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The Responsibility of Criminals by Roadkill Revolt

2025

Obviously, you don’t run around telling everyone you’re under investigation, anyone who has been investigated, or in close relation with someone who has, knows this well. So how do we ensure we keep those around us safe while under this type of pursuit?

To start this:

Is this an inflammatory title? Kind of. Kind of not. This is not a blanket statement, not by a long shot. So in what context is this meant? Firstly, Political criminals, specifically if they’ve been caught, specifically if they are anarchists.

Secondly, there will be no answers here. There will be questions posed and pondered, things suggested and condemned – but none of these are answers. This is to encourage thought on the issue and hopefully illuminate a needed conversation. I have opinions and surely my opinions will reflect here, figure out yours. Finally, everything is hypothetical. Always.

So lets propose a hypothetical:

A person, a political criminal, let’s call them elderberry, is under surveillance of a federal agency and actively under repression of the courts in trial. Aware of this, elderberry continuously involves themselves in political situations that require discretion. Some of their close affiliates are aware of this, but they regard themselves as an “organizer” as well as
find themselves going to discrete anarchist gatherings. They engage in political activities, with varying risk levels, and often coexist in sensitive, political spaces, both with individuals that are aware of their surveillance status and with those who are not.

Is this okay?

Those who are aware of elderberry’s status are able to address that within their risk assessment when deciding to involve themselves. What about everyone else? Let’s say elderberry goes to a gathering, 4 days in the forest. At an anarchist gathering you can expect the surveillance of local law enforcement, but, suddenly, because of elderberry’s attendance, federal surveillance is now targeted at the gathering. Feds have authority, access, and equipment that is not available to local kops. Most others at the gathering will not have viewed being under the federal gaze as a likely possibility. Even with the increase of left-wing political repression in recent years, for most anarchist gatherings, federal agencies are barely, if
at all, aware and do not care. Yet elderberry changed those odds. Depending on the gathering, depending on the frontline, there’s a damn good chance of high-risk individuals being there: other political criminals who have evaded being investigated, migrants, “illegal” workers, people on the run, etc… . None who anticipated the feds watching them. Although they were not the subject of the investigation, due to the increased abilities of the agency surveilling elderberry, flags may be raised, or, they may plainly investigate everyone. Given the current RICO case against Weelaunee forest defenders, which is attempting to set precedent of left-leaning communities and, specifically, anarchist (or those who they choose to label as such), working together being labeled as “organized crime” and “racketeering”; this is plenty of incentive for said federal agency to take note on everyone at that gathering.

Elderberry arrived with 1 or 2 close comrades, there are 30ish people at the gathering depending on the day. Elderberry, attempted to be diligent (or maybe they didn’t) to make sure their stuff wasn’t bugged or tracked, but maybe they missed something. Turns out their phone is bugged, and although they don’t have it on them while having sensitive conversations, it’s on them enough during casual moments and a few things slip through. They also mostly turn off their phone when they are partaking in sensitive activities, some of which are group activities – a pattern that may or may not be noticed. Nobody but elderberry and the comrades they came with know that they are under federal surveillance.

Can anybody else there give informed consent to participating? Fooling local kops is a lot easier than fooling the feds. Evading local kops is a lot easier than evading the feds. You’re playing a very different game when you are dealing with 3 letter agencies.

Obviously, elderberry can’t go around telling everyone at the gathering that they are under surveillance or being investigated – that would leave them vulnerable. Obviously, people often tend to try keeping a low profile while under surveillance, but that is an individual risk one must make for themselves. When making that personal assessment should you actively be considering those around you? Is it ethical not to? Even outside of spaces with explicitly active political criminals, would it be ethical for elderberry to volunteer at a soup kitchen that has a lot of “illegal” migrants that go there?

This is a question of are others informed enough to make proper risk assessments to gauge their willingness, and therefore consent, and do we owe each other that? Is it fair to put others at that risk? Is it worth it? Could it be harmful?

Personally, i believe it is the feds’ job to try to find political criminals, and leading the feds to hotspots for their investigations is doing their job for them. We owe each other a lot, even if we are not in direct community.

Not even necessarily for each other but for Liberation. When we are fighting alongside each other, even if on different fronts, it is in our best interest to protect each other.

Again, these are not answers, only opinions. And, although hypothetical, a very real concern, especially lately. We need more political criminals, not more political prisoners. We keep us
safe.

Or at least we probably should

We once again approach June 11th, a day of remembrance and active solidarity, in a world of multiple crises and struggles for liberation. All of these are interconnected; there are no separate worlds. Across borders, languages, contexts, and identities, both catastrophes and victories of spirit and defiance reverberate around the globe. One environment is not untouched by another. The personal is not separate from the political. The positive project is not separate from that of destruction. Prison is not separate from the “free world.” Means are not separate from ends. Bridging these divides is a shared curiosity and commitment; bridging these divides is solidarity. This is not to flatten or oversimplify diversity and differences in circumstance, intensity, and consequence. Rather, that these different pieces are held together like organs of the body held by connective tissue. So we consider: how do we strengthen this connective tissue? How do we remain strong, yet supple and flexible? Bridges, connection, must also be built through time, especially in a world that moves too fast, from one crisis to the next. June 11th aspires to be one of these bridges: to build solidarity across borders, between movements, and among generations. Remembering and supporting long-term prisoners, as well as carrying on shared struggles, are two ways to strengthen this connective tissue. A stronger connective tissue will, in turn, bolster us against further repression.

Each year, as part of our effort to be a bridge between movements, time, and borders, we assess the terrain. We consider what threats from the state look like at this time, how imprisoned comrades can be connected to activity on the outside, how have the struggles they are a part of continued despite repression, and how remembering those locked up can become a natural part of anarchist activity. Often repression and criminalization feel new; but frequently, this is a failure of memory. There are innovations to pay attention to, while seeing their lineage in tactics and ideologies used against our forebears. What can we learn from how people have responded in the past? What can we learn from people in times and places where innovative repressive tactics were developed, and how can we act in complicity alongside them?

As the day of solidarity nears, we are struck by the unfolding of the current terrain; the horrors abound, and confront us in new ways, but these are also patterns and histories in repetition. Power is scrambling to maintain itself amidst the uncertainty of our fragilely constructed society, and individuals and groups continue on with our refusal of their world. We see continued colonial violence, through prisons, guns, bombs, and nationalist ideologies in places such as Palestine, Ukraine, and West Papua. Too, extremely harsh treatments of people in Russia acting against militarism and colonialism, as well as the criminalization of pro-Palestinian activity all over the world.

Palestinians, fighting for their freedom and against policing, surveillance and detention for decades, have faced an all-out culmination of violence and genocide at the hands of the Israeli state — crisis and colonial violence continue to rapidly unfold. So too, does an intense current of Palestinian resistance: solidarity actions have taken place across the globe in attempts to refuse complicity and the feelings of powerlessness fueled by the geographical distance, the 24-hour news cycle, and the propaganda and war machines that abound.

As people continue to flee their regions due to capitalist and imperialist-made violence, and the catastrophic consequences of climate collapse, we are witnessing a renewed fear-mongering at U.S and European borders, as white supremacist militias murmur about confronting ‘migrant caravans’, and individual states implement a greater level of violence to keep people out of artificial borders. This crisis extends throughout the globe, as people worldwide move to eek out any stability, and others rush to enforce the promised order of borders and citizenship.

Colonial violence springs up daily, in guns drawn and territory stolen, in extraction projects and the expansion of policed land, and in the loss of the last wild spaces. But resistance to a homogeneous and hollow future being sold to us by tech-giants, green capitalists and the State still continues across the world. Pipelines, cell-towers, and extraction infrastructure is being targeted, both in individual sabotage, as well as ongoing land defense world-wide. The dependence of this noxious future on policing, surveillance, and control couldn’t be clearer, and struggles are confronting the ways these practices interact. Rebellions break out against police, prisons, and the indignity and macabre realities of daily life. For every crisis, and moment of resistance we could list, there are countless others simmering, exploding, or simply being disappeared from the public, global view. Freedom and resistance always find their way through the cracks of this horrifying society.

Public food serves being harassed, heightened criminalization of houseless populations, RICO charges for bail funds and the “conspiracy” of anarchist ideas and practices, as well as proximity, associations and social networks. Intense and courageous acts of sabotage continue. Everything is new, and nothing is. The question is not ‘what are the solutions?’, but ‘how do we expand, deepen and intensify what we already know works?’. How do we see ourselves in one another, how do we understand our plights as intertwined, as inseparable, and how can we continue to expand these relationships of solidarity. How do we embrace the reality that there are no separate worlds, and explore the ways that we can break through the limiting effects of prison walls, border walls, time, place and context.

There are moments worth celebrating, when we feel the opening of possibilities and capacity, of cohesion and strength; there are certainly also many moments to mourn, when it feels like we’re losing it all and our bodies or spirits are taking a beating. We can savor a touch of solace when we notice the deep desperation apparent in the moves of the state. They’re scrambling, finding new ways to criminalize even the most basic of acts. This can serve to motivate us. If anything even vaguely anarchist is enough to throw us to the helm of repression, we must choose to live our lives as we decide, regardless of the consequences. As more and more of us interact with repression, jails, courts, prisons, let this possibility be a never-ending invitation towards continuing to remember and include those locked away as an ongoing part of our moves toward getting free. Time, geography, the barriers of the prison wall-none of these are strong enough to obliterate the vast network of bridges that keep us interdependent, connected, fighting the same enemies of freedom, worldwide.

This year saw the passing of many who carried the vivacious anarchist spirit. Some may be known to us, while many remain unknown. They sowed rebelliousness in every path they walked. Perhaps their impact is incalculable, though never nonexistent. We can carry the same spirit, traverse similar paths, and remain steadfast and diligent, just as those who have come before us have. Rest in power: Alfredo Bonanno, Klee Benally, Ed Mead, Sekuo Odinga, Tortuguita, Aaron Bushnell.

Rest in power to all of those whose names we’ve never uttered, not known, but who walked these lengths, nonetheless. Time is merely constructed; those that have come before us, and passed onto death, still impact the lives of the living, still contribute to the history of anarchists and anti-authoritarians, and our shared struggle. Let us make them a part of our active memory, and continue forward, in a fight for lives against domination. May these words spark a fire in you-encourage you to get up, forge ahead and seek what it might feel like, to live like you’re trying to get free.

Regional Prisoner Updates*

Russia

Struggle for long-term anarchist prisoners in Russia

In the third year of the war in Ukraine, perspectives of anarchist movement in Russia look increasingly grim. It is still possible to organise events on anarchist history or culture in some of the major cities, but the most important current topics are strictly banned in any public event, and raising them would carry serious consequences. Much of anarchist agitation can only be spread anonymously online and in the streets.

Authorities are also moving to ban anarchist prisoner solidarity. In February, Anarchist Black Cross Federation, active in United states, was labelled as an “undesirable organisation” by Russian authorities. Financing an “undesirable organisation” carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison. US Federation has no sections in Russia, but it is likely that purpose of this step is to target existing Anarchist Black Cross groups in Russia.

21st of February 2024 anti-war prisoner Anton Zhuchkov, sentenced for 10 years for planned anti-war Molotov cocktail action against police in center of Moscow, was tortured in a Krasnoyarsk prison in Siberia, during a transfer to his distant destination colony. Among other things, during torture he was asked about the Anarchist Black Cross. Zhuchkov is not an anarchist, but in early stages of his arrest, he was contacted in name of the Anarchist Black Cross. Currently he is supported by Solidarity Zone, an anti-authoritarian initiative to support anti-war direct action prisoners. The torture of Zhuchkov is another sign that Russian authorities plan to target ABC groups, and due to these warning signs ABC Moscow has currently decided to move out from Russia and is working in exile only.

Solidarity Zone is currently providing circa 20 anti-war direct action prisoners with lawyers, and is attempting to follow cases of dozens more. Prisoners who have engaged in arson attacks against military, police or infrastructure are usually not supported by mainstream human rights organisations.

Among prisoners supported by Solidarity Zone with lawyers, two are anarchists, but neither of them have yet been sentenced. There is however, little doubt that both of them will be sentenced, and that they will be long time anarchist prisoners. Conviction rate in Russia courts is more than 99%.

First of them is Alexey Rozhkov, one of the first people who took direct action against war in Ukraine in Russia. 11th of March 2022, 15 days after beginning of the war, he attacked a military enlistment office in a suburb of the city of Yekaterinburg in Ural mountains with a Molotov cocktail, and was immediately arrested. He was released, court pending, in the autumn of 2022, as his accusations were not severe, and he managed to escape to Kyrgysztan, from where he was illegally rendered back to Russia in May of 2023. Back in Russia, he was charged with a number of terrorist offenses, and now he will face up to 30 years in prison.

Second anarchist anti-war prisoner, supported by Solidarity Zone, is Ruslan Siddiqui, arrested in the end of November 2023 in the city of Ryazan, 180 km (120 mi) South-East from Moscow. He is accused of having derailed a freight train 11th of November, and a drone attack against airport of Dyagilevo in Ryazan region, which took place 20th of July 2023. He is charged with terrorist offenses, and may spend up to 30 years in prison.

An independent campaign has been organised to support five anarchist and anti-fascists from Ural and Siberia: Deniz Aidyn, Yuri Neznamov, Daniil Chertykov, Nikita Oleinik and Roman Paklin. They were arrested 30th-31st of August 2022,  and they are accused of setting up a terrorist organisation, attempting to blow up offices of security service FSB and railroads. Evidence on the case is dubious, mostly based on confessions acquired with torture. Originally Deniz Aidyn was arrested with Kirill Brik in Tyumen, allegedly attempting to test an improvised explosive device in forest. Unfortunately, after the tortures, Kirill Brik became a cooperating witness and his testimony is in a danger of burying all the other defendants to 30 years in prison, Nikita Oleinik is facing a risk of life sentence as alleged “leader” of the group.

Some anarchist long-term prisoners were already imprisoned before the war. Anarchist mathematician Azat Miftakhov was supposed to be released 4th of September last year, having finished a 6 year sentence for anarchist action in Moscow, in which a smoke bomb was thrown inside a building of the ruling United Russia party. However, Miftakhov was detained in the prison gate with a fabricated case of “justification of terrorism” due to comments supporting anarchist bomber Mikhail Zhlobitski in discussion with other prisoners. Eventually on the 28th of March, 2024 Azat Miftakhov was given a new prison sentence of 4 years, which means that he will spend altogether almost a decade in prison.

First fabricated case against anarchism due to terrorism was the Network case of anarchists in Penza and Saint-Petersburg, arrested in 2017-2018. 10 people sentenced to prison were suspected of having established an underground anarchist organisation preparing for insurrectionary activities, although no proven action had taken place. 3 of the sentenced are already released, seven are still in prison, of whom 6 are listed in the prisoner list by Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow: Viktor Filinkov (sentenced to 7 years), Vasili Kuksov (sentenced to 9 years), Mikhail Kulkov (sentenced to 10 years), Andrei Chernov (sentenced to 14 years), Ilya Shakurskiy (sentenced to 16 years), and Dmitriy Pchelintsev (sentenced to 19 years). Seventh prisoner, Maxim Ivankin, was sentenced this February to 24 years in prison due to double homicide of two of his friends who were on the run with him due to drug-related charges. Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow considers testimony against Ivankin credible, and has withdrawn support for him, although his sentence for the Network case is fabricated.

Current prison addresses are available for all of the persons mentioned in the article [see June11.noblogs.org/prisoners]. Note that all letters should be sent only in Russian language – you may use machine translation. Also, several countries have halted mail service with Russia. In case mail service is halted in your country, you may pass letters via ABC Moscow e-mail address [email protected]. 

Ireland

Our solidarity activity continues with anarchist and antifascist prisoners in Ireland and in other parts of the world.  We are active in helping to highlight incarcerations and detentions of anarchist and antifascists by the state through protest, pickets and on social media.  Our website address is www.abcireland.wordpress.com

We continue to support the Irish Anarchist prisoner John Paul Wootton.  John Paul has recently changed prison and welcomes letters, post cards of support and solidarity from everyone.  John Paul is part of the Craigavon Two, which includes Brendan McConnville, who now along with their families continues to fight against their wrongful imprisonment and another gross miscarriage of justice inflicted upon them by the British State.  

USA

After nearly ten years, Eric King has finally been released and is working and living with his family in Colorado. Jennifer Rose has been moved to a women’s facility. Marius Mason has been transferred back to Texas. Bill Dunne has been transferred in order to start cancer treatment. Michael Kimble continues to organize and support other queer prisoners in the dungeons of Alabama prisons. Sean Swain has just celebrated the 10th anniversary of his segment on The Final Straw Radio show. Malik Muhammad is stuck in isolation in retaliation for fasting during Ramadan. Many of them continue to contribute to the anarchist prisoner journal Fire Ant.

Across the US, there continues to be harsh repression against land defense struggles such as Stop Cop City- not just in Atlanta, but anywhere solidarity actions have taken place. Repression continues against those resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline, against Palestine Solidarity protests, against those fighting back against transphobia and defending the ability for queer people to exist in public, and those who act against fake “crisis pregnancy” centers. Hunger strikes and disruptions continue at immigrant detention facilities and prisons across the nation.

Indonesia

Serikat Tahanan (The Inter-Correctional Prisoner Union) is a political organization of

anti-authoritarian prisoners in Indonesia that was officially established on July 17, 2023. The union is managed by prisoners as well as comrades outside prison. It operates with a dual structure, namely members of the union (prisoners) where decision-making is taken, and a solidarity group outside that supports needs and carries out work that can’t be done from inside the prison. As of now, ST represents eight detainees ranging from arsoning cases labeled as terrorism, vandalism for incitement to riots, and marijuana and other types of drug use. Other than that, ST has also been supporting detainees of labor union activists, farmers, and those who are fighting against eviction.

In accordance with the organizational status agreed upon by the detainees, Serikat Tahananwas formed with the aims of: 1. Providing support in cases of violence, extortion, and other threats that union members have experienced while serving prison sentences. 2. Campaigning for the movement and struggles for prisoners’ rights in accordance with the Minister of Law and Human Rights and other international regulations. 3. Campaigning for decriminalization and abolition of prisons. 4. Organizing prisoner education through discussions and providing books on a regular basis to the prisons. 5. Forming a media that publishes the aspirations of prisoners and determines the direction of the prisoners’ movement. 6. Extending solidarity with all class war prisoners and social activists who are criminalized.

7. Organizing masses in a detention center / prison, if deemed necessary.

Follow us via Instagram: @serikattahanan, Email: [email protected]*If you would like to submit an update from your region or project, email us at [email protected]

Belarus

ABC Belarus currently supports 28 anarchist prisoners in Belarus, 7 of them are long term prisoners:

• Aleksandr Zaytsev – Aliaksandr was detained on August 22, 2021 near the cottage of the chairman of the Supreme Court Sukalo. Aliaksandr was accused of attempted arson of the cottage (part 1 of article 14 and part 2 of article 289 of the Criminal Code Attempt of terrorist act in a group of persons). According to our information, he went to the case with the provocateur Akulich Dmitriy Alexandrovich, whom they met on a day when Alexander was detained on administrative article 23.34 (participation in an unauthorized protest, now is 24.23 of the Administrative Code) at the protests in November 2020. The status of Akulich in the criminal case is not unknown to us, but most likely he is being held as a witness with a fake name of Sergeenko. It is noteworthy that Akulich was given a real passport with a fake name to provoke Zaytsev.
• Akihiro Gaevsky-Khanada and Aleksandr Frantskevich* who were detained as a part of the so-called “international organized crime” case. The regime decided to use the dozens of anarchists’ actions over the past 10 years to create the image of a coordinated organized group engaged in resistance to the regime. Some participants in the case were tortured before being transferred to a detention center.
• Dmitry Rezanovich
• Dmitry Dubovski
• Igor Olinevich
• Sergey Romanov
• These four were detained while crossing the border of Belarus with Ukraine on the night of October 28-29, 2020. Dzmitry Rezanovich emphasized he was saved from torture just because of Siarhei Ramanau sliced his hands with a razor to stop the torment and viciousness.
• They were under a number of articles for setting fire to government officials’ vehicles, the building of the traffic police and the state committee of expertise in the Homeĺ region.

The Belarusian state is trying to increasingly restrict the possibilities to support prisoners even more. Colonies’ and prisons’ administrations try by all means to prevent information spreading about inprisoned comrades and limit their communication with people outside. Relatives are threatened in order to restrict spreading news about prisoners to the public.The state also seeks to worsen prison conditions at every opportunity. The trends in Belarusian repressions we’ve seen in the last few years are the following:

• Punishment with punitive isolation cells and cell-type facilities for prisoners
• Restriction or total ban on correspondence and phone calls for prisoners
• Detention of the relatives of anarchist prisoners
• Additional sentences for allegedly “malicious disobedience to the demands of the colony administration” (Article 411 of the Criminal Code).
• Tightening of the security regime and transfers to high-security prisons

We are also find ourselves operating in a ghost-like movement, which we wrote about in this essay https://abc-belarus.org/en/2023/05/25/anti-repression-work-in-a-ghost-like-movement/

Here’s an excerpt:

… The two biggest groups of anarchists are now distributed between Belarusian prisons and exile. ABC-Belarus, after operating for over 14 years in the country, also had to leave to protect its members and keep up the work. Over time, activists also get disillusioned in the struggle for change in Belarus, because it is not really possible to greatly influence the situation there, and being active in exile feels like fake and sectarian activism for the sake of activism. Moreover, like in most political movement, the “effective life” of an anarchist amounts to 3-5 years. It means, the more time passes in exile, the less comrades we will have around, with almost no influx, since the diasporas are not so numerous and mostly consist of the same tired, traumatised and demoralised migrants.

In light of this, ABC-Belarus remains a very specialised labour-force that seems to be responsible and accountable for organising full-fledged and long-term support of our imprisoned comrades. Needless to say that we are also traumatised and tired, just there is no one we can share this burden with or pass it to, so we will have to carry it. Of course, not everything is so dark, we still can rely on some comrades, we are just concerned about the gloomy trend as the years go by.

* ABC-Belarus withdrew its support for Aliaksandr Frantskevich in 2015 for using violence against comrades, threatening our collective, and his position on the collective property of the movement. After Aliaksandr’s arrest in 2020, ABC declared critical support for him, read more in the statement.

In 2022, Abolition Media sympathetically interviewed a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines and uncritically published dozens of official National Democratic Front communiques while completely ignoring Filipino anarchists who rightly reject the NDF vanguardists for their collaboration with the State, murdering of their own cadre and a union leader, and nationalism.

If you have checked Abolition Media in the past six months, you will have noticed much of the site’s content is either official communiques from Palestinian resistance groups or analysis from Al-Mayadeen, a capitalist-owned, pro-Assad, pan-Arab news outlet.

To highlight Al-Mayadeen’s distance from anything resembling an abolitionist politic, let’s look how they defended the Iranian regime with rote campist talking points about 2022’s popular feminist uprising against the state:

As radicals, we often have to rely on reactionary media to understand the world and build our arguments (as I have done in this piece), but doing so is not the same thing as uncritically republishing their content within radical spaces.

The other chunk of Abolition Media’s Palestine coverage are direct statements by various Palestinian resistance groups. A recent from the Islamist group Tulkarm Brigade, based in the West Bank, and published by Abolition Media calls for Palestinian “traitors” to be “handed over to the police security apparatus” or face execution. Carceral statements like these highlight the contradiction between Abolition Media’s stated goal of being “a tool for movements dedicated to anarchist, abolitionist, and revolutionary perspectives” and a vulgar anti-imperialism that seems to drop any critical inquiry of any groups macho enough to hold a gun. Why is an anarchist/abolitionist counter-info site publishing a police statement? The slippery slope of valorizing armed struggle over all else has led Abolition Media to ignore that many of the groups they promote are trying to take over the nation-states they are struggling against, and if successful, will be in charge of new police forces required to maintain these new states. These new police forces will require abolishing, just as the current ones do. This is a very basic anarchist position that should not need repeating, but as Abolition Media’s own About page acknowledges, there are no good nation states. The seeds of nation states, even in the form of anti-imperialist tankie and Islamist groups that combat monsters like Benjamin Netanyahu and Bongbong Marcos, are still not our allies and don’t need a platform in anarchist spaces.

In March 2024, Abolition Media republished a RedStream Media article about Maoist guerrillas in Colombia. RedStream Media is a rebrand of RedFish, an English language subsidiary of the Russian-state controlled propaganda outlet RT. RedStream regularly praises Stalin and recently published a fawning revisionist history of the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path that papers over the Maoist cult’s massacres of Indigenous peasants, queer people, and women in an attempt to “[rescue] the history that many have tried to censor.”

Similarly, Abolition Media recently republished a bootlicking puff piece about the authoritarian Cuban state, originally from Al-Mayadeen. Abolition Media’s republishing of this statist propaganda does not include any editorial note about the Cuban state’s repression of Anarchists(1,2,3), Afro-Cubans (14), and queers(15).

In my brief search, I even found a recent article that Abolition Media republished from the right-wing Libertarian magazine Reason. Reason is infamous for publishing Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard, some of the worst authoritarian monsters in modern history who hold played a large role in building the current imperial landscape.

Despite their claim that they “stand in stark contrast to corporate and capitalist media, which push the disastrous agendas of nation states,” Abolition Media publishes more statements from authoritarian groups that are fighting to govern nation states, and news outlets that are either controlled by nation-states such as RedStream, or capitalist funded with strong alignment to specific nation-states, than they do statements from or about anarchists.

We should all study perspectives from different ideologies and milieus than our own, but to uncritically publish statements from authoritarians and state-aligned capitalist media under the banner of an “anti-state” and “anti-capitalist” counter-info site is at best deeply unprincipled, but is more than likely a more sinister form of tankie entryism to get anarchists to waiver from our anti-authoritarian principles. Whatever their intentions, Abolition Media’s clear editorial position on supporting armed struggle regardless of politics suggests a reactionary belief that ‘might makes right.’

I encourage all principled anarchists to cease contributions to Abolition Media and be careful to investigate what you’re actually reading when you’re on Abolition Media. More than likely it was written by individuals or groups that are or will be hostile to us. Abolition Media is flooding anarchist aggregator sites like Anarchist Federation with content written by people who seek to govern us and would throw us in prisons if given the chance.

Unravel is an american anarchist counter-info site that also hosts an up-to-date list of other counter-info sites that can be contributed to. It’s Going Down also hosts user submitted content, but no longer publishes spicy report backs.

As further reading, I recommend Always Against The Tanks for a deeper dive into the dangers of authoritarian communism.

The goal is to get the word out about anarchist insurrection and revolutionary action. When folx around us know of the actions we take, it makes it easier for them to also take action. getting the word out in a secure and safe manner has been a part of the anarchist tool box for a long time, This is just a continuation.

A WORD OF CAUTION WHEN COMMUNICATING:

• ALWAYS USE A VPN and TOR WHEN COMMUNICATING ANY ACTION
• USE A SECURE EMAIL PLATFORM (PROTON OR RISE UP)
• ALWAYS SCRUB EXIF DATA FROM A PHOTO
• ALWAYS MAKE SURE NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND IN PHOTOS OR TEXT
• WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS AND FELLOW ANARCHISTS BUT YOU DON’T KNOW US, TREAT US THAT WAY
• THIS LIST IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE, BE SMART
• STAY SAFE, SO YOU CAN REMAIN DANGEROUS!

If we don’t fight back, the state will automatically win!

As anarchists and autonomous militants, we recognize not everyone will be an anarchist. Remnants of the ISO, which collapsed after sexual violence and hierarchical control became too much to bear for rank-and-file Trotskyists, the DC were an oddity against a backdrop of Black Liberation organizing, Indigenous Sovereignty fights, Trans, Queer, and feminist campaigns, and proletarian movements. DC actions were lowkey affairs, for the most part. After their execution of a number of “BLM-Antifa” demonstrations, which themselves resulted in some streetfighting and the death of fascist biker and failed hatmaker Lee Keltner, their profile rose. Campaigns for the recognition of Antonio Blackbear, an Indigenous man murdered by police in Denver, as well as sponsorship of a number of other antifascist events granted DC planning power and something like local clout.

What did they do with this? Having a habit for calling for events when autonomous ones do not arise, a number of DC actions saw members of DC directly cause racist harm, especially in their handling of their campaign for Antonio Blackbear, as well as directly protect abusers and sexual predators. Simple community defense norms, like “we protect us” were violated by clout-chasing Trots who valued social peace at events they controlled. This has pushed numerous loved ones and close friends (as well as many others we may never meet) from militancy and has stressed vital social relationships who must care for the harmed. Their lax security standards, typified by the lack of desire for their leaders to participate in a bloc and by their clear leadership roles, has put many in unwanted contact with the police or worse.

Denver, as well as all cities in a patriarchal, queer- and transphobic, violent world, has an abuser problem. We do not have to, though we may have been taught, protect people who cause great harm from accountability. We do not have to, either, protect groups who do the same. The DC have done too much to harm members of our community for this same community continue to support the DC. Had they apologized, this may not have to be the case. Instead, members of DC and their official accounts say racist shit and defend violent sex predators. At this point, we consider support of and participation in events put on by the DC to be coequal sorts of damage to the movement against settlerism, antiblackness, hierarchy, and exploitation because DC would not hold these events without the chance of participants attending.

Consider this a warning. We see the streams and we recognize you, even in your best bloc. We won’t call for an intermediary or the cops. Go to a Denver Communist-sponsored event, and we will have a chat.

Remember, you have the power to act autonomously. You don’t have to wait for the Denver Communists or anyone else. No one will save us but ourselves. We protect us.

This text was submitted anonymously. If you would like to share report backs, analysis, calls to action, art, or anything else, check out our submissions page.

“effective resistance implores diversity of tactics and autonomous action. kill the black snake.”

This photo back was submitted anonymously. If you would like to share report backs, analysis, calls to action, art, or anything else, check out our submissions page.

Boulder, Colorado is a city of massive class divides, and its problems reverberate and are duplicated across Boulder County and its other municipalities. The median home price is $1.5 million. More than half of city residents rent, and of those, over 60% are classified as cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their monthly income in rent. The median income is over $80,000, but 20% of the population lives below the poverty line. Boulder occupies land stolen from the Ute, Arapahoe and Cheyenne people in violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, and has blocked off huge swathes of this land to create a “green belt” largely reserved for the recreation of the wealthy. It has worked for decades to restrict housing growth to virtually zero, leaving many residents unhoused.

Out Boulder County is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that maintains a monopoly on the public perception of queer people in Boulder County, and most funding and resources intended to support queer people are funneled through OBC. Executive director Mardi Moore and her immediate staff are frequently the only people consulted by jounalists for queer perspectives, and the county & municipal governments cite OBC’s support to deflect criticism of their homophobic and transphobic policies. Corporations such as Google and Comcast oppress trans employees, donate millions to anti-LGBTQ organizations, and globally exploit people and the environment – then turn to OBC to buy pinkwashing and distract from their violence.

At approximately 12:30 pm the afternoon of June 13^th, queer organizers met and obstructed the Out Boulder County-organized Pride motorcade, by using banners to block its planned route at the intersection of 15^th Street & Pearl Street. One banner read “No Cops at Pride / No Cops at All”. The other read “Liberation, Not Assimilation”. Chants were heard, including “Bottoms and tops, we all hate cops!” and “Pride was a riot! We can make it one again! / Pride was a riot! It still is!” Meanwhile, other comrades distributed a zine that elaborated on these messages, titled “Whose Pride Is It Anyway?” (printable version included below).

looks like the #Boulder Pride march is stopped by people protesting Out Boulder County’s cooperation with police pic.twitter.com/uxiVQS3YgR

— sean collins (@seancllns) June 13, 2021

While the rear of the motorcade was soon diverted down 16^th Street, the front, led by a fire truck, remained stuck, and motorcycle cops confronted the banner holders and ordered them to move out of the street. A designated police liaison intercepted police officers and carried their threats as an intermediary, delaying them and making it easier for comrades to Shut the Fuck Up and not talk to the cops.

15^th and Pearl marks the start of the pedestrian-only heart of bourgeois Boulder, Pearl Street Mall, so the action was observed both by those who had gathered on the route to spectate the motorcade & by many other passersby. As the blockade began, many spectators cheered & shouted supportive messages. Others were confused, asking what “No Cops At All” could mean. Others were openly hostile, with at least one self-identified “supportive mom” thanking the police and jeeringly asking a trans woman “is your mother proud of you?”

The cheers for the police and abuse of protestors by a segment of the Pride observers rips away the mask of performative wokeness from liberal Boulderites who stick BLM signs in their yard and then call the cops on Black people, from petty-bourgeois “progressives” who hang rainbow flags in their businesses while stealing wages from queer workers. A Pride event that prioritizes these people’s comfort over the liberation of the most marginalized is nothing but rainbow fascism.

While they may still be PFLAG darlings, OBC’s harm to QTPOC and the community as a whole has been so egregious that they have even sparked opposition among less-radical LGBTQ+ Boulderites, resulting in a simultaneous unaffiliated protest led by former board members of the organization, sharing their own flyers and stories of being treated with hostility & pushed out of the racist organization after asking for financial transparency & trying to lead diversity & inclusion efforts. While they pushed a reformist agenda, some showed solidarity with the blockade, using their signs to obstruct cameras from recording faces.

Despite being an organization that brings in over half a million dollars a year in funding. OBC does not provide substantially more services than they did when they were half the size. Instead, the excess is spent on increasingly lavish parties for monied gays. #OBCTEA

— OBCTEA (@obctea) June 13, 2021

Out Boulder had set up a tent at the edge of the mall where professional drag queen Jessica L’Whor was hosting their livestream of the event; L’Whor has been criticized by many in the Denver/Front Range drag scene, including her former collaborator Kai Lee Mykels, for attempting to dominate the community and exclude styles of drag associated with BIPOC. At around 13:00 into the livestream recording, behind L’Whor’s gushing thank-yous to OBC’s long list of corporate sponsors, chanting & motorcycles can be heard in the background; the livestream then cuts out until after the protestors are dispersed.

Due to the vulnerabilities of some queer participants, the blockade dispersed after receiving two warnings of imminent citation from the police.

We consider this to be a largely successful action. Thanks to a small group of on-the-ground actors and the support of remote comrades, OBC’s corporatized, performative parade was forced to avoid one of the most visible and populated intersections along its planned route. The immediate police response and threat of prosecution towards a fairly innocuous and entirely “non-violent” action demonstrated that the state is opposed to any true expression of Pride that does not require its approval or support its violence, and will wield cops against non-conforming queer folks to silence dissent. Spectators who came expecting a sanitized party were instead challenged with exposure to the often-silenced messages of queer resistance, and educational materials were distributed that we hope will raise consciousness among queers who may now realize that radical queer resistance is still a possibility – that we can be free and build our communities outside of the stranglehold of assimilationist non-profits like Out Boulder County.

Digital zine: https://cryptpad.fr/file/#/2/file/nEuT-Y-+0NxMWJZKIG1vVYPg/

Printable zine: https://cryptpad.fr/file/#/2/file/2A5Rl10vUkHulSwi09kVEcLw/

Want to contribute to COLA? Send us your action, reportback, artwork (found or original), essay, zine, or whatever to [email protected]

Pride month call to action!

Unauthorized Grassroots QUEER WRATH MARCH

June 26, 12 PM
Cheesman Park, Denver

liberation, not assimilation
fuck rainbow capitalism, take pride back

wear pink and black
gather at northwest corner of Cheesman Park before marching together to Colfax

BE LOUD, UNAPOLOGETIC, AND FABULOUS

Denver Pride Month Call To Action!

Queer Wrath March

June 26, 12 PM, Cheesman Park to Colfax pic.twitter.com/afSgpCsuXt

— Colorado Liberation & Autonomy (COLA) (@AutonomyCola) June 1, 2021

There will be a fun mutual aid & community event prior to the march:

Hello friends, we are taking back pride from the capitalists this year. Fuck pink capitalism and abolish prisons! Come visit us in Denver and tell all your queer friends about it.

This event will also be right the autonomous action on the 26th so be sure to stop by! pic.twitter.com/TONMyQW8DZ

— nora ❤️🖤 (@NoraFoisy) June 4, 2021

On the night of May Day, we attacked the office of BI Incorporated in Gunbarrel, Colorado. Phrases such as “¡Chinga La Migra!” “Abolish ICE” and “Fuck Your Shackles” were written with spray paint at the entrance of the building. “Profiteers of white supremacist violence” was painted on one wall. “Fuck ICE” was written on the BI sign facing the roadway, and rocks were thrown through the glass panels on the main entrance doors.

BI Inc. is a company owned by the private prison company The GEO Group, which runs the migrant concentration camp in Aurora. The company manufacturers the GPS ankle monitors that GEO and ICE use to surveil the movements of migrants who live outside of their camps, and to subsequently incarcerate them if they move too freely.

BI’s ankle monitors are nothing more than high-tech shackles. BI originally manufactured cattle monitors, and now applies that technology to dehumanize people, earning hundreds of millions of dollars from ICE contracts in the process. BI also runs ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), which requires participants to check-in regularly at BI offices, where many have reported discrimination, harassment, humiliation, and assault by BI employees.

This is all unnecessary and deliberate cruelty. Borders are arbitrary creations used by the powerful to prevent international solidarity among the working class. They should not exist, and no one should be punished for crossing them, whether by incarceration in a physical building, or by being forced to wear a spying device.

Through our small act of defiance, we hope to demonstrate to our comrades that they too can take immediate action against the oppressive forces of capital and the state. We also hope to inspire the workers at BI to end their support for La Migra in solidarity with the global working class. Together we can work to erode the power of our country’s white supremacist policing apparatus. As long as it festers in our communities, we must fight it.

No more borders. No more shackles. No more “USA.” Freedom for all.

Jock Waldo, the President of BI Inc, is registered to vote as a Republican at 11192 Twin Spruce Rd. in Golden, CO.

Solidarity.