In hopes of shortening those years, please print these out and post them everywhere potential recruits and deserters might see them. In a couple months or so, we’ll have the two-color version printed and ready to include in orders.

A fairly comprehensive list of resources and groups related to conscientious objection, G.I. rights, and anti-recruitment resistance can be found at Objector.org.

DISCLAIMER: Fair enough, fair enough, despite his imaginative surrealism McCay was a racist reactionary. Suffice it to say that, like the US government, we don’t hesitate to conscript our enemies in wartime.

As usual, TAL makes the dry subject matter absolutely fascinating and entertaining, interviewing victims and perpetrators at every level of the travesty, and as they say:

We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

Listen to the show here, for free, by clicking on the ‘Full Episode’ link. For those looking for more details, another radio favorite of ours, Fresh Air, has some more perspectives here, and here. And of course, Wikipedia comes through with 12,000 words on the subject.

The CrimethInc. convergence is a self-organized gathering to circulate skills, deepen networks, and build morale in North America in order to foster a culture of resistance worldwide. Everyone who comes is encouraged to be a presenter and performer. This year’s convergence will focus on developing direct action skills such as might be useful at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this summer, and also on creative pastimes, subversive ideas, and survival strategies that have nothing to do with them. Anarchists from overseas will also be present to offer perspectives from other contexts.

Like previous convergences, this one will be a sober, consent-based, anticapitalist space. That means no drugs or drinking on the premises; accountability processes will be in effect according to the wishes of survivors; and that camping, eating, literature, and everything else are totally free (though participants are discouraged from selling things except to raise funds for political prisoners). We’ll have more details on the policies stipulated by the local organizers shortly.

Bring camping gear, food, arts and crafts materials, literature to share, plays to perform, workshops to present, songs to sing, poetry to recite, stunts to pull off, plans to whisper, and the sort of wild-eyed romantic idealism that can make the most boring situation into a crazy adventure.

Childcare, medical services, and conflict mediation will all be provided.

RSVP: crimethincbooking@yahoo.com
Contact the local organizers: blowedupwisconsin@gmail.com

Please download promotional materials to invite people from your community.

CrimethInc. reports from some previous convergences:
2007 : 2006 : 2004 : 2003

Corporate media reporting on previous convergences—mind you, these are generally of dubious merit:
Harper’s : Elle : Athens News : Winona Daily News

Call for Workshops

If you are planning on performing or presenting this year, please send in a brief description of what you’ll be doing, so we can announce it in advance. Email it to crimethincbooking@yahoo.com.

We encourage everyone to see the CrimethInc. convergence as a space to try out ideas that would never see the light in any other context. This is a chance to risk everything, to debut brand new formats with your knees knocking together in terror! Don’t just drone through the old standards—challenge yourself and others! Draw on your passions and anomalous interests to offer your comrades points of departure they would never come across anywhere else, including in other anarchist circles. If your two true loves are lobsters and William Blake, put on a puppet show: Songs of Experience as Interpreted by Creatures of the Deep! If you’re quite comfortable discussing post-structuralist theory, try something you’ve never done before—put on a burlesque show, or do the research for a presentation on the history of anti-state responses to domestic violence, or volunteer at the childcare station all week! If we are careful and conservative in spaces like this that belong to us, we’re bound to stay careful and conservation in the rest of our lives, too. GO FOR IT!

Here are a few examples of this year’s workshops and performances. We’ll post more as they come in!

Publishing A Small Periodical Newspaper
A comprehensive crash-course in the production of a community newspaper: learn how you and 3 or 4 friends can publish a small-scale newspaper or community journal! Covers outreach-writing methodology, theme-selection, presentation, and distribution. This workshop covers the nuts and bolts of newspaper projects; the “Small Town Organizing” workshop functions well as a complement.

Small Town Organizing for Anarchists
Do you feel stuck—like you’re running in place—in a small town? Come share your experience and hear insight from our work in the field: this workshop offers a walking tour through strategic models for mutual-aid outreach, DIY-community building, public relations, literature distribution, broader network health, and morale boosting. We’ll also tackle such obstacles as poor social dynamics within small-town DIY communities, practical consensus for beginners, and how small and well-known anarchist cells can avoid being singled out as criminals.

Designing Posters and Other Propaganda
This workshop isn’t for designers only; rather, we’ll take a look at conventional anarchist design methods and style and analyze their effectiveness in communicating meaning. In addition to theory, this workshop includes some basic tutorials for both old (cut & paste) and new (digital design) schools, and offers some useful instances for both. This workshop emphasizes utilizing equipment and resources that are freely accessible to most people.

Storytelling Revisited
Security Culture meets Resistance Mythology in this dynamic workshop of storytelling and storytelling about storytelling. Learn about the elements and sequence of a good story, about the fascinating characteristics of compelling characters, enjoy irony and satire in their natural habitat, and consider how to escape moralism and encourage appreciation for good stories at the same time. Learn how to utilize these ingredients to talk your way across a border or into a building; learn how good storytelling—and listening—skills can protect participants in direct actions and simultaneously nurture momentum for resistance.

Direct Action Planning: Mock Spokescouncil
In this exercise, participants will break into affinity groups to plan a mock action via the spokescouncil model. Excellent practice for publicly coordinated actions that demand layers of privacy within and between groups.

Direct Action Role-Playing: Staying Safe in the Streets
This workshop offers real-time, real-space experience for groups to move securely together in stressful situations, to protect themselves against attacks, avoid being boxed in, stay aware in changing environments, and achieve objectives.

Performer: Testament
I am not a rapper, I am just a revolutionary who raps good. I’m taking hip-hop back to its revolutionary roots and spreading dissent through the powerful, thought-provoking rhymes. I’m here to save hip-hop from the glorified violence, materialism, sexism, and racism that the music industry creates, promotes, and markets for their own capitalist purposes. The revolution will not be signed to a record deal.

In lieu of a ride board, please post offers of and requests for empty seats to the convergence in the comments section below.

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The purpose of the Deep Breath Tour is very simple: To stimulate the magic and intimacy already present in the communities being visited while teaching and learning with one another to build a stronger network of resistance to dominant culture — this is a big summer and there is a lot to talk about.

The following dates are either confirmed or pending — still needing help with those! — and, as you can see, many are still open. If you live in any of the pending stops or between any towns listed below and would like to host this, email froseph@crimethinc.com to start collaborating. An intimate house show in a basement, living room, or backyard with other DIY acts from the area and/or traveling through would be ideal. But any park, infoshop, or community center would be great, too. Also, this tour would like to visit as many small towns as possible.

THE ITINERARY:

June 30th - Winona, MN DDBC Bicycle Co-op, 129 Walnut St. 8pm w/ preceding benefit art auction for the Down N’ Dirty Bike Club

July 2nd - Viroqua, WI The Shack, 607 E South St. 8pm

July 3rd - Madison, WI Lothlorien Co-op, 244 LakeLawn 8pm w/Thistle. This will be a benefit show for the GrassRoutes Caravan, a bicycle village of resistance traveling to the RNC protests in St. Paul, MN.

July 5th - Minneapolis, MN TBA

July 6th - St. Cloud, MN TBA

July 7th - Bemidji, MN Gypsy Cabin, 11413 Lumberjack Rd NW 5:45 fancy dinner followed by campfire & music w/ Shannon Murray & friends Call Shannon at (218) 368-8002 for directions

July 8th - Duluth, MN (pending)

July 9th - Appleton, WI (pending)

July 10th - Oshkosh, WI TBA

July 11th - Manitowoc, WI The Treehouse 8pm 806A Buffalo St. w/Saddleshoes

July 15th–20th - Milwaukee, WI CrimethInc. Convergence

July 21st - Chicago, IL (pending)

July 22nd - Fort Wayne, IN (pending)

July 23rd - Kalamazoo, MI (pending)

July 25th - Buffalo, NY w/ From The Depths

July 27th - Pittsburgh, PA (pending)

July 28th - Punxsutawney, PA (pending)

August 1st - Warwick, NJ Stanley Demming Park w/ Shoelacetown Anarchist Black Cross, Passionate Existence Distro, A Longing for Collapse Press, G.U.T.S Distro, and Easy As ABC. Also, a potluck dinner and a game of Manhunt.

August 3rd - New York, NY TBA

August 4th - Easton, PA Riverside Park, Larry Holmes Dr. w/ TBA

August 5th - Philadelphia, PA TBA. Will be here for at least a few days on break.

August 11 - Baltimore, MD (pending)

August 12th - Washington D.C. (pending)

August 13th - Richmond, VA (pending)

August 15th - Athens, OH (pending)

August 17th - Lexington, KY TBA

August 21st - Des Moines, IA w/ The Rice & Bean Underground

Download Rolling Thunder #2 [14MB]

#2 contains articles about the protests against the G8 meeting in Scotland, a retrospective on squatting and resistance culture in northern Europe, an in-depth discussion of subcultural marginality and refusal, an inside report on the workings of current labor unions, a memoir of gender mutiny, and an account of how to establish a squatted community center; other highlights include an intimate reflection on the patterns by which abusive relationships perpetuate themselves and a primer on communications technology for direct action, and much more.

In case any intrepid reviewers require additional assistance, we’ve added a new feature to our reading library: “The Fine Art of Criticism: A How-To Guide for Aspiring Journalists.” This controversial screed originally appeared in the third issue of Rolling Thunder, and remains as relevant today as it was then—however relevant that is.

Tune in next time for the follow-up, “A User’s Guide to Expect Resistance,” a preview of which is pictured above.

Additionally, as some may have noticed, a few weeks ago we changed the quantities that are available entirely for free from 25/50 to 10/35. The move from 25 to 10 was spurred by feedback from people wanting a quantity that was less than 25 but more than 1—usually people who simply want to distribute them to their friends and acquaintances. The move from 50 to 35 was motivated in part due to feedback we’ve received, and in part as an effort to reduce cost and keep the completely free FFOL program sustainable—the recent increase in postage rates combined with rising paper costs have combined to force us to re-tune the equations of what exactly we can afford to give away for free. Quantities of 50, 100, 250 and 500 will continue to be free, but require that the cost of shipping be paid.

Lastly, we just wanted to reiterate that the completely free FFOL packages are limited to one per person per decade. If you distribute all the ones we sent you, please try and send the minimum donation for your next batch. We’d like nothing more than to be able to send anyone, anywhere, as many FFOL as they can distribute, but that is not a current financial reality for us. Also, we get a little frustrated when a single individual places multiple separate free orders of FFOL for all their friends, on our dime—please, if you’d like send your friends FFOL, order a box from us and send them to your friends yourself. We’ll appreciate not having to cancel all those requests, and your friends will appreciate the personalized little package you send them.

July 24 - Thurs - Pittsburgh, PA - with Reproach (Belgium), Caustic Christ, A.N.S. (TX)
July 25 - Fri - Buffalo, NY
July 26 - Sat - Cleveland, OH
July 27 - Sun - Detroit, MI
July 28 - Mon - Grand Rapids. MI
July 29 - Tues - Chicago, IL
July 30 - Wed - Madison, WI
July 31 - Thurs - Winona, MN
Aug 1 - Fri - Brainerd, MN
Aug 2 - Sat - Minneapolis, MN
Aug 3 - Sun - Fargo, ND
Aug 4 - Mon - Sioux Falls, SD
Aug 5 - Tues - Iowa City, IA
Aug 6 - Wed - Des Moines, IA
Aug 7 - Thur - Lawrence, KS
Aug 8 - Fri - St. Louis, MO
Aug 9 - Sat - Bloomington, IN
Aug 10 - Sun - day off
Aug 11 - Mon - Nashville, TN
Aug 12 - Tues - Birmingham, AL
Aug 13 - Wed - Pensacola, FL
Aug 14 - Thurs - New Orleans, LA
Aug 15 - Fri - day off
Aug 16 - Sat - Baton Rouge, LA
Aug 17 - Sun - Houston, TX
Aug 18 - Mon - Austin, TX
Aug 19 - Tues - Fort Worth, TX
Aug 20 - Wed - Oklahoma City, OK
Aug 21 - Thurs - Amarillo, TX
Aug 22 - Fri - Colorado Springs, CO
Aug 23 - Sat - Denver, CO

False Hope vs. Real Change PDF [3.2 MB]

CrimethInc. Far East will be including copies of this paper in orders. To obtain copies in bulk for distribution, email falsehopeorrealchange08@riseup.net.

From the release announcement:

False Hope vs. Real Change: An Anti-Partisan (Beyond) Voting Guide to the 2008 Elections argues passionately for direct action in the face of war, environmental destruction, militarized borders, and the alienation of American life—while exposing how politicians profit from these crises even as they claim to offer solutions to them. Beyond merely telling people not to vote, this colorful, engaging eight-page newspaper offers concrete examples of how to participate directly in resisting oppression and creating alternatives to voting. By responding directly to many of the reasons why people who are disillusioned or cynical about politics continue to vote, the articles explore how our most empowering options for participation exist outside of the ballot boxes. The writers examine the possibilities of direct action, collectives, mutual aid, and anarchy, analyzing their potential as tools to move beyond the constraints of voting, party politics, capitalism, and government. Highly recommended as a tool for explaining anarchist critiques of elections and voting, and for building momentum towards the 2008 Republican and Democratic National Convention protests.

For internet casualties who don’t have the attention span to read an actual text, here are the basic points:

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-We believe that mass mobilizations still have potential if we choose carefully when to focus on them. Successful DNC and/or RNC protests this summer could energize local direct action organizing throughout the US.

-In an era when most had deemed them obsolete, the so-called “anti-globalization movement” reinvented street demonstrations and used them to great effect. After 9/11, liberal and authoritarian groups hijacked that model and ran it into the ground with willfully ineffectual spectacles. Now that the antiwar movement has exhausted itself, there is once again a vacuum in the streets. If anarchists fill it with effective organizing, this could enable us to regain the initiative.

-Following the collapse of the antiwar movement, liberal hopes are pinned entirely on electoral politics, at a time when the discredited electoral system is attempting to rehabilitate its image—in part by co-opting grass-roots dissent. In this context, it is strategic for anarchists to focus on contesting the electoral spectacle itself, thus differentiating ourselves from the rest of the political spectrum and demonstrating an alternative for other disillusioned and disenfranchised demographics.

-Though it would be ideal for anarchists to emphasize both equally, we fear the RNC protests will be significantly better organized than the DNC, and offer a better bet for a successful mobilization.

-Though it is hardly original, the blockading strategy proposed for the RNC protests is currently the most promising option on the table, and we urge anarchists to plug into it. That means getting organized now, not simply showing up in St. Paul without a plan or affinity group.

-Based on recent precedents and the current national context, it seems that the authorities desire to avoid the brutal violence employed at the FTAA protests in Miami in 2003. Using such force against demonstrators at the RNC would frame the US government as repressive during an election that is intended to clean up its image. It would also embarrass the liberal local government of St. Paul, and spotlight anarchist resistance at a time when the powers that be hope to sweep all opposition into the Obama camp.

-In this context, the demonstrations in St. Paul need not shut down the RNC to succeed—they need only provoke a dramatic confrontation that foregrounds the anarchist critique. If we get tear-gassed in St. Paul, we’ve won. It remains to be seen whether US anarchists are currently equipped to accomplish this; but the answer to that question is partly up to you, dear reader.

For the reasoning behind these theses, read the full report.

Download 2-Up Flyer PDF : Download Poster PDF

The convergence will be several days of self-organized workshops, presentations, performances, and other activities where everyone can be a presenter—so bring your own ideas, not to mention camping gear and whatever resources you can share. This year there will be a focus on coordinating for the demonstrations at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, as well as longer-range anarchist endeavors. Internationals will share experiences from overseas. Participation is free, of course, along with literature, food, child care, and camping space; the convergence will be a sober, consent-based space.

Locals on the ground in Milwaukee, putting in work for this summer’s CrimethInc. Convergence, have announced a public redirect location at Gordon Park (Locust St. & Humboldt Blvd) in Milwaukee, WI.

RSVP to crimethincbooking@yahoo.com

While we have yet to unearth the great anarchist comic of our generation, we have discovered a ’zine that satirizes the North American anarchist subculture to great effect. Allow us to introduce the Super Happy Anarcho Fun Pages, the 12th issue of which has just been released. All twelve issues are freely available online, courtesy of www.tangledwilderness.org.

The SHAFP offer enlightening takes on many subjects, including the environment…

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…animal liberation…

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…pacifism…

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…direct action…

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…privilege…

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…expropriation…

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…alternatives to anarchism…

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…cross-subcultural organizing…

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…recruiting for the cause…

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…and the utopian vision of a better world than motivates anarchist struggle:

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Suffice it to say that, should you happen to share the author’s subcultural reference points, you will find this ’zine very funny. On the other hand, if you do not, you will be puzzled as to why we directed you to something that appears to be the work of a three-year-old.

After years of planning, we finally threw our first Really Really Free Market! Organizing and promoting it was a long, arduous task. We live in a small town: Winona has only 27,000 people, and has the largest radical community of any place within 100 miles from us. It has always been tough for us to make things happen here—small town outreach work is always hard. All but one of our anarchist community are originally from Winona, and owing to our slim population, we’re fortunate enough to have a very wide social network. When we started a monthly community newspaper—think of a hybrid of a local indymedia project and Harbinger—we knew it would help us reach people that we had been struggling to connect with for years. We began promoting the ‘Free Market in the first issue, albeit subtly, and by the third issue, we had warmed up to the subject enough to devote an entire two pages inviting people to participate in the event.

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We invested a lot of energy into connecting with new social circles: we made close friends with the local homeless shelter; we knew the administrators at the food bank well enough to solicit their help distributing fliers; the punks were down to give away free bicycles; even the local food co-op was putting food aside for us. Representatives from all of these different social circles and more met four times before our first ‘Free Market to discuss logistics—we devised promotional schemes and dreamt up ideas and dispersed. When the day came, the first organizer arrived at the park 30 minutes early, to find to his surprise that over two dozen people were already there, waiting for the market to start. An hour into it, that number had grown to 200, and the event was a huge success. It went on that way for four hours: people giving away carloads of clothes, furniture, food, a box of hundreds of toothbrushes! A trash-bag full of condoms, starter plants for a garden, and five kids bikes were given away via a free raffle. We were all really inspired and pleased with the event, knowing that most of the work was out of our hands.

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We plan to bring the lessons we’ve learned to this year’s CrimethInc. Convergence in Milwaukee, WI. We’ll have plenty of examples of our community newspaper and plan to hold a workshop instructing anyone how to produce an effective, high-quality newspaper to nourish their radical community for under $250 a month. We know how difficult it can be for small midwest towns to get things off the ground—we’ve been struggling to for years. Hopefully, news of our successful ‘Free Market will motivate other small-town anarchist communities to attempt similar feats.

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