuring the Yellow Vests. The idea was simple: to coordinate a gathering of delegates from local groups all over France, with the idea of working out a horizontal structure for the movement that would apply the principles of direct democracy. A wild gamble, and a response to skeptics.

Two months later at the second “Assembly of Assemblies” in Saint-Nazaire, the roundabouts seem to have taken up the idea, as nearly 250 delegations made the trip to speak on behalf of local groups in the debates. It signals a success for the Saint-Nazaire organizers, but also a logistical challenge. One after another, potential venues for the meeting replied with rejections. No matter! The organizers hit back with wild inspiration: why not hold the event at the Maison du Peuple (the “People’s House”), where popular assemblies have been held every night for months? Why not rip up the ground floor of the old sub-prefecture, knock down the walls and see if it works? As the organizers are well aware, the institution of the People’s House is a powerful symbol, one that has already captured yellow imaginations pretty much everywhere in France. There’s something dreamy about occupying an old seat of power (a sub-prefecture) on a whim and transforming it into a place of life and organization. To use it to host an assembly of assemblies, making it the capital of yellow dissent for a weekend, only sweetens the dish.  One power chases another.

Still, the context has changed. Two months have passed since Commercy. Along the way, that determination so common at the start of a struggle has had to come to terms, first, with fatigue, and then with doubts. The litany of “prefecture journalists,” combined with the banality of judicial and police violence, have worked tirelessly to undermine the struggle. For those who refuse to give up, Saint-Nazaire bears the vague promise of a new maneuver, a new front.

 “It’s going to be complicated;” “We’re going to experiment;” “Not everything will be perfect.”

Given the delegates’ impatience, the local organizers proceed cautiously. The magnitude of the task is immense, and the three days of discussion won’t be enough. Plenary sessions alternate with thematic working groups. Beneath the large tents and kiosks that line the building, the crowd divides and subdivides until it reaches a reasonable size. In a hurry, the most motivated among them push through the beating rain to move from one group to another. It’s a well-designed formula, leading otherwise strangers to relax and get to know one another. A new feature of this second meeting is that groups are able to propose their own topics for discussion: “Municipalism” for Commercy, a “Charter of the Yellow Vests” put forward by Montpellier, or “People’s House” from Saint-Nazaire, etc.

These small discussion groups place the emphasis on lived experience. The violence of the repression is countered with the relief of learning that one is not alone. Everyone narrates their actions, astonishing the person sitting next to them with their audacity or creativity. Blocking the economy, recreating local ties, producing for all, taking back the roundabouts, imagining a different way to organize life, targeting certain businesses, pressuring the authorities, developing popular education, fighting against bad housing, attacking the symbols of the disaster: everyone is pushing their emergency, hoping to win support.

Local experiences are mixed up in an immense melting pot of revolt and desire. Pages are covered in ink, meetings planned. Folks learn about practices they had no clue existed: blocked Airbus factories in the southwest; occupied tollbooths, liberating toll roads for several weeks on end; alternative “citizens’ markets” feature local, often organic, goods and services each week; etc. As one miffed delegate put it: “How did I not know? It’s weird that nobody talked about it. Shit.” The idea of a large platform for information is brought up again, to no longer depend on anyone. Of the 70 accreditations granted, a good portion of the red media badges adorn yellow vests: many Facebook Page editors, autonomous media crews and independent journalists and documentary teams are present. Criticism has turned into action: people telling their own stories, taking back control of their words, freeing themselves from all delegation. 

It’s in these smaller group that the pulse of the movement can be taken. More so than in Commercy, determination is on display and there’s nobody left who doubts the process. Four months of struggle have gone by and transformed even the most recalcitrant. There’s nothing left to do but get organized. Get organized, to believe again. The idea of a more thorough coordination is discussed at great length. An idea that wins support: remobilize, then attack simultaneously pretty much everywhere. The calendar promises its share of opportunities: April 20, May 1, the European Union elections, not to mention the G7 in Biarritz late August and the 2020 municipal elections.

But when all the delegates gather in the plenary assembly, the atmosphere is different. Here, they’re experimenting with the most complex, utopian aspects of direct democracy, and in Saint-Nazaire there are a lot more people present than in Commercy, maybe even too many. The first cracks begin to show in the assembly. The folks with the microphone try to be reassuring despite the time that flies by at full speed. Managing to agree on enough points to put out a call by Sunday evening appears complicated, but nobody wants to give up on it.

The first draft of a joint text is finally submitted to the assembly on Sunday around noon. Disappointing. A certain number of agreements from the working groups seem to have been left out. Some decry a scam, others commiserate in frustration. In fact, the text itself was intended to be minimal to get enough votes to pass, even if it means disappointing the more ambitious delegates. Other, more focused, thematic and concrete texts are proposed simultaneously that win votes more easily and are passed. Each issue has a different text addressing it: the European elections, repression and the cancellation of jail time, citizen assemblies and convergences with environmental struggles, etc. For the first time in three days, the rain stops — the sun gives smokers hope again.

Although the afternoon is well underway, the dream of a call from Saint-Nazaire still seems far off. Some refuse to give up on it, as a limited number of amendments are agreed upon. Do political prisoners need to be discussed? What about amnesty, or the annulment of sentences? A last-minute amendment is adopted without really any debate: the goal of exiting from capitalism. The text is adopted by a very large majority. Once more, the delegates’ voices can be heard rising in the main hall, “We are here, we are here…” But this time is different. Hundreds of sub-prefecture squatters vibrate with yellow fever. The call isn’t perfect, but it’s a symbol and it’s done, honor intact. A stubborn joy is palpable.

The consensus, however, lasts only as long as the chant. The last-minute amendment on capitalism doesn’t go over well: “a disgusting stab in the back,” according to one delegate. Poorly chosen words, too connoted, too divisive, not sufficiently representative of the yellow vests in their diversity. Others castigate the assembly for not formally putting concrete directions and strategic proposals into writing. In vain: the text has been voted upon, it’s final. But the memory of the consensus achieved in Commercy fades away.

This weekend of April 6, 7 and 8 was historic, but for those who placed their hopes in it, it served above all as a reminder: democracy must be conceived as a painful learning process. This is what the Saint-Nazaire team recalls a few days later in a message addressed to participants:

“Just like in Commercy, we can make these three days into something foundational, especially in the lessons to be learned, in the mistakes not to make again. This real democracy that we’re building and inventing happens in real time, in all its complexity, and over time, in all its lengthiness — not in the quickness of the time of those we’re fighting against. We only have four months of experience but what a long way we’ve come in such a short time!”

 Despite the disappointments, a plan is set in place for another Assembly of Assemblies in early June. Two groups have already offered to host and direct this third gathering, which promises to be decisive.  

[Edited 5.13.2019]

INSURRECTIONAL ANARCHISM - A READER (2019)

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In 2005, the Swedish review Dissident released its second issue, which was devoted to insurrectional anarchist-communist perspectives. Soon after, the journal disbanded and went out of print, relegating this collection to the obscure reaches of the internet. We hope this zine will allow these ideas to reach a wider audience, enriching our understanding of the internal critique and development of revolutionary methods in the late 20th century, and allowing them to assume a new life in our struggles today. 

-Ill Will Editions, Chicago, March 2019

CONTENTS:

Foreword, The Batko Group  

Postscript, The Batko Group  

Anarchists and Action, Alfredo Bonanno 

The Insurrectional Project, Alfredo Bonanno

Insurrectionary Organization, Jean Weir 

Thirteen Notes on Class Struggle, Sasha K. 

Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism, Killing King Abacus 

Insurrectionary Action & Self-Organized Struggle, Sasha K. 

The Anarchist Ethic in the Age of the Anti-Globalization Movement, Killing King Abacus  

Insurrectionary Practice and Capitalist Transformation, the batko group and Sasha K.

The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking for Yourself, (Anonymous)  

Anti-Mass: Methods of Organization for Collectives, The Red Sunshine Gang 

Autonomous Movement of the Turin Railway Workers, Movimento autonomo di base 

Insurrectional anarchism emerges as a perspective within the class struggle. This perspective can be expressed in three key principles: 

(i) Permanent conflictuality: the struggle should never turn into mediation, bargaining or compromise;

(ii) Autonomy and self-activity: the struggle should be carried out without representatives and ‘specialists’;

(iii) Organization as attack: the organization should be used as a tool in the attack against state and capital, and not treated as a goal in and of itself.

What this means, in its most essential and concrete way, is this: to seize and keep the initiative…

LIVING WITH GUERILLA WARFARE — Lucio Castellano (1978) 

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ll Will Editions is excited to host a zine from a new press out of Minneapolis, called Whatever Distro. Keep your eyes peeled for their website coming soon. From the ‘Introduction’ to Castellano’s text: 

“Lucio Castellano, a member of Metropoli, was arrested in June 1979 and charged with armed insurrection against the state, forming an armed band and subversive association. It’s a difficult task to make sense of some of the singular texts which were produced by the Italian movement during the late 70s known as Autonomia since their experience of being a high point of revolutionary struggle in the west seems so far away, but their horizons and their struggles in many ways remain close to ours, and the laboratory of subversion as well as repression can provide many invaluable lessons for contemporary partisans. This was a time when CEO’s listening to the radio waited to hear that it was someone else that day that caught the bullets in their knee caps that could have just as easily obliterated theirs, where, when the police fired live rounds at an unruly demonstration, the streets fired back. It was a time of immense and various creativity, moving outside and against the old forms of struggle. It was also a time where thousands of comrades were sent to prison, often held up for up to four years while awaiting trial, charged with the most ambiguous of crimes: ‘crimes of association’, which target collectivities rather than individual people. 

This text is specifically useful for thinking through the question of violence as a power and capacity that we must have, without allowing it to become separated from the base from which it springs. In the late 60′s and 70′s, this danger tended to take the form of armed struggle organizations that, more and more, mirrored the form of the state. Today, it takes the form of a black bloc envisioned as the ever-more-extreme element, an unjoinable expression of its own ethical purity, positioned against a mass or whole that no longer exists. If violence is to become revolutionary, it must be a capacity we share—a multiplicitous opening, joyously inseparable from living.”

PARIS IS OURS - Acta Collective (2019)

First published in French on the ACTA site. Translated by friends at Inhabit. 

Never before had the Champs-Élysées truly been “the most beautiful avenue in the world”. For a day, this artery, this symbol of luxury, became the embodiment of a regained common power.

Yes, order managed to contain most of the disorder on and around the Champs – despite some more or less successful attempts at wild breakaways. Act XVIII gained in intensity what it lost in geographical extension. But, it was enough to hear the Yellow Vests chanting “revolution!” all afternoon. It was enough to see the crowd pull down the huge metal plaque that protected the Bulgari shop, carry it forward, and charge the police – bellowing “We won! We won!”. It was enough to see the banners come within a few meters of the Arc de Triomphe, the enemy retreat and flee behind the Louis Vuitton before our onslaught. In short, it was enough to be there to understand.

Despite the obvious imbalance of power, there was mad determination, rampant trust: people were no longer afraid. What matters in a riot is not the quantity of material damage, the number of broken windows, thrown stones or burned cars. No, what matters is qualitative. It’s the collective energy deployed, and how this deployment transforms consciences. It’s not the statistical losses inflicted on the enemy that count. It’s the political and ideological forces liberated among the people.

The media and government, who obsess over the “1500 ultra-violent” who allegedly organized the violence, hide the truth.  On March 16th, everyone on and around the Champs participated in one way or another in the riot.

Unlike the first few Acts, no one thought to intervene in the looting, destruction, or clashes with police. Flying glass and hammer blows met with enthusiastic cheers. For the thousands of people present, all this seemed perfectly logical – normal. As summarized in the suddenly lucid Le Monde: “During the first weeks of the movement, there were always demonstrators to protest against the looters. This time, nothing.”

This is what horrifies the government: it’s impossible to divide those swept up in the event. What horror, to see peaceful moms and dads smiling for photos on the velvet sofas of Fouquet’s aflame behind them. Castaner encouraged them time and again to dissociate from the “vandals”. But all that talk is vain, inaudible. The arrogance of the government and the brutality of its police have reached such heights that there is no room for dissociation.

This is further proof that popular uprisings shake up those who take part in them. They develop their convictions and certainties through contact with practice. Today, principled pacifism has almost disappeared from the Yellow Vests’ marches. Naïvety about state repression, too, has waned. Remember those who, not long ago, pretended to be able to put Yellow Vests in this or that box? To assign one or another intrinsic ideological identity?

But who’s to blame for this progressive “radicalization” of the Yellow Vests?  Who managed to convince them that only antagonism pays, if not the government itself? The insurrection gained in three weeks what traditional social movements hadn’t for decades.  By giving in to the Yellow Vests’ demands in early December, Macron confirmed that the State only hears popular needs when it’s forced to do so, when it can no longer do otherwise. The Yellow Vests have understood this perfectly:

“We realized that it’s only when we shatter that we’re heard.” – Johnny, 37, day-care director

“It’s great to smash, because the bourgeoisie is so safe in their bubble. They need to fear for their physical safety for them to let go.” – Anne, a Toulouse postwoman (33) [1]

That the movement again reached such a level of conflict after 18 weeks is already a remarkable fact. But the ultimatum of March 16 was not meant to be a last swan song, however flamboyant. Nothing could be more dangerous than satisfaction with Saturday. It only makes sense as a springboard. It’s a matter of using this date to launch a new phase, to build a spring of struggle.

The strong parallel mobilizations for the climate and against police violence raised the burning question of coagulation. Because the riot, even if repeated, is insufficient. It must be linked to a revival of economic blockades and to the continuing work of political and strategic clarification. Éric Drouet recognized this on Saturday evening: the supervised walks were useless. Only overriding imposed frameworks and widespread sabotage of the economy can lead the movement to victory.

We have no choice: the first fruits of repressive response suggest what crushing the current movement will mean for everyone.

TACTICAL LESSONS FROM LANSING - (Anonymous, 2018)

On the anniversary of the coup de grâce delivered to Richard Spencer and his neo-fascist shock troops by midwest anarchists and anti-fascists in 2018, which helped send the alt-right into a downward spiral from which they still have still not recovered, we’re re-sharing some tactical lessons from a few folks who were there.  -IWE

***

What follows are some tactical reflections from the mass antifascist mobilization in East Lansing against Richard Spencer in March, 2018. 

The first weekend in March, antifascists converged in Lansing, Michigan to confront the white nationalists who were planning on attending Richard Spencer’s talk at Michigan State University.

The successes of this weekend have been well documented: Richard Spencer cancelled the rest of his college tour, prominent white nationalist lawyer Kyle Bristow announced he would be stepping back from his organizing, existing divisions within the far-Right deepened, and Matthew Heimbach, leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party, got slugged repeatedly in the face.

Yet we cannot rest on our laurels. The bravery and collective intelligence seen in Lansing will be needed again in the coming years. In hopes that others can learn from our affinity group’s experiences in Lansing and be better prepared for future clashes, we here share a set of tactical lessons, insights and lessons from the weekend.

•        If chasing fascists, consider getting rental cars. In any case, make sure vehicles are road-ready and minimally identifiable.
•        Encourage the separation of time and space for actions (where it’s being pushed for); if peace police have their own event far away, you won’t have to deal with them. This does not mean alienating or excluding unknown folks who aren’t peace police (hella random and ‘unprepared’ folks threw down super hard in Lansing).
•        Make sure forms of ‘in situ’ communication within/between affinity groups are understood by all. Make sure affinity groups talk beforehand about staying together during the action.
•        Leave an action in the same car you came in. Last minute changes increase the chances that someone gets left behind.
•        Make sure people know which ‘situation names’ each of your people will be using for the action ahead of time.
•        Prepare for the challenges of making decisions quickly and efficiently in high stress situations. For example, practice making quick decisions in a group beforehand. Start with an imagined scenario; impose two irreconcilable options, each having its own merits; then practice resolving the tension quickly, with everyone committing to the chosen option with total focus (don’t dwell on the path not taken).
•        Cultivate your “creative awareness” together. For example, get together and explicitly vocalize three or four scenarios that are plausible within the situation right at the beginning (upon arrival, or beforehand if possible). Don’t let these discussions wander or become speculative, and don’t rely on hearsay or ‘Cops in X town act like Y normally’ clichés. Stay focused entirely on what you can see, what the situation presents you with.
•        Don’t allow yourself to be spooked into leaving necessary supplies behind out of fear. You got them for a reason; find a way to bring them. It’s almost always possible. Use your imagination.
•        Pack your stuff up the morning of the action so you are ready to leave quickly or even leave town immediately after an action. At the same time, also make a fallback plan for people to stay up to 48 hours to deal with jail support. This may mean staying somewhere ‘low profile’ after the action.
•        Wake up and prepare quickly; no dawdling the morning of the action.
•        Stay joyful, but try to exercise a measure of seriousness and discipline too: go to sleep on time, eat full meals, hydrate, keep your things tidy and together.
•        Don’t bring illegal drugs to an action, or carry them in cars you’re using. Never bring sketchy shit in a car without telling the driver beforehand.
•        Fear is the mind killer. Paranoia can prevent you from acting or being properly prepared. Exercise precaution, of course, but it is important to follow through with plans and not allow paranoia and fear to stop you from doing what you came to do.
•        Make sure you have clear lines of communication open with other crews. Establish in advance whether other crews will be able to come to your aid or change their plans at the last minute.
•        If you are organizing in public, be aware of who you can vouch for, and make sure those who you can’t vouch for are explicitly (and gracefully) informed that you will need to disappear sometimes, so it’s not weird in the moment.
•        Think through who you are going to the action with: are they someone you trust in high stress environments? If not, find a way for them to engage that is appropriately low stress. There’s all kinds of low stress activities of support (media, sound system, transportation, listening to police scanners, food prep, spreading counter-information, etc.).
•        Choose specific and unique affinity group names/calls. Having a name will help you stay together in a crowd, but if it is too vague or general (“my group”), strangers might respond to the same name.
•        Compliment and encourage strangers when you see them doing brave or inspiring things.
•        Don’t dismiss the tactical use of soft blockades. NVDA tactics may not work against fascists but might be effective when dealing with police.
•        Don’t worry about FOMO or get fixated on particular events; sometimes cool and important shit pops off in other places.
•        Not having cell phones (or only bringing burners) in a large group makes communication difficult but can be a very beneficial group experience — allowing people to relate to each other in different ways.
•         Proper black bloc attire should include multiple layers. This is easily accomplished by the layering of windbreakers and rain/jogging pants, all of which should be 2x oversized to obscure body-shape. Ideally, you want one or two distinctive ‘bloc’ layers (black or dark grey/blue), and one or two de-bloc layers: one that allows you to remain in the situation while masked, yet not associated with the ‘bloc’ you were in a moment ago, and another to blend into a citizen crowd entirely when leaving (i.e. normie clothes, including a change of shoes + sunglasses). Pack an empty lightweight tote that you don’t use in the situation, to carry your stuff out with you after you de-bloc. Bring multiple masks to hand out to others and switch between. REI carries the tube-like ones, which offer the best face coverage, come in many colors, and allow you to cover your hair too (not enough people do this!). Trading jackets and backpacks on the ground with your friends is a fun and effective technique to preserve anonymity. Be cognizant of when police commanders are pointing at certain individuals in the crowd, and make sure you notify them that it’s time to change their clothes.
•        Don’t necessarily give credence to rumors. Don’t perpetuate rumors or feed into paranoia. If someone says “a reporter told us the Fed’s or DHS are here,” it’s fine to listen to this information, but don’t weight it more heavily than your own assessment on the ground. Take it with a grain of salt.
•        If there are horses, there will be horseshit. Bring multiple pairs of disposable latex gloves. Try to dispose of these without leaving them for the cops (DNA databases are a thing).
•        Practice group activities in advance, e.g. de-arresting games, group brawling or de-blocking.
•        Play catch together. Throwing accurately is not a skill most people possess innately.
•        Don’t love violence: it is a means that is sometimes necessary, but not who we are or how we ultimately want to relate to the world.
•        Don’t fixate on the police. They can distract us from other objectives. They are an obstacle, not an ‘absolute enemy’.
•        Have a political read of the situation. Understand in advance the constraints on the actions of the police and which actors will be present the day of. Ask yourself: what would a victory look like? How could we win not only today, but going forward? Could this or that day of action also find ways to contribute to a lasting increase of power for local crews on the ground?
•        Make a graceful exit. If possible, try to march everyone out of harm’s way all together, ensuring a safe exit. People may argue against this in the moment, but it’s better to leave with “winner’s remorse” (‘we could’ve done more’) than in handcuffs.

– some anarchists

Originally posted on It’s Going Down. 

MEMES WITH FORCE - LESSONS FROM THE YELLOW VESTS. Adrian Wohlleben & Paul Torino (2019)

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A wild article on memes, revolutionary destitution, & looting as ‘anti-fascism’ by two North American comrades who traveled to France.

“The meme reopens the basic question of the Party, and offers what is perhaps the minimal basis for organizing a force of rupture in the twenty-first century. The fluidity of the meme makes it possible to join a march, a blockade or a roundabout occupation without having to buy into a “common interest” or the legitimizing “beliefs” of a movement. It does not solve, but simply defers the question of a common grammar of suffering to a later point…The meme authorizes everyone to act on their respective experience of how the ‘elites’ (a deliberately under-constructed enemy) have screwed them over, like a Tarot deck in which the audience fills in the personal content. Each of us is invited to intervene against the enemy without waiting or asking permission, and for our own reasons.”

A LETTER FROM GREG (2019)

Greg Minday is one of five defendants in the January 22 case on the ZAD. He has been released from prison, and is currently awaiting trial. 

***

Friends, comrades,

A few days ago, I received the letters, cards and drawings that were intended to reach me in prison. Since I cannot respond to everyone, this is an opportunity for me to thank all of you: those I have not yet seen since my release, and those who, out of modesty, have not heard my gratitude.

If I had not been released, I would have hung the postcards, poems, nursery drawings, testimonies of support, press releases and photos of our collective worksites alongside the photos of my children on the wall of my cell.

These words and images have comforted my loved ones, and allowed us to remain united and feel confident in the face of these obscure and hostile legal proceedings.

Now that I’m free, I will hold on to these gestures, which will help to steer us through the coming difficult times.

Whether from here or further away, we have defended this small piece of land collectively, for years, as if it were our garden. By that I mean, by feeling responsible for what would happen to it. It has not been without difficulties, and we’ve been through a lot, made many mistakes. Even when it was others who made them, we still felt responsible for them, as they all concern us: this is the delicate and demanding nature of collective struggle and its outcome. The way we have dealt with conflicts and hardships, whatever their origin, is part of that heritage, one which we who continue to cherish this garden cannot simply hand over to the arbitration of a court or denounce with a stroke of the pen. The gestures of support during my incarceration proved to me that there are many who still feel moved by such responsibility.

These acts remind me of my responsibility to you.

It seems fair to me to recall here what this commitment is all about.

A year and a half ago, before the airport was abandoned, I applied to become the official agent of certain plots of land the movement had taken over. By having the administration recognize my work as part of the Grand Troupeau Communal collective, and the ‘cow working group’ at Bellevue, I sought to obtain a status that would allow me to avoid an already-superfluous incarceration associated with an anti-airport demonstration. In front of an assembly of peasants defending these lands, I sealed a moral contract, which is to say, we said things to each other, we looked at each other, and they told me that I was trusted. Trust is no small thing; personally, in my life, I have mostly been told that I am a piece of shit, and not that “we trust you.” To have this said to you has infinitely more weight than any official letterhead in the world.

I have therefore committed myself to ensuring that these lands—with which my name is associated in certain obscure administrative files somewhere—continue to remain in common. The responsibility this entails goes beyond what the terms of any written contract could identify, in the sense that for me, all the other actors in the movement are witnesses to it. At a moment when our future was on the line, taking it on implied that my name might later be erased and replaced by someone else’s, or that these few plots might be merged into a common fund, over which the authorities would have as little control as possible. Today, while I have signed a precarious occupation agreement, soon to be transformed into a lease, my pledge implies that the agricultural use of the land attached to me remains subject to the decision of the producers gathered in an assembly, in just the same way that the use of our buildings — the crucible of our activity — remains subject to the collectives of farmers who use them.

Beyond these existing functions, there is also a deeper responsibility, for us who have the daily charge and enjoyment of this piece of land, to serve a common greater than ourselves. The perseverance and selfless loyalty of all those who continue to mobilize for the future of the former ZAD is here to remind us of this.

We have a responsibility to this territory, to participate in the strengthening of solidarities, the sharing of tools, to build new facilities that continue our struggle, and to ensure that this land is not sold off for the sole benefit of enriching a few opportunistic farms, or to enable other destructive projects.

We have a responsibility to nurture, in our own way, the projects of social transformation that emerge in the heat of other struggles, just as past and present resistance has nourished us with other tools and stories.

We have a responsibility towards the other living beings with whom we share this land, whether it be the buzzard or the toad whom we have befriended, or the oaks that surround our fields.

We must find ways of organizing life and work that bring us joy. It’s a way of being true to ourselves, which our children growing up here serve to remind us.

I could write pages on what is being done or planned in each these four different areas in concrete terms. The period of semi-autonomy of the zone to be defended opened many avenues, and also closed some others. In my opinion, the end of the airport project has allowed us to deepen the exercise of our responsibilities. We are still at the beginning of the road, so before we head back out onto it, let me pause briefly to say, once again: thank you.

-Greg Minday

February 22, 2019

Saint-Jean-du-Tertre

Translated by Ill Will Editions. Original French version here.

THE ULTIMATE DILEMMA - AN INTERVIEW WITH BEN MOREA (2016)

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A 2016 interview with Ben Morea, revolutionary animist and founding member of the 1960′s anarchist street gang, Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker!

For the uninitiated, we refer you to the classic zine. An anthology of UAW/MF writings is available here.

FULL METAL YELLOW JACKET - Alèssi Dell’Umbria (2019)

Some friends in Minneapolis made a zine edition of the Dell’Umbria article we recently helped translate. Hit the jump for a printable color PDF.