![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/20/1.jpg\")
\nFollowing the “No Kings, No Masters” call to establish an anti-authoritarian presence at the October 18 “No Kings” rallies around the United States, we reached out to anarchists in a dozen cities and towns to learn how their efforts went and how they understand the challenges and potential of these protests.
\n\nMany of the official organizers of the No Kings demonstrations are passionately invested in emphasizing that they are peaceful and law-abiding. At the same time, federal agencies are making a point of displaying their brutality and disregard for legal precedent, while steadily amassing more resources with which to harm communities and suppress opposition. Absent a concrete plan to address the fact that Donald Trump clearly does not intend to leave office voluntarily, the focus on symbolic, legalistic, and inconsequential protest can only be self-defeating.
\n\nTo rise to the challenge posed by ascendant fascism, the movement against Trump’s power grab will have to find concrete ways to exert leverage, likely including the tactics and strategies that anarchists have developed. Far from frightening away participants, this will draw in those who tend to remain aloof from struggles until there is something substantial at stake—including many of the poorest and most oppressed, who participated in the George Floyd revolt but have largely stayed on the sidelines during the No Kings protests thus far.
\n\nDespite the desire of many No Kings organizers to remain innocuous, Donald Trump and his supporters are determined to portray them as crazed extremists. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called No Kings a “hate America rally.” House Speaker Mike Johnson described the participants as “Hamas supporters,” “antifa types,” and “Marxists,” while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer described them as representing “the terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party, a “small but very violent and vocal group.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News “This is part of antifa, paid protesters.” All of this is laughably mendacious, but it should drive home to Democrats that they will gain nothing whatsoever from attempting to show how peaceful and compliant they are. Trump and his lackeys aim to intimidate them into passivity—but regardless of how passive they are, the administration intends to treat them as terrorists.
\n\nLet extreme-right grifters and Donald Trump himself charge that the No Kings protesters are “antifa,” or, contradictorily, that anarchists are attempting to infiltrate the No Kings demonstrations. Their very claims will undermine the credibility of those talking points in the eyes of the general public, while compelling millions of people to ask themselves whether they, too, are indeed anti-fascists who should avail themselves of the lessons of the long tradition of anti-authoritarian resistance. There are already signs that this is happening.
\n\nThe anecdotes below, taken from a variety of contexts across the country, show the beginnings of anarchist participation in a movement that must expand and intensify if we are to avert collective disaster.
\n\nA group fluctuating between five and ten people with a banner, a flyer, and a couple of megaphones managed to reroute and lead the largest march I’ve ever seen in the mid-size urban sprawl of [location redacted]. I’m not sure how large the march was; it was definitely massive by local standards, probably in the thousands, an order of magnitude larger than what we saw in 2020, as it completely surrounded a park with a circumference of over three miles.
\n\nAt first, we marched by ourselves on the streets next to Indivisible’s sidewalk marchers, skirting various interactions with peace police telling us to get off the road. “If a crowd is larger than 100 people, we’re allowed to take one lane” worked fine. We gradually assembled a large enough contingent to stop at an intersection, then turned around to march against the direction of the slithering circular sidewalk march. As a consequence, pretty much anyone under 60 (and some brave elders), including many with pro-“Antifa” signs and a couple One Piece flags, wound up taking the streets in a massive angry march that defied protest marshals. Friendly scooters and motorcyclists spontaneously protected the rear. We stopped at intersections to deliver our messaging over the megaphones and invite the crowd to follow up with us by attending an event we had organized ahead of time (see flyer). Marching through downtown with little to no police presence, having left the peace police behind us, even one or two people who had prepared properly could have gotten away with a lot more and perhaps kicked off something historic. But this intervention—the first one in a long time in which I have seen protesters successfully perform something akin to a breakout march—is a harbinger of things to come.
\n\nThe video shows how it started and then how it went. The photos show the flyer we distributed and read over the megaphone and the zine table we set up at the park, minus all the donuts, water, and masks that we distributed.
\n\nA lot of folks seem very hesitant about engaging with people outside of the movement right now. I think that’s a mistake. The fascists have crashed the economy, systematically alienated every demographic except Twitter nazis, and destroyed the legitimacy of federal law enforcement, the media, the Supreme Court, and both political parties. People are furious, scared, and looking for answers. In many ways, it is the ideal environment for anarchists, but we have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone, openly and proudly advocate for our ideals, and take some risks trusting ordinary people. More importantly, the last nine months have shown that no one is coming to save us. If we don’t rise to meet the moment—not just anarchists, but all the dispossessed people who oppose fascism—it could very well cost us our lives.
\n\nThat’s why I went to the rally. I wanted to let other rebels know that they aren’t alone, that there are other ways to resist besides toothless liberal marches, that we don’t need to wait for permission from some national organization to take action.
\n\n\nI attended the No Kings rally here because comrades had helped organize it, and because it was the best local space I could imagine for meeting other people who want to organize, resist, and fight back.
\n\n50501 is basically just a meme backed up by some signal threads and facebook groups. It’s extremely diverse politically and many anarchist and communist friends have been involved locally and in the statewide “structure.” I literally don’t know what it means to say that a network this loose works with police or Democrats; that just means that some figures within it (whether important or minor) have done so, but that doesn’t reflect a collective agreement endorsing that behavior. Under these circumstances, I think we should avoid generalized accusations, and instead just push the political average away from police collaboration or dependence on the Democrats.
\n\nThe risks were close to nil. A lot of paranoid rumors spread in the days beforehand; comrades worked to debunk those and to reassure those new to political activity, who were the real targets of the rumor mill. It’s clear that fear is our biggest obstacle right now, more than actual repression, violence, or drama.
\n\nI saw an elderly friend who experienced a decade of federal harassment because she had been friends with some of the Green Scare indictees; she never really recovered and doesn’t go out to political things very often, as a result of the trauma and fear. She was overjoyed to be at this event, and participated in the illegal breakaway march with us and perhaps 400 other people. She was trying to come up with new chants and was chatting happily with me close to the front of the march.
\n\nI think it would have been better for comrades to have come not just with handbills and radical zines, but also with banners and tools to make the march more confident and capable. Given how much energy there was, even this large crowd, excited but also fearful, would have probably been excited to take more steps towards militancy, with small things like chalk and fireworks. As it happened, it was decisive that some people brought their own mobile sound system, separate from the one used by the official speakers.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/20/2.jpg\")
\nAt the first No Kings rally in our town, in June 2025, a bloc of anarchists and other anti-authoritarians started at a different location further down the famous local strip and marched past the No Kings rally in a funeral procession with a casket for Donald Trump. That intervention was a great success, drawing about a hundred people from the crowd at City Hall to the Federal Building, one of the only targets here that is actually tied to the regime in Washington, DC. The Federal Building was heavily guarded by DHS agents who had been put on high alert after an action a few weeks earlier in which someone apparently used a sharpie marked to tag “Fuck ICE” on a glass door.
\n\nBecause of that intervention, the local Democrat front group that runs the liberal 50501 nonprofit protests moved from the historic strip (a two-lane one-way highway that is very easy to block traffic on) to a park on the West Side pushed up against an eight-lane highway. In 2020, liberals wanting to avert the possibility of a march after the murder of George Floyd also held a vigil at this park, though fortunately, local high-schoolers made their own intervention in response. It was clear to the anarchists and street punks that it was a counter-insurgent effort intended to limit our ability to get out onto the streets. Following up on the success of the performance art the first time around, people dreamed up another idea of how to intervene. The plan was to construct a King Donald Trump puppet that would demand protesters stay on the sidewalk and do nothing to actually threaten his regime—until a lone jester would lead a rebellion of serfs smashing and destroying the puppet.
\n\nUnfortunately, the threat of severe thunderstorms and tornado-strength winds in our region undermined this plan and at the last minute, people had to plan a more militant intervention.
\n\nAbout a dozen anarchists, punks, and other radicals gathered at the park on October 18 with the plan to take one or two lanes of the highway and then swing back to the park through the quiet residential streets nearby. According to subsequent reports, around 2000 people gathered at the park and lined the sidewalk down both sides of the highway. The energy and morale of the crowd was low. Despite being supposedly funded by billionaires, the liberals had brought no megaphones, were leading no chants, and had no music in their hearts. We began to march around the park, gathering a crowd of about forty people chanting and singing. People sang Bella Ciao as well as a local hymn made up for the last No King rally intervention that goes
\n\n“No Kings! No Masters! No old fascist bastards!
\nNo Kings! No Masters! No old fascist bastards!
\nNo Kings! No Masters! No old fascist bastards!
\nString’em up by their feet, let the buzzards eat
\nThat old fascist bastard!”
After a few laps around the park, we made the decisive breakout onto the highway with a banner from the time Donald Trump came to Southern Illinois in 2018. It reads “All Ways Closed to Fascism!”—a play on the city motto.
\n\nAbout forty people quickly took two lanes of traffic, tightly blocking both lanes. A police car followed us and very few people joined from the crowd, but many cheered us on. We made our way up the highway before swinging back onto residential streets where most people came out of their houses and cheered us on. As we made our approach back to the park to conclude the joyous and militant march, two geezers in high-visibility vests jumped out trying to block the march, filming us and alleging that we were ICE agents because we wore masks. One of the old men even grabbed the face of one of the banner holders. People shouted anti-fascist chants over them, drowning them out. The march returned safely to the park.
\n\nMany people came and thanked us for the chants, the music, and even “the excitement.” While the liberal organizers made themselves red in the face about our intervention, we went on our merry way.
\n\nWhile this may not be as exciting as militant inventions or actions in the big cities, we must push the movement as far as we can anywhere and everywhere. To sit home denouncing and decrying would have been a mistake. Many good people who have no other idea how to fight went to this event. Hopefully, our act meant something to people, and the people we met there will feel more capable of rising to the occasion when things escalate.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/20/3.jpg\")
\nWhy did you attend the No Kings rally?
\n\nWhen people gather in public to express dissent, that’s a space worth occupying and radicalizing. Showing up means making sure the message of total liberation is not erased by liberal talking points.
\n\nMy comrades and I figured that there would be a lot of people using the No Kings march to confront ICE in our city. We were hoping that there would be enough chaos that cops would lose control of the situation and people would remember how we were in June and lose some of the pervasive fear that’s seems to have sunk in across the city.
\n\nBroadly speaking, I agreed with the CrimethInc. proposal. I think it’s important for us (anarchists and anti-authoritarians more broadly) to have a visible street presence again. We spent many years experimenting with various approaches to being more or less visible, and it seems clear to me now that we need to be recognizable without being targetable.
\n\nThe crew I’m part of mostly didn’t go to the rally, at least not as a bloc within the march. The No Kings rally that was called in downtown here was planned from 8 to 10 am—extremely early—but let out directly into an all-day-long multicultural festival “Tucson Meet Yourself” with thousands of people, food trucks, local advocacy orgs, and families. That’s where I showed up with a backpack of zines and a couple hundred leaflets pertinent to Anti-ICE mobilizing and anti-authoritarianism. A few of us wrote and risographed them yesterday.
\n\nI attended the No Kings rally to distribute propaganda—both to challenge the more liberal narratives around how it is appropriate to respond to the current moment and to invite people with similar political goals into conversation with our movement. I also brought the goal of bringing a conflictual edge to the demo.
\n\n\nNo Kings, 50501, and the Indivisible movement espouse liberal politics. They work with police and the Democratic Party. How did you reconcile yourself with that?
\n\nI didn’t go to endorse their politics, I went to confront the limits of their politics. Anarchists don’t need to wait for perfect conditions or perfect comrades to act. Being present in liberal spaces can open up moments in which people start to see that the state and its enforcers won’t save them. I see this as engagement, not alignment.
\n\nWe went there as autonomous individuals to engage with a mass movement against fascism, not to argue with the liberal organizers who told everyone to stay on the sidewalk. Many of the people showing up to these protests are not ideologically committed to legalism or pacifism; they just see those as the only game in town. I believe it’s our job to agitate among the rank and file for real resistance. Just because twelve people with a logo and a social media account claim the authority to tell everyone else at an event what to do doesn’t mean we have to listen. I don’t think there’s any contradiction to reconcile. We show up, we stand by our values, we try to get other people to join us, and we make these orgs irrelevant.
\n\nI’m pretty comfortable using liberal events to create splinter actions. It’s a tried-and-true tactic and this felt no different. Large rallies draw out a lot of comrades who are looking for something more radical, so it’s good to be there to find them. It seems that we’re in a holding pattern in which the fascists are slowly rolling out martial law and people are too afraid to do anything because they think that could make it worse. But I think it’s important to heighten the contradictions and draw the state to overreach in order to spark the sort of widespread rage capable of genuinely confronting the state.
\n\nThese boomers just want someone to talk to. We avoided the organizers and went where the most people would be.
\n\nThere were lots of empty stations at the folklife festival where vendors had closed early or never arrived. We tried to set up in a booth for the “Pima County Association of Governments” to be funny, but the guy who was running it showed up, so we just moved to another empty booth and made a sign that said “Anarchist Polemical Writing for a LOW PRICE.” The stuff was all free.
\n\n\nSome online commenters have described it as “dangerous” to attend public rallies. What do you think the risks were?
\n\nThere’s always risk when you challenge power… cops, surveillance, reactionaries, or doxxing. But hiding doesn’t make us safer. We can minimize harm through mutual support, good security culture, and situational awareness, but risk is part of the reality of resistance.
\n\nI’m not sure it felt that risky to me. Los Angeles maybe has a different landscape than red states for this, but I knew we’d be facing LAPD, not ICE and possible federal charges (which are riskier, though in Los Angeles they are generally not as risky as many think). With thousands of liberals around to provide cover, this felt like one of the safer actions going on in Los Angeles at the moment. Definitely safer than confronting ICE during a raid.
\n\nWhat the hell are people talking about it being “dangerous” for anarchists to be at No Kings? It’s dangerous for us NOT to be there.
\n\nOf course it’s dangerous. The regime is clearly stating its desire to crush our movement and jail, kill, or deport anyone who stands in their way. Taking action against the regime in any way, even symbolically, entails an increased risk of surveillance, police violence, and repression. However, my belief is that the risks of not participating right now are even greater. The only barrier to how far the fascists are willing to go is our resistance, and if we lose, they intend to kill us. We need to get out of the mindset of seeing danger as something that we can choose and recognize that, whether we like it or not, we are locked in a struggle for our survival.
\n\nPshh, that’s just social anxiety. I expected that we would get kicked out for stealing a booth, but we were allowed to stay all day. In the case that we were kicked out, we planned to just move to another part of the festival, take another booth, or distribute zines on foot.
\n\nLots of people want to talk about revolutionary anti-state politics right now. It felt good to show up as “ourselves,” explicitly putting anarchist ideas in front of people and seeing who is willing to engage.
\n\nIn this case, being in a city that already has had attempted federal troop deployment and is swarming with the human garbage that work for ICE, I personally felt extremely apprehensive. Mass surveillance is real and it is bad. Given the context, however, I felt like basic security practices like masking were sufficient. Time will tell if that is true. The people I was with were mostly using this as an opportunity to be visible. No one planned on doing anything beyond being a part of the march, which informed our decisions. Some people didn’t mask, some people were in full bloc, some people somewhere in between.
\n\nI knew that attending the rally meant the unlikely risk of arrest or brutalization at the hands of the police or violence from the far right. But the biggest risk actually was not in regards to my personal safety, but that we would be unsuccessful in having an impact on the crowd or at reaching other people who are disgruntled with the Trump administration and the liberal responses to it.
\n\n\nWhat do you think you accomplished?
\n\nI had a lot of good conversations with people who were sympathetic to what we were doing, but I think the most promising thing was just how many people joined us in the streets once we demonstrated that it was possible. Even some of the peace police were cheering from the sidewalks! One older woman from the suburbs fell while marching in the street, and when we helped her up and asked if she wanted us to help her back to the sidewalk she refused. “I marched in the streets against the war in Vietnam, and I want to be in the streets now.” I also spoke with some young people after the fact who were super energized by the experience and looking for various ways to stay involved. The usual line adopted by many authoritarian protest orgs (both liberal and Leninist) is that unpermitted street protests are too dangerous for elders or children, that they inherently alienate “the masses” who aren’t ready for such big revolutionary steps as walking in the street without permission. It was good to experience a reminder of how completely false that is.
\n\nOther activists and advocacy groups were open to us being there. Surprisingly, that included “Humane Borders”—the absent humanitarian group whose booth we had taken over. At one point, one of their members stopped by our table to ask who we were. We were transparent with her that we just wanted to distribute free anarchist literature there, since this table wasn’t getting used otherwise. “Since Humane Borders didn’t show up, we’re here for No Borders!!! And we all hate ICE!” At first, she seemed confused by our antics, but she came around later to say that her group was happy we were using their table!
\n\nI found it promising that there are clearly people oriented towards militant street action that are unknown to us. I’m particularly thinking of the crews of kids bloc’ed up with Mexican flags.
\n\nWhat felt most promising to me was seeing fifty or so rowdy people, many of whom were total strangers, continue gathering defiantly in the street after the marshals repeatedly told them to go home. They clearly felt unsatisfied by the liberals leading the march and were visibly energized by what the anarchists had to say and the energy they were bringing to the demonstration, even when it became clear that we were attracting the ire of both the organizers and the police alike. We saw people inspired by and attracted to revolutionary messaging.
\n\nSome comrades were able to draw a large crowd of around a thousand people from the No Kings rally at City Hall to the detention center with a loud mobile speaker and some yellow protest marshal vests. The crowd at MDC was really energized by that, and there were some skirmishes with the cops, though nothing too ambitious. Everyone was very fuck the police, and people asked to hear Boosie’s “Fuck the Police” about seven times. At one point, about a hundred people were line-dancing to Payaso de Rodeo, which was really fun, and there was a whole dance-off to a Monterrey tribal set. I think the cops could tell they were losing control of the situation, because right after the line dancing, they brought out the horses and got really aggressive about clearing the intersection.
\n\nWe set up a number of tables laden with hundreds of zines, posters, and stickers. One of the event volunteers approached us, a little wary, and asked what we were up to. I told her we were just a few individuals trying to share ideas and open conversation. Her energy shifted from skeptical to genuinely curious. By the end, she was smiling, asking questions, and walking away with a handful of zines.
\n\n\nWhat do you wish you had seen at No Kings that, in retrospect, you could have helped to contribute yourself?
\n\nMore autonomous presence, more banners, skill shares, art, spontaneous chants not run through the “approved” mic. Spaces where people could talk freely without a stage telling them what “safe” activism looks like.
\n\nOur propaganda encourages direct action and political experimentation. The flyers all have a QR code for an “announcements” signal thread that posts upcoming antiauthoritarian events, our own marches, and the like. But we don’t have a specific upcoming event on our calendar this month which invites public participation, for example, we haven’t made a call for the formation of a citywide assembly. Those kind of things are yet to be organized.
\n\nI would have liked for us to be able to do a more coordinated distribution of propaganda so we could have had more conversations with people. There aren’t very many of us, which makes it tough to have people move together. I think that being slightly more targeted in our outreach rather than simply giving fliers and zines to whoever will take them would probably benefit us in the future.
\n\nI wish I had seen more spectacular presentations of our political messaging—whether banner drops, wheatpasting, flags or effigies on fire, or something else. In hindsight, it is clear that the march was simply a massive spectacle that was a “fun afternoon” for many liberals. Putting an anarchist twist on this to make our presence as visible as possible to others could have been somewhat promising for us and motivating for others there, if done at the right moments in the right contexts. Additionally, at many different points, anarchists could have made an effort to be at the front of the march with large, reinforced banners and a megaphone to challenge the organizers’ messaging and image, and potentially even start a breakaway march at or near the end of the route with those who did not feel finished marching or were looking for other avenues to express their political frustrations.
\n\nI wish we had prepared more ways for folks to follow up after the fact. We distributed fliers for a future Anti-ICE event widely, but a lot of folks wanted more direct ways to plug in, and we didn’t really have a way to do that beyond sharing Signal user names, which isn’t ideal. In the future, we hope to get a local Events Calendar up and running that will allow folks to plug in to less high risk events, and maybe a link to a telegram channel or admins-only Signal thread would be good as well.
\n\nPrimarily, I feel that if there had been another crew of people doing splinter marches, they could have snaked through downtown or onto a freeway, and that would have split the cops’ forces and the detention center site probably would have really gone off, which would have been a huge win for the anti-ICE movement right now.
\n\nI have been thinking about what it means that we wait for these big lib orgs to organize mass actions so we can hijack them, and how much we lose by being dependent on them for that. At the same time, doing that work ourselves takes a ton of energy and coalition building that draws away from tenant union work and base-building organizing, so it never seems like the best use of time. But still, I’m wondering if there’s a way to change that dynamic.
\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2025/10/13/morocco-the-gen-z-212-uprising-an-interview", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2025/10/13/morocco-the-gen-z-212-uprising-an-interview", "title": "Morocco: The Gen Z 212 Uprising : An Interview", "summary": "An interview with participants in the Gen Z 212 movement in Morocco.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/header.jpg", "date_published": "2025-10-13T21:35:40Z", "date_modified": "2026-02-18T23:34:01Z", "tags": [ "morocco", "gen z", "protest", "mideast", "africa" ], "content_html": "Beginning with the toppling of the president of Sri Lanka in 2022 and the 2024 uprising in Bangladesh, a new revolutionary ferment has begun to spread around the world, gaining momentum with the uprising in Indonesia in August 2025 and the insurrection in Nepal in September. Since then, fierce protests have broken out in Peru, the Philippines, Madagascar, Morocco, and elsewhere. For more insight into the different forms that this wave of activity is assuming in different parts of the world, we spoke with two participants in the Gen Z 212 movement in Morocco.
\n\nFirst, who are we speaking with? Share whatever is safe to tell us about who you are, what you’re doing, and where you are positioned in Moroccan society and social movements.
\n\nWe are Yousra and Qamar, feminist activists based in Casablanca. Qamar is also starting a university teaching job and Yousra works at an office job in Kénitra. We are both invested in a feminist and queer network that spans the entire country. The network mainly acts as a series of bases for material solidarity and collective help, a platform of politicization and mobilization as well as advocacy.
\n\nWhile Qamar was active during the 2011 uprising, Yousra was a little young for that. In addition to participating in the organizing platform and the demonstrations, we currently work on getting legal and medical help during this insurrection.
\n\nBefore answering the rest of the questions, we want to make some disclaimers. This insurrection is very recent and anyone claiming to have a clear reading or analysis of what’s going on—even as close as we are to the events—is lying.
\n\nHow do you understand what is happening in Morocco right now? Can you give us some background on the uprising?
\n\nWhat is happening right now is the natural consequence of a series of catastrophic political decisions made by a system that is fundamentally against the people. For context, Morocco is a country with very intense class violence and differences, a moribund public sector (hospitals, schools, and other such institutions) and an impoverished middle class. On top of this, the biggest age group of the county is young people, and more than a third of us are unemployed. When you do find a job as a young person, it’s often a non-registered job, which does not grant you access to the very thin welfare system. Yet this country, under deep stress and with no public services, is supposed to host the 2025 African Cup and 2030 World Cup.
\n\nAs the chant goes, “You built stadiums and forgot the people of Al-Haouz.”
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/1.jpg\")
Camps in Morocco.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/2.jpg\")
Stadiums in Morocco.
\nA few things triggered the movement. First of all, as has been said many times, eight women died in Agadir during C-section operations in the same hospital in just one month. This led to the first demonstrations against the World Cup, demanding better health services. Then, there was the opening and flaunting of a new high-tech football stadium on the two-year anniversary of the Al-Haouz earthquake near Marrakech, where a lot of the victims who lost their houses are still living in tents and camps. That’s how much they don’t care. This clearly showed the priority of the state and while the people were shocked by these politics, the propaganda machines were yapping about certain cultural objects that they managed to classify as Moroccan at UNESCO. As if we cared about it! So we coined a new term for this chauvinistic fascist and aesthetic nationalism that refuses to see what’s going on in our country: “Zlayji,” in reference to the Zellige that they cared so much about.
\n\nFinally, there was the temporary liberation of the leader of the Rif Hirak movement of 2017, Nasser Zefzafi. He is the leader of the pacifist Riffi movement (the Riffi are the Amazigh of the north region, named for the Rif mountains) that demanded less exclusion and a better access to hospitals, education, and jobs. Nasser Zefzafi is currently serving 20 years in prison and refuses to sign documents to accept the Royal Grace, which would grant him freedom in exchange for “public apologies for inciting a separatist movement.” He was temporarily freed for his father’s funeral and people were very moved by his speech. Those of us from Gen Z were really young when the Rif movement happened, so when dozens of videos of the 2017 movement circulated, we understood that they were fighting for the same cause as us and decided to take inspiration from this movement. Today, we scream for the liberation of Zefzafi and all the Riffi protesters from every city in Morocco.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/5.jpg\")
The Rif movement in Morocco.
\nAnd when all seemed dark here, our screens started to fill with images, videos, and articles of the Nepal revolution. It’s safe to say that without Nepal, the Moroccan youth would not have risen up like we did. So when the first protest from the medical corps in Agadir erupted, people started to organize. That was two weeks before the first demonstrations of September 27-28.
\n\nWe started organizing mainly through Discord, which previously was used mostly for video games or to work on group projects for school or university. We also kept making videos and content on other platforms like TikTok and Instagram to get the people to join the Discord organizing platform. This offered anonymity and decentralization. I joined in the early days when the Discord was at just 1000 members; today, it’s more than 200,000. It was mostly started by disenfranchised young people, students, young adults who can’t find a job etc. to organize simultaneous demonstrations in all the cities and towns of the country. Before the demonstrations, we started talking in open debates about how to organize (centralized versus decentralized, pacifist versus “violent,” whether to create a quote-unquote organization or not) and inviting Moroccan journalists specialized in corruption as well as people who participated in 20 February (the name of the 2011 uprising in Morocco).
\n\nAs for the key demands, they have always been clear: better hospitals and education, the end of corruption and of the 2030 World Cup, more jobs, and the fall of our government and rich elites. It is important to note that the current prime minister is one of the richest men in Morocco. He is a billionaire (in US dollars) and is responsible for escalating the water crisis in our country when he introduced a plan to… plant watermelon and avocados in the desert. Many rural areas do not have access to clean water, but the plan has not been reformed and readers in France or Spain can eat these watermelons and avocados whenever they please.
\n\nAlthough the demand for the fall of the government was always present, it became more and more important as the repression got more intense. From the first days, dozens and then hundreds of innocent and pacifist people were taken to preventive detention, including even parents with kids. We were beaten up with insane violence and hatred; some women had their hijabs forcibly removed. On the fourth day, the police ran over people in Oujda, leaving a young man in critical condition. The next day, in Agadir, people were shot with real bullets, including minors. There were three martyrs and a dozen wounded just from the bullets. In Marrakech, they came out with tanks and took almost half the young people in the city to preventive detention. Some were released, but some are still awaiting trial, facing the threat of up to 20 years in prison. All of this is justified by the state’s propaganda machines in the absence of a free press.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/6.jpg\")
Photograph by Yassine Toumi.
\nWhat are the different forces that contend within and against the movement?
\n\nThe forces inside the movement are varied. It’s mostly disenfranchised young people, but also people who are disappointed not only in all the political parties but also all of the organizations and associations. The mobilization is mainly driven by informal networks. As it is a large-scale movement, these are competing in every context, regarding cultural conservatism, for instance, or collaboration with other organizations or parties, but everything is discussed in the Discord. The most conservative side is not winning, for now, though, due to the government’s ridiculous attempts to redirect attention to the “promotion of homosexuality,” which did not work.
\n\nWe expected support from the ultras (the football fan groups who are often perceived as the voice of the people) in particular, but unfortunately, they did not turn out in large numbers. As for the political parties, several left-wing and Islamist parties attempted to ride the wave by giving tons of interviews and drawing a lot of attention to themselves during the demonstrations. This was very poorly received by the Genz212 group, who saw it as an attempt to hijack the movement—especially since afterwards, they all made a big deal out of a few burned cars and said very little about the victims on the demonstrators’ side. The young people of Adl w al ihsan (a peaceful Salafist group that is very active in support of Palestine) also started marching with us (especially in Marrakech and Tangier, for example), but again, this frightened many people, as they are in negotiations with the state to become an official party, and we were still afraid of being used. The recent national demonstrations on the two-year anniversary of the operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” took place with the people and collective leading the march; these were an opportunity to make our movement better understood by the other groups that mobilized.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/3.jpg\")
State forces repressing the nationwide demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine this year.
\nA lot of people have asked about the role of the king of Morocco in these events. One reason for the immediate and blind violence of the state could be that the royal transition will take place soon and they intend to crown a prince who is not even 23 years old. This period is extremely scary and fragile for the regime.
\n\nThe national motto of Morocco might be “Allah, the Country, the King,” but the importance of these terms in the eyes of the state is reversed. The biggest taboos in Morocco are 1) the king 2) the country (i.e., the issue of Western Sahara) 3) the religion. The organizing platform has offered a way to talk about all these issues without getting kicked out. The movement is not against the monarchy but allows itself to criticize and ridicule the king and his powers, which is unacceptable in the eyes of the state.
\n\nWhen our numbers exploded and we were faced with police repression, those structural questions were naturally relegated outside the main group chats. After the massive propaganda we faced justifying the actions of the police, people were quick to defend the movement and to remind the public that we went into the streets to demand basic rights, not regime change. Due to fear, our numbers dropped and some demonstrators asked for the king to intervene to get rid of the government and stop the madness. But at that time, people in the streets keep refusing to sing chants in his honor or pray for his healing as we have been asked to.
\n\nLast Friday, on October 10, the king made a speech but did not fire the government nor truly acknowledge the demonstrations. This is considered a temporary failure and we are currently regrouping to find other ways to be heard.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/9.jpg\")
A protest in solidarity with Palestine. Rabat, Morocco, October 5, 2025. Photograph by Issam Chorrib.
\nCan you describe how things stand with the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara right now?
\n\nThe majority of Sahrawi refugees live in Tindouf, in the Algerian Sahara, which is organized into camps according to the towns that the refugees are from. This is also the base of the Polisario Front. The Polisario Front is the principal political and military actor of the Sahrawi struggle; at the same time, it has received opposition and criticism from Sahrawi people since the beginning of the 2000s. It’s important to note that it did not grant security or a democratic framework in Tindouf.
\n\nThe 1991 ceasefire that ended the previous war was declared broken by the Polisario Front in November 2020 following a Moroccan military operation near the town of Guerguerat. This ceasefire granted control to Morocco over 80% of the territory and 20% to the Polisario. Since 2020, the Polisario Front occasionally claims to target Moroccan positions along the Berm. The reality is that Moroccan military drones frequently target the other 20%. Though claiming to target Polisario fighters, these drones often strike civilians from the population that was forced to flee to Tindouf.
\n\nAs far as this relates to our movement, one of the first subjects that we discussed was how the annexation of Sahara did not give us anything except more censorship and policing. The Moroccan side proposes an autonomy plan as part of the Constitution for the Sahara—but what law or Constitution are we talking about if police drive their cars over activists? We have also discussed the growing fear of a conflict. If they are beating us up now, will they really expect us to “defend the borders” if needed?
\n\nDemonstrations take place in the Sahara under intense police surveillance. This has been applauded by the Polisario Front without any real contact with the movement. Some media have also accused us of being in contact with them, which is obviously false.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/7.jpg\")
Photograph by Yassine Toumi.
\nCan you tell a story from your personal experience that captures the spirit of these protests?
\n\nThe stories are not joyful. We mostly demonstrate in Casablanca, one or two times in Rabat or Kénitra.
\n\nThe first days, it was mainly facing police brutality. I use the word police loosely; it includes all the repressive forces on the streets, such as the Royal Gendarmerie and the State Security Forces. I noticed that they have two main techniques: the first one is to charge to disperse any type of unity and then they come at us and start fighting us two on one or four on one, just like street fights but worse. We immediately started to think about friends and comrades being taken away. We knew that there would be repression, but not like this. Some comrades went in front of the Court of Justice to try to see the detainees and offer legal assistance—and they were detained as well.
\n\nThen there was the shock of seeing people being driven over or shot at and we started working to help out. After the three martyrs fell, they started reducing the police forces, except the ones dressed as civilians. Instead, they park the police in the rich neighborhoods and in front of the banks. People have used this opportunity to develop other tools, like boycotting and hacking.
\n\nWe have read about the “Gen Z 212 collective” in news reports. Could you share what you know about their background? What has their role been in the protests?
\n\nGen Z 212 is the platform and the name of our movement. It’s the name of the Discord. For protests, it acts as a catalyst, each city or town has chat rooms where we decide where the demonstrations should be. Recently, we have also been organizing to help the detainees and wounded. We vote on almost everything. And there are often check-ups on the admins.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/8.jpg\")
Photograph by Issam Chorrib.
\nHow much do participants in the movement in Morocco understand yourselves as part of a global movement? What tactics, ways of organizing, and aspirations have people in Morocco drawn on from movements in other parts of the world?
\n\nThe name Gen Z and the tactics (decentralized digital organizing, meme culture, decentralized calls to action, occupation and sit-in tactics) intentionally place Morocco’s movement in conversation with global youth uprisings (Indonesia, Peru, Nepal, Madagascar, etc.). Many times, we have referenced global solidarity and learned tactics such as rapid decentralized coordination, open-source secure communications, and symbolic direct action. What happened in Nepal enabled many young Moroccans to become conscious of what can be possible. To this day, we still make video clips connecting our demonstrations and the ones in Nepal. The global comparison helps with narrative framing and solidarity, but the movement’s lived demands are rooted in domestic social services, economic precarity, and accountability.
\n\nBefore this movement (and still today), we have been a little hesitant about considering “young people” as a political actor, as this erases class differences—that’s probably why it’s so popular among NGOs. But it remains true that the living conditions have been getting worse globally, and that the freedom of information and speech offered by the internet—the anonymity and resources it makes available—are possibly the strongest weapon of the century. It’s not as if this was not present before, namely in 2011, but today the relationship we have with it and our ways of engaging with it are different.
\n\nFinally, regarding the Moroccan context—though this is something that echoes events in a lot of countries following decolonization—in the 1970s and ’80s, there were very powerful movements in the streets and radical leftist organizations, as well as riots due to famine. The response of the state under the previous king, Hassan II, was to put people in mass graves, large-scale secret prisons, and torture chambers. This left the previous generation in traumatic fear, so that the word “demonstrations” is worse than cursing Allah. We are the first generation that did not live under Hassan II or in the brutal period called “The Years of Lead.” It is vital to understand this in order to have a beginning of an analysis of what these demonstrations mean to the people of Morocco.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/10.jpg\")
Photograph by Mosa’ab Elshamy.
\nMorocco experienced protests in 2011 during the Arab Spring. Unlike in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, this did not lead to the fall of the regime. In 2018 and 2019, another wave of protests swept through the Arab world, beginning in Algeria and Sudan. How do the protests of 2011 and 2019 inform today’s events? What feels different about this wave?
\n\nThe Genz212 movement sees and portrays itself as the continuation of the 2017 Rif Movement, the 2011 February 20 uprising, and even makes some references to the demonstrations and riots under Hassan II, as well as the unions and student organizations such as Ila al Amam (i.e., Marxism-Leninism). One of the main reasons is that nothing has really changed since 2011; the freedom that was gained was stripped away. Either the participants agreed to work for the state or they eventually went to jail or exile.
\n\nThe Moroccan Arab Spring started by addressing the political issues of a repressive system while the Rif movement and our movement started by making demands regarding material conditions; now we are trying to formulate political criticism of the reasons we cannot have hospitals and schools. Some of the main differences are also the age of the participants and catalyzers of the movement, who are way younger in the Genz212 movement, not to mention a less moderated/regulated means of organizing.
\n\nWhat we always say is that, unlike the previous uprisings and previous generations, we won’t back down.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/4.jpg\")
The Arab Spring in Morocco.
\nEarlier this year, there were mass protests in Morocco in response to the genocide taking place in Gaza. There were also protests in rural villages earlier this summer. Were these part of the buildup of momentum that led to this uprising? How do they shape the situation?
\n\nThere were a lot of fragmented and localized protests in Morocco this year regarding working conditions, involving farmers, teachers, and doctors who were quickly repressed and dispersed. But these served as a build-up, a reason to mobilize, and a local mobilization force. As for the Gaza solidarity mobilizations and actions like the port blockades or boycotts earlier in 2025, these built organizational knowledge, networks of mobilizers, and trust between activists, students, and certain unions. For example, port workers were on strike for a few days during our mobilization. Those actions also normalized large gatherings, direct action, and people documenting large protests that were ignored by the official media, as well as strengthening the infrastructure of free legal support.
\n\nWhat would victory look like?
\n\nIn the short term, victory would be the fall of our government, accountability for the criminal police/auxiliary forces/royal gendarmerie, cancelling the 2030 World Cup and allocating its budget for hospitals, schools and the salaries of the workers in those institutions, and finally, breaking the normalization ties with the Zionist State. These are our urgent demands.
\n\nIn the long term, because we know it’s not that easy, it would mean dismantling the system that produced this situation and compelled more than a quarter of the population to flee the country even in the absence of an active war.
\n\nIt would be the end of a monarchy that maintains the right of life and death over the people and a monopoly on dozens of sectors of our economy, while lavishing in the world’s most beautiful palaces.
\n\nIt would be the self-determination of the people, starting with our brothers and sisters in the Sahara—and putting an end to the obviously fabricated rivalry with Algeria, which just serves as a means to control and oppress both peoples, who were always one.
\n\nIt would be the end of a racist neocolonial system that grants everything to white foreigners and subjects the people of West Africa to racial profiling and marginalization. It would mean the end of collaboration with the West and other foreign empires in their crimes.
\n\nIt would be the end of a surveillance system that knows everything about everybody and makes us live in fear.
\n\nIt would be true and transparent accountability, justice, and compensation regarding the crimes against humanities committed under this rule and the previous king, Hassan II.
\n\nIt would be the end of an economic system based on patronage and affinity among the elites, in which a few have huge monopolies on our economy while the rest of us work for them and reimburse them whenever we buy milk, sugar or gas.
\n\nIt would be the end of this system that we call “makhzen.” It would be a place where people truly have dignity and freedom.
\n\nI guess it would be another country, the one we deserve.
\n\nWhat can people outside of Morocco do to support anti-authoritarian activists there?
\n\nFor anyone in Europe, it’s important to know that historically, after all movements and insurrections in Morocco, there are huge waves of exile, no matter the outcome. The state opens the borders to get rid of those who are considers undesirable and people flee mostly to Europe. They did this after the 2017 Rif movement, for example. One way you can help is to fight fascism where you are and to organize with people who arrive without papers so that they can arrive safely.
\n\nBesides that:
\n\nBOYCOTT THE 2025 AFRICAN CUP
\nBOYCOTT THE 2030 WORLD CUP
These events have the blood of our comrades all over them.
\n\nBOYCOTT TOURISM IN MOROCCO
\n\nAnd empower the voices of the protesters here and of our allies in the diaspora who have more room to speak up.
\n\nHere is a fundraiser for Amine Bousada, a young Moroccan injured in the Oujda protest.
\n\nThank you! ✊
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/10/13/11.jpg\")
Photograph by Mosa’ab Elshamy.
\nTo conclude, can you recommend sources for people to learn more about the movement?
\n\nYou can view the Gen Z 212 Discord here.
\n\nYou can also consult the YouTube channel of the Discord to listen to some of our previous discussions and reviews of our actions, as well as conversations with independent journalists about corruption, past revolts in our country, and (more often than not) time in prison or exile. To begin, I recommend listening to our discussions without guests, and for the guests, start with Aboubakr AlJamai.
\n\nHere, you can listen to one of the rare independent podcasts on Moroccan activism, past revolts, autonomous and grassroots politics, and the like that doesn’t just repeat regime propaganda.
\n\n“Moroccan Youth” was a telegram group that wanted to start a movement a few weeks before Gen Z 212, but we were risking jail and did not pursue it. A lot of these young people were quick to join the movement. They have been a bit too strict on the issue of pacifism for my taste; ideologies aside, the riots can legitimately be considered self-defense, both in the current movement and in the history of Moroccan revolts as well. But they have been doing a great job covering the movement with some publications in English.
\n\nThis is a page that mainly posts on water issues, one of the best sources on the topic. Recently, they have also been posting about the movement and the socio-economic roots of our demands. Very educational, and it’s in both Arabic and English. You can find another source on the same subject here.
\n\nThis page posted the video and photos of the police shooting that killed three innocent young Moroccans. It usually focuses on the issue of Moroccans and others fleeing the country.
\n\nFinally, we recommend this documentary about a revolutionary Sahrawi singer.
\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2023/06/21/we-are-not-martyrs-a-message-from-serge-who-survived-attempted-murder-at-the-hands-of-french-police", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2023/06/21/we-are-not-martyrs-a-message-from-serge-who-survived-attempted-murder-at-the-hands-of-french-police", "title": "\"We're Not Martyrs\" : A message from Serge, Who Survived Attempted Murder at the Hands of the French Police", "summary": "A message from Serge, who narrowly survived attempted murder at the hands of French police.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/06/21/header-b.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/06/21/header-b.jpg", "date_published": "2023-06-21T15:01:51Z", "date_modified": "2024-09-10T03:55:57Z", "tags": [ "France", "protest" ], "content_html": "Below, we present a translation of the first message from Serge since French police seriously injured him along with many other people during a protest in Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023. Serge spent a month in a coma after a policeman shot a grenade at his head. We have been following his situation with anxiety and it is with great relief that we report that he has recovered enough to post this message.
\n\nWe are grateful that Serge remains among the living, just as we give thanks that the Italian anarchist Alfredo Cospito miraculously survived after more than 180 days of hunger strike against the solitary confinement regime of the Italian prison system. It’s heartening to see that the margin between life and death is sometimes a little wider than it appears, especially we have recently lost so many comrades. A little good news makes it easier to keep going.
\n\nYesterday, French police arrested 18 people accused of connection to the Soulevements de la Terre (“Earth Uprising”), one of the movements that took part in the protests in Sainte-Soline. The dissolution of the Soulevements de la Terre, declared by the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is scheduled to take place today. As usual, the state endangers the lives of those it claims to protect, blames the victims of its attacks, and then takes steps to silence the survivors.
\n\nYou can learn more about the Soulevements and how to support them in the face of state repression here. You can read more about the clashes in Sainte-Soline here. To learn more about the social movement that erupted in France over the past few months in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular efforts to force French workers to work longer hours before retiring, start here.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/06/21/2-b.jpg\")
Sainte-Soline, March 25, 2023.
\nHello everyone,
\n\nMy name is Serge and I was seriously injured, like many others, at the demonstration against the Sainte-Soline mega-basin on March 25, 2023. I was hit in the head by a grenade, probably a direct shot fired by a police officer equipped with a Cougar grenade launcher. I suffered a serious head injury which put me in an absolutely critical condition, a situation made worse by the fact that emergency services were unable to care for me during the demonstration. After a month in an induced coma and six weeks spent in intensive care, I was first transferred to a neurosurgery unit, and then to a rehabilitation center. Right now, I feel that I have made enormous progress in my ability to move, eat, and simply talk and think. It’s going to be an extremely long road, but I’m determined to give it everything I have, to fight to get back what I once had, both physically and mentally. Of course, I’m doing it for myself, but also because I believe that refusing to give in, refusing to be crushed by the repressive machine, is a political necessity at a time when the states are betting on using terror and on us remaining passive.
\n\nFirst of all, I would like to thank all those who, in that minefield, carried me, held my hand, protected me, gave me first aid (slowing the bleeding, cardiac massage, intubation, etc.) and quite simply enabled me to stay alive. I would also like to thank the caregivers who, at every stage, took care of me and are still helping me today to regain my body and mind. I can only tell you how good I felt when I came out of my coma and saw the tremendous solidarity that people have expressed: assemblies, texts, tags, donations, shows, actions, and various messages from comrades all over the world. The echo of your voices and the roar of the streets helped me and my loved ones to keep going. For all this, I say to all of you a big thank you. You have been amazing.
\n\nAll this reminds us that it is vital that no beating, no incarceration, no mutilation, no murder by the forces of capitalist social order should go unnoticed. They mutilate and murder people so often that it is no accident, it’s part of their job. Far too many stories around the world remind us that there’s no truer statement than the formula “ACAB.” All cops are indeed bastards. They are and will remain the minions of the bourgeoisie whose interests they protect and ensure along with, at least until now, their continuing survive.
\n\nThe only prospect that the capitalist class offers us is the deterioration of our living conditions on a massive scale, and all proletarians here and abroad are currently experiencing this bitter reality. Confronting the struggles we are waging to thwart this disastrous destiny, they have clearly chosen to drastically increase repression, both through new repressive laws and by giving carte blanche to law enforcement, as seen in Sainte-Soline. We must take note of this, and collectively promote the idea that it is out of the question to take part in a struggle without effective protection and the capacity to resist. We are not martyrs.
\n\nNevertheless, our strength has little to do with what happens on the battlefield. Our strength is in our numbers, in our place in society and the better world we aspire to. Against the handful of organizations of leaders and bureaucrats who would like to send us home once they have earned their place in the sun on our backs, we need a thousand ways of organizing ourselves at a grassroots level through and for concrete solidarity, for the comrades in the movement but also, and perhaps above all, for all those who will join future revolutionary movements.
\n\nStrength to comrades currently in the sights of the states!
\n\nLong live the Revolution!
\n\nSee you soon in the fights.
\n\nLe S
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/06/21/1-b.jpg\")
Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023.
\nFor another inspiring story of an anarchist who narrowly escaped death and fought hard to go through the recovery process in the teeth of repression, we recommend the prison letters of Luciano “Tortuga” Pitronello; You can listen to an interview with him on our Ex-Worker podcast here.
\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2021/07/22/cuban-anarchists-on-the-protests-of-july-11", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2021/07/22/cuban-anarchists-on-the-protests-of-july-11", "title": "Cuban Anarchists on the Protests of July 11", "summary": "Exploring the causes and implications of the July 11 protests, we present two interviews with anarchists and a statement from an anarchist initiative.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/header.jpg", "date_published": "2021-07-22T13:55:55Z", "date_modified": "2026-02-20T20:44:49Z", "tags": [ "cuba", "protest", "dictatorship", "fascism", "cooptation" ], "content_html": "To explore the causes and implications of the wave of protests that broke out in Cuba on July 11, we present two interviews with Cuban anarchists and a statement from an anarchist initiative in Cuba.
\n\nWe have heard a wide range of explanations for last week’s protests in Cuba. Right-wing proponents of capitalism blame the Cuban government, charging that the protests stem from the failures of one-party socialism. Self-proclaimed anti-imperialists blame the United States government, alleging that these protests indicate covert US intervention. Others blame US sanctions on Cuba, suggesting that these are chiefly to blame for creating the economic conditions that sparked the protests. Each of these narratives contains a grain of truth, but all fall short of grasping the whole.
\n\nHow do people in Cuba see the protests? If we do not wish to simply project our own assumptions onto the events, the first thing we should do is to ask Cubans how they understand what is happening. Of course, there are bound to be countless different perspectives among the participants in a popular protest movement—but we can begin by consulting those whose politics are similar to our own.
\n\nOne of the more visible Cuban anarchist groups is the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop (Taller Libertario Alfredo López), an anarchist, anti-authoritarian, and anti-capitalist initiative that emerged in 2012. They are part of the Anarchist Federation of the Caribbean and Central America and one of the participants in the ABRA Social Center and Libertarian Library.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/7.jpg\")
The ABRA Social Center and Libertarian Library.
\nAt the beginning of January 2021, well before the beginning of the recent protest movement, the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop published a statement spelling out their political positions. They began by expressing their opposition to the trade sanctions imposed by the United States:
\n\n\n\n\n1.) We denounce any embargo on the Cuban people, whether imposed from abroad or from within, by any states, United or otherwise. We radically support the full deployment of our people’s creative capacities—their self-organization, self-subsistence, and self-liberation—in a world that needs more solidarity and cooperation.
\n
Secondly, they expressed doubt that the sudden escalation of social unrest in Cuba would necessarily produce positive results when laborers and poor people lack structures for self-organization:
\n\n\n\n\n2.) We do not support provocations aimed towards a social explosion. This would be tragic in the current circumstances of organizational deterioration of the working classes and the most precarious segments of society.
\n
This position generated controversy—see, for example, this response by exiled Cuban anarchist Gustavo Rodríguez, who explores the reasons that anarchists might support a “social explosion” [explosión social] like the recent uprisings in Chile and Colombia.
\n\nNevertheless, four days ago, the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop published a statement affirming last week’s protests in Cuba. It is significant that an organization that has expressed skepticism about “provocations aimed towards a social explosion” has rejected the narrative that the protests are the result of manipulation:
\n\n\n\n\nTo make geopolitical arguments right now about the place of Cuba in imperial global strategy, to argue that the anti-government protests in Cuba are inevitably paid for by the Cuban right wing in Miami, that the protesters are simple criminals looking to loot, that the true revolutionaries are with the government—these are all arguments that describe a significant part of reality, but they miss it on one point. The people of Cuba have just as much right to protest as those of Colombia and Chile. What’s the difference? That they are oligarchies with different origins? With more or less brutal practices? More or less distinguishable camouflage? More or less servile postures towards the US government? More or less sublime ideas to justify their privileges?
\n
The point here is simple, but it is essential. Poor people in Cuba, like poor people everywhere, have the right to stand up for themselves. Who could know better than they do when it is necessary for them to act?
\n\n“If you protest, an even worse government will come to power.” This is a pretext that any government can employ to justify suppressing opposition—and practically every government has. If we legitimize this excuse, we are siding with a section of the ruling class against ordinary people like ourselves, denying that they know what is best for themselves. If we refuse to extend solidarity to the exploited and oppressed, they will inevitably gravitate to the right—as they have across the former Eastern Bloc. To abandon rank-and-file protesters in places like Cuba is to give the far right a golden recruiting opportunity.
\n\nWe should understand what is happening in Cuba in a global context. People are not simply protesting in one nation. People have been protesting in France, in Hong Kong, in Catalunya, in Lebanon, in Ecuador, in Chile, in the United States, in Belarus, in Russia, in Tunisia, in Brazil, in Colombia. Countless people in dramatically different geopolitical contexts, under dramatically different regimes, have been adopting similar tactics to express similar grievances. This suggests that what is going on here is deeper than the failures of the Cuban government or the manipulations of the US government.
\n\nThough the protests in Cuba were triggered by specific economic developments, we can identify a few common threads that connect practically all of the aforementioned examples. First, everywhere across the board, we see increasing wealth disparities and austerity measures—from the barefaced capitalism of the United States to the social-democratic countries of northern Europe to authoritarian socialist countries like China and Nicaragua. Second, at the same time that they are cutting social programs and protections, all of these governments are investing considerable resources in intensifying state violence and surveillance. Consequently, practically all of them are facing crises of legitimacy, whether those take the form of national independence struggles, populist movements, demands for “more democracy,” or bona fide horizontal social movements.
\n\nBoth austerity measures and intensified policing disproportionately impact the most oppressed and impoverished demographics in each country—from Black communities in the United States to southeast Asian guest workers in the Middle East—while galvanizing reactionaries who are anxious about losing their privileges. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this situation, dramatizing the gulfs between wealthy and poor, ruler and ruled.
\n\nSo what is happening in Cuba is not unique—and it is not just the result of government misconduct or intervention.1 When we see things this way, our responsibilities become clear.
\n\nIt is not within the power of anarchists to prop up authoritarian regimes from the 20th century, nor should we seek to. To tie our hopes to the receding prospects of a state project, associating our aspirations for liberation with its shortfalls, will only discredit us, the same way that the collapse of the USSR discredited socialism in Russia and the failures of Syriza paved the way for the far-right New Democracy party in Greece. We have to build a new generation of movements based in contemporary grassroots struggles, in order to grapple with the problems that capitalism poses on a global scale. Our responsibility is to the ordinary people in Cuba, not to those who rule them. We should make contact with those who are experimenting with principled forms of self-defense and self-determination in order to act in solidarity with them—under the regimes that prevail today and under whatever regimes may succeed those tomorrow.
\n\nIn that spirit, we invite you to read the following interview with Cuban anarchists about the events of the past week. You can also read the statement from the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop, “Cuba: The End of the Social Spell of the ‘Revolution,’” in full at the conclusion of the interview.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/1.jpg\")
Every pundit brings their prefabricated ideas to discussions about Cuba.
\nWe interviewed two Cuban anarchists. One is involved with the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop in Havana. The other is involved in projects outside Havana, elsewhere on the island; anarchists from the United States met her and her comrades in early 2019. Both remain anonymous for their safety. In translating these interviews from the original Spanish, we edited for length and clarity.
\n\nHow would you like to identify yourself and how you are situated in Cuban society?
\n\nAnarchist from outside Havana (hereafter, AOH): I am a working woman. I belong to two organizations, a workers’ union and an association of creative youth.
\n\nAnarchist from the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop (hereafter, ALLW): I’m an anarchist and I work with the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop. I am also a student at the University of Havana and I participate in several different projects and types of activism.
\n\nAs an anarchist, what have you been able to do there?
\n\nAOH: The anarchists here are small subcultures that are united. Everyone gets along and helps each other. As an anarchist, you can do a lot—whatever is necessary for the well-being of people in general.
\n\nALLW: I’ve mainly been involved in helping free the university students arrested during and after July 11. We were able to put together a group of students and alumni that sent a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Higher Education and put pressure on them to free those arrested as soon as possible. We haven’t been spared harassment and intimidation in this process, since in Cuba university reform ended up being taken over by the state, which dominates the university administration and student organization (the Federation of University Students, Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios, FEU) together with the Communist Party. In intimidating students out of organizing, the state has employed the same pretext used to discredit the protests: that we are confused.”
\n\nApart from my role in university circles, I’ve also done what I can to support the gestures of solidarity that have been taking place since before the protests to confront the health crisis gripping the country. These days, it’s one of the most relevant self-organized processes in Cuba, and our collective agrees that it’s important to participate in. Connecting this with other current movements will also be an important step towards overcoming conditional solidarity that ends up disappearing or being swallowed up by the state.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/4.jpg\")
An anarchist-organized guerrilla garden—part of the new phenomenon of environmentalism in Cuba, which carries an anti-authoritarian current within it. This garden was established on what used to be a neighborhood trash heap.
\nHow did the protests begin?
\n\nAOH: The hospitals are in bad shape; there isn’t enough medication and equipment for the doctors to do their jobs and, sadly, people are dying. If you can find groceries, they’re priced way too high to afford. It’s known that the US blockade exists and that this means that other countries can’t trade with Cuba, and that’s why things are scarce. In these conditions, it is necessary to accept any humanitarian aid for the good of the people. There was an aid shipment that wasn’t accepted. [More information here.]
\n\nThe protests began due to the failure of the hospitals in Matanzas and the lack of medication. Through social media, reports began to give spiritual strength to the province. Other provinces had the same problems, just less severe, and would soon find themselves in the same situation. It was an impulse, from this situation and others, that provoked an explosion from people, not simply on social media but out in the street.
\n\nThey were cutting off the electricity for six hours a day because a thermoelectric plant was having problems. On Sunday, July 11, through social media like Facebook, you could see the people who decided to take to the streets in the provinces calling out to the world for humanitarian aid to help with the situation on the island.
\n\nThe thermoelectric plant was fixed that same day so that all Cubans could have electricity in their houses.
\n\nALLW: The protests began outside of Havana, in areas scourged by the supply shortage, excessive quarantines, and blackouts lasting up to 12 hours. Added to the accumulated social discontent from the present crisis produced by the intensification of the US embargo and government mismanagement—the peak of which was the implementation of a series of measures at the beginning of the year that led to increased inflation and the growth of the black market—this meant that in a municipality like San Antonio, hundreds of people poured into the streets to express their discontent. After the impact of that demonstration on social media, other protests occurred in areas suffering similar problems. Around 4 pm, the demonstrations spread nationally.
\n\nWhat forms of organization and protest have you seen in and out of the streets?
\n\nALLW: The protest in San Antonio was very heterogeneous. As I understand it, one group started a caravan that passed through other towns while another group stayed in place, at one point coinciding with the Cuban president who was making his way there. They had a similar character in the rest of the country; reports say that up until 4 pm, all were peaceful. It was after Díaz-Canel’s communiqué, in which he called for his “revolutionaries” to confront the demonstrators, that harsh repression took place against peaceful marches, along with fierce clashes with the police. (The capital city had already felt the hand of the police around the Capitol building, the seat of the National Assembly, shortly before this).
\n\nBeyond this, there wasn’t much organization. All of the marches were spontaneous and ended up disoriented and easily dispersed. The Internet shutdown also reduced their visibility, while an immediate flood of (dis)information from the state proclaimed that the protests had ended in many places. Communication suffered a big hit during this whole process, since the only things getting through were the skewed news of the official media and lots of fake news spread through messaging apps. This contributed significantly to the reduction of tensions, but the return of the Internet and the publication of testimonials about repression haven’t permitted a complete return to normality. These days, the major organizing spaces are focused on the struggle to free those arrested—more than 500 people, according to some lists.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/5.jpg\")
An anarchist infoshop in Cuba.
\nWhat is your analysis of the protest movement? What social and political tendencies are involved in it? How much of the population supports it?
\n\nAOH: There are several different generations in Cuba, including those who lived through the period of capitalism, suffered the consequences of [Fulgencio] Batista’s administration, and helped make the revolution so that we could have free healthcare and education. Thanks to this, they learned to read and write. That portion of the population supports [the government].
\n\nThen there’s the younger generation, those who have internet and value “living decently”—we’re not talking about luxuries, just the desire that with a job you could have adequate nutrition, because at the Cuban table it’s difficult to get breakfast with milk, lunch with an egg, and, let’s say, dinner with a small piece of meat or vegetables. This generation is accustomed to salaries that barely pay enough for a week’s expenses. They raised the salaries recently, but with the scarcity, the price of everything has shot up and basic necessities are impossible to afford. The only place you can get groceries or cleaning products, home appliances, and the like is in stores that only accept cards with dollars on them, which have to be sent from other countries because Cuba doesn’t sell them.
\n\nALLW: The demonstrations were a social explosion, without a doubt. The crisis and the tensions generated by precarity and the collapse of the health system brought it about. Now, it wasn’t a generalized explosion across all social strata. Beyond the areas where significant portions of the towns were involved, the poorest sectors of the population carried out the majority of the protests. The classist bias with which the state and its defenders have approached the issue is evident in the criticism of the protesters and their violence. Social inequality has been growing in Cuba for decades now, and the state has played with this dynamic to make alliances and secure loyalties. In this case, there’s been a clash between the most disadvantaged and most privileged sectors. This conflict has been reflected even in the discourse of the segments of the left that are most loyal to the state. The demonstrations have been made to look like criminal actions (orchestrated from the United States), ignoring the classist foundation here.
\n\nIt would be difficult to define a political tendency in the demonstrations (beyond the liberal slogans). The people went out to put an end to their precarious situation—that was really their hope, with no compass beyond the street as a space to amplify their demands.
\n\nIn terms of support for the protests, I wouldn’t venture to guess a percentage. But definitely since July 11, people won’t stop talking about what happened…
\n\nHow much of the population supports the government against the protests? What social and political tendencies are involved in supporting the state?
\n\nALLW: There’s definitely a large portion that supports the government. This sector is mainly made up of people who are less poor and are privileged by their integration into the system. These were the “revolutionaries” called on by Díaz-Canel on July 11.
\n\nThe old ideological apparatus of the Party is evident in support for the government. This isn’t necessarily integrated into the real, hidden power behind the state, headed by Arturo López-Callejas, a military officer and the president of GAESA [Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA, the Cuban business conglomerate owned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces], which is the largest economic conglomerate in the country. It is the leftist circles that for years have tried to climb the ladders of power with a lukewarm critique of bureaucracy and a fierce critique of dissidents, and a great part of the Latin American and international left that has sided with the false anti-imperialist discourse of the state. All of this being broadcast on official media—which are more available now due to the lack of Internet—has perhaps tilted things slightly towards the side of the state. But to reiterate, it’s difficult in this moment to assume a balance of power. In truth, given the objective situation of the country, another rupture could occur sooner rather than later, and these months or weeks will better define the character it takes.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/6.jpg\")
History stands still for no one—but we can choose to keep up with it if we wish.
\nHow seriously do you take the accusation that the protests are coordinated by forces associated with the United States government? Who do you think stands to benefit most from the protests?
\n\nAOH: I don’t think that the protests are associated with the US government. No one who took to the streets was paid by any institution; they went out to ask for help. Many aren’t criminals or marginalized people; they are workers and students.
\n\nI disagree with the attitude of the police. They can’t just mistreat someone because of a difference of opinion. There must be freedom of expression and there must not be a military intervention: that is war. I also disagree with the president, who called for combat, because there must not be a civil war.
\n\n[In the past], groups from other countries have tried to topple the government by paying people in Cuba. But what’s happening now isn’t like that. It was an impulse towards rapid support for the common good in this country.
\n\nALLW: North American interference is already an old story here. Long before the victory of the Revolution, the importance that the United States placed on Cuba was well known. Since the 1990s, especially, they have developed a subversive plan that had already been used in other parts of the world. The implementation of this plan has increased in the last few years, but it has failed repeatedly and stimulated a national debate on the political future of the country. To say now that this policy of the United States towards Cuba produced the social explosion is to disregard the fact that the reasons for which people took to the streets have more to do with the bureaucracy’s horrible mismanagement of the crisis and the tremendous increase in precarity that its policies have provoked. The people have also seen the broad incoherence between what is said in the official media and what happens in reality, and this has also helped discredit the state.
\n\nFor the people, the interventionist policy of the United States has been nothing more than the irritating noise of a mosquito in their ears, in comparison to the constant hammering of the state’s nonsense.
\n\nOf course, as anarchists, we reject such an imperialist policy towards our country, but it’s not where we place responsibility for the national situation.
\n\nMany are describing these protests as the largest anti-government mobilizations in 30 years. Do these protests seem to follow in a similar thread, or are they different?
\n\nALLW: This explosion has definitely been historic. I don’t know of anything on par since 1959. The difference is marked by several elements: first, the repeat of a situation like the 1990s crisis, but without the hegemony embodied by a personality like Fidel Castro or the same capacities for solidarity as years ago, now all spent by the state’s cooptation of multiple initiatives. Second, a national reality made more visible by the Internet helped the news of successive protests to overcome the fear that had penetrated the demonstrations. The third element is the erosion of the social pact and the project of the “Revolution,” which was unprecedented until now.
\n\nAny concluding thoughts?
\n\nAOH: To conclude… to use an expression and laugh one more time: We Cubans are like the dolphin: “Up to the neck in water and always laughing.”
\n\nA laughter that has been fading away from the dolphins’ faces in a sea turned to gray, without the blue-green of hope.
\n\nA song that I wrote:
\n\n“MIEDO”
Desde que nací,
\nEstoy escuchando algo,
\nAlgo que susurra y nadie hablando,
\nShhh las paredes tienen oidos
\nShhh las paredes tienen oidos,
Miedo en la escuela,
\nMiedo en la casa,
\nMiedo en la calle
\nMiedo en el aire,
Yo quiero gritar
\nQuiero respirar
\nPero es imposible volver a soñar
\nEs un miedo que asfixia
\nEs un control social
\nDisturbio cerebral
\nShhh las paredes tienen oidos
\nShhh las paredes tienen oidos
\nOyeeé no te calles
\nOyeee no te calles
\nYo quiero gritar.…
Ever since I was born,
\nI’ve been listening to something,
\nSomething that whispers and no one is talking,
\nShhh the walls have ears
\nShhh the walls have ears,
Fear in the school,
\nFear in the house,
\nFear in the street
\nFear in the air,
I want to shout
\nI want to breathe
\nBut it’s impossible to dream again
\nIt’s a fear that suffocates you
\nIt’s social control
\nA riot in the brain
\nShhh the walls have ears
\nShhh the walls have ears
\nHeyyy don’t shut up
\nHeyyy don’t shut up
\nI want to shout………
Any band that wants to play this, do it, and each time you play it, say it’s for Cuba.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/3.jpg\")
The following text was published four days ago by the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop.
\n\nThe repressive social spell that kept a large portion of the dinosaurs of the international left pacified has vanished. Underneath the “Cuban Revolution,” and counter to its benign image, the “Cuban state” has emerged publicly, in all its repressive rawness and grandiloquence. The same Cuban state that, to confront Yankee imperialism, created an omnipresent political police force to combat the society under its control. The same Cuban state that, in the name of socialism, destroyed all the working-class organizations that, with their histories of struggle, would have made socialism’s declared victories into an everyday reality. That same Cuban state that has turned solidarity into an international brand identity while keeping us submerged in distrust and fear between neighbors. The same Cuban state that—in the middle of the intensified Yankee embargo—builds more hotels for foreign tourists than infrastructure to produce food, fruit, and milk. The same Cuban state that has produced the only vaccines against COVID-19 in Latin America, but makes its health personnel function essentially as unpaid members of the political police.
\n\nIn the recent days of July 2021, that Cuban state has shown what it really is: an oligarchy like any other, zealously maintaining its absolute power at any cost; a vulgar kleptocracy putting on enlightened, humanist airs; a pyramid of power as solid and out of proportion as the pyramids of the Egyptian theocracies, but surrounded by paradisaical beaches.
\n\nTo make geopolitical arguments right now about the place of Cuba in imperial global strategy, to argue that the anti-government protests in Cuba are inevitably paid for by the Cuban right wing in Miami, that the protesters are simple criminals looking to loot, that the true revolutionaries are with the government—these are all arguments that describe a significant part of reality, but they miss it on one point. The people of Cuba have just as much right to protest as those of Colombia and Chile. What’s the difference? That they are oligarchies with different origins? With more or less brutal practices? More or less distinguishable camouflage? More or less servile postures towards the US government? More or less sublime ideas to justify their privileges? All of these immense differences among the Colombian, Chilean, and Cuban oligarchies are reduced to zero when on a beautiful Sunday morning you discover that, in addition to the mafioso oligarchies in Colombia and Chile, the Cuban oligarchy is also—before an unarmed populace—armed to the teeth. A little more or a little less, to crush you and your brothers, your body and your mind, if it merely occurs to you to question the normality that they manage.
\n\nEverything the Cuban state has done to produce domestic vaccines against COVID-19, all the labor subsidies, all the wage increases it offered to many sectors in the middle of the pandemic—all of a sudden, these all evaporate, not just because of the inflationary spiral and endemic food shortage in Cuba, but also because it’s been made clear that it all formed part of the macabre framework of “repressive tolerance.” This is something that any decent person in Cuba can now discover, without needing to read any brilliant books on counterculture. We can serenely define those who would come now to sweeten that repressive tolerance in this country, and to raise the mirage of militarized harmony over it, as the new face of that which has no place in our future. Those who, in the name of a future democracy or the smooth functioning of the economy, come to discredit the affinities, fellowship, and energy that blossomed in the protests, or to reduce what happened on those days to “simple vandalism by social degenerates,” speak in the name and language of the decrepit oligarchies that once again shamelessly raise their voices in this country.
\n\nThe “masses” have once again become the “people,” with all of their light and shadows, by refusing to obey the heavy chains of control and instead trusting in affection, affinity, and the minimum capacities to think and act together that have reemerged in acts of disobedience and solidarity among equals, in the middle of the spiral of violence, the pandemic, and the supply shortage. This is the new reality that was born in Cuba during these days of July 2021, and it is this new reality, as anarchists in Cuba, of which we want to be a part.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/07/22/2.jpg\")
\nBoth neoliberal capitalism and the socialist administrations that answer to it leave all of us increasingly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of markets and global supply chains. In an agriculturally productive country like Cuba, a lack of affordable food is an absurdity produced by capitalism, mediated through a socialist government that has prioritized integration into the global economy over sustainable food production. ↩
\nAll around the world, as the compromises that stabilized capitalism through the 20th century collapse, people are facing increasingly authoritarian measures from governments of all stripes. In this context, it is essential for social movements in different settings to learn from each other, in order to develop a worldwide resistance to capitalism and the state structures that impose it. In this interview, two Iranian radicals explore what kinds of radical organizing and theorizing are taking place in Iran today in the context of recent protest movements and state repression.
\n\nThe photographs show contemporary political graffiti in Iran, courtesy of anarchist comrades in Tehran.
\n\nThis interview started as a conversation between a few comrades. What was originally intended as a conversation over the course of a few weeks became three months of stealing time in order to scramble to write down some thoughts while confronting state repression at the hands of the Iranian regime. Despite this delay, this interview’s main purpose has remained unchanged since the outset: to educate and update comrades in the global North on the current state of affairs in Iran, the years of struggle from 2015-2018 that culminated in a nationwide strike wave, how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected social movements, the ongoing effects of austerity measures and international sanctions, and the government’s response to both protest and increased geopolitical tensions ever since the United States withdrew its support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e., the “Iran Nuclear Deal”) in May 2018.
\n\nThe identities of the two comrades will remain anonymous in light of the threat of repression at the hands of the Iranian government.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/1.jpg\")
“Aban 98”—a reference to the November 2019 protests according to Persian calendar.
\nHere in the US, media coverage has been dominated by two events: the COVID-19 global pandemic and the recent anti-police uprising that broke out in response to the police killing of George Floyd on May 25. Considering that the US media provides little information regarding the day-to-day lives of Iranians and the cycle of struggles that have spread across the country in the recent years, it is safe to say that the American public and US leftists are largely in the dark as to what it means to live and struggle in Iran today. Could you begin by educating us on the composition and various currents within the Iranian left as it currently exists? How have various groups and organizations responded to the compounding effects of the economic, political, and epidemiological crises?
\n\nJ: Let me begin by commenting on your initial point, which is true of course. The suffering of daily life in Iran is underrepresented, not only in the US media, but in all the international media that has been hooked on Iranian news of secret explosions, nuclear controversies, military tensions with the US and its allies, etc. The grand politics is blind to that suffering; so is the mainstream media. And the situation has only gotten worse in recent months. The national currency is devaluing as fast as the cost of the essential goods and services are rising. Unemployment is widespread. The rate of suicides has increased. There is a shortage of medicine for different chronic illnesses. Housing prices have skyrocketed. People in big cities, especially Tehran, have resorted to tragically “innovative” solutions for housing: living in temporary tents, living in basic shelter-like structures, renting the rooftops of other houses and apartments and setting up their tents there, living in their personal cars… According to official statistics, at least one third of the urban population is living in slums.
\n\nNow, let me come back to your question. To talk about leftist organizations in a “common sense” meaning is hard in the context of Iran. The Islamic Republic considers any sustainable oppositional collectivity a threat. Even if you are organized for watching movies, reading books, etc., there is a fair chance of being called for interrogation. Still, in such an atmosphere, we have seen a multiplication of efforts in organization among factory workers, teachers, nurses, truck drivers, railway workers, and other so-called essential workers. Moreover, the leftist student movement has reorganized itself in recent years and also created the most viral slogans of the recent protests. There is a women’s movement involving a wide range of political positions that has been suppressed heavily as it has asserted itself more forcefully in recent years. If we focus on a generic term like “leftist politics” in Iran, considering leftist here as inspired by various Marxist traditions, then we can point out four trends: syndicalism, left nationalism, anti-neoliberalism, and anti-imperialism. It is not the best categorization in many senses and there are intersections between these trends, but as I’ll explain further, it will serve our purpose to map the leftist politics in Iran.
\n\nThere are two trends of syndicalism among organized labor in Iran. Haft-Tappeh Sugar Cane Factory Workers Independent Syndicate is one notable example. The workers of Haft Tappeh industrial complex in the south of Iran, Khuzestan province, have organized themselves autonomously and fought a hard battle in recent years, with all their main organizers arrested and some forced to confess on national TV. Forced televised confessions have long served as a strategy of suppression in the Islamic Republic. However, their struggle against the privatization of the company and the corruption of the owners, managers, and officials still continues to this day. They have called for workers’ management of the factory and its resources. They also exemplify a grassroots, non-hierarchical, and autonomous organization. They elect the representatives of the syndicate, but the representatives do not decide on behalf of the workers and all the decisions regarding the management and owners’ propositions in negotiations with them are put before a form of worker’s general assembly to be discussed and accepted or rejected. Haft Tappeh syndicate is the embodiment of a syndicalism that is local and remains local, with an insistence of local, autonomous workers management.
\n\nAnother form of syndicalism is exemplified by the Free Trade Union of Iran. The leaders of this worker’s union have also all been arrested and prosecuted. They call for a countrywide union and independent organization of workers in each local context, but they have a more top-down organizational structure and do not focus primarily on local context.
\n\nLeft nationalism has also its different trends. Some are the heirs to the communist party line in the beginning of 1980s, ideologically close to the Soviets, but also supporting the Islamic Republic government (which intersects here with what I mentioned as anti-imperialism). These leftists focus on “national security” and “national interests” and defending the national integrity in the sense of borders. A part of them have problems with minorities’ movements, such as Kurds or Arabs, and sometimes brand them as “separatists.” Another part in the opposition would even work with right-wing opposition parties or royalists in order to form a “national” coalition against the Islamic Republic.
\n\nAnti-imperialism has been on the rise in recent years, in light of the tensions with the US and the probability of a war. But the anti-imperialist left now has two distinct lines: one that is defined solely by its anti-imperialism and one that has anti-imperialism as part of its discourse. While both are largely theoretical currents, the latter is mostly a form of contemporary critical theory and the former is a return of the mainstream communist discourse of the 1970s and ’80s, which would make a coalition with the Islamic Republic against American imperialism. Those anti-imperialists now defend the Islamic Republic and its interventions in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere. Not unlike the “official” communist party in Syria itself, which first backed Assad’s brutal performativization of endocolonialism [colonization of the interior of the country] and counterrevolution and lost many of their members to the waves of revolution. The ultra right-wing opposition, chiefly composed of royalists supporting the Trump administration and being supported by it, showcases this current of Iranian leftism in their propagandas to demonize the left as a whole.
\n\nAnti-neoliberalism is an umbrella term for another heterogeneous trend of leftist thought in Iran: from student activists who clearly call their struggle “against neoliberalism” and show solidarity with similar movements against neoliberal economic policies and governmentality in France and Lebanon and Chile, to fractions of the syndicalist left, to other groups and circles who mostly work in the field of contemporary theory, critical theory, and political economy.
\n\nThere are other forces that cannot be captured in my schematization of the Iranian left—the different forces among minority militants: Kurds, Arabs, Balochis, etc. We should also consider that there is a divide between a left more prone to action/praxis and a left more inclined to theory/writing (sometimes dubbed “cultural” Marxists1). Another divide comes about from the general perspective of these political positions regarding the question of the state: is retaking power and reimagining the state’s functionality necessary for an emancipatory politics or should any emancipatory political movement go beyond the question of the state and its hierarchical organization? There is also a general divide on this issue between the leftists inside Iran and outside Iran.
\n\nNow, there are instances of solidarity among some of these trends. One example was a statement that many leftists, from different political positions and standpoints, signed after the coronavirus crisis, calling for a redistribution of wealth, universal healthcare, freedom for political prisoners as well as other prisoners accused of non-violent crimes, social housing, special attention to slums, and so on.
\n\nWith a few individual exceptions, all the forces on the left oppose the US sanctions and its policy of regime change in Iran. Not because those forces do not want to topple down the theocratic regime, but because the American government has shown its support for the most neoliberal, right-wing, nationalist forces in the opposition and after all, no good comes of neo-colonial foreign interventions—as in the cases of West Asia and North Africa, for example.
\n\nJ-P: Of course, it is comprehensible that the media pay so much attention to significant events such as the pandemic or the anti-racist protests across the US. The problem, though, lies with the approach and their representation of these events. I believe you know well that the revolution will not be televised, not in the US, and certainly not in the Middle East. But that is not the issue here.
\n\nThe reason you feel that you are left in the dark and need educating on this matter, is partly due to the incoherent situation of various currents within the Iranian left. This dispersed condition could be considered as a strategy for survival, since any sort of articulation or mediation between these currents is interrupted by all means necessary. But it also presents an obstacle that the Iranian left has to overcome if it wants to make any sort of concrete change. Moreover, this situation implies that we too share the necessity of educating ourselves on this issue, and we are seeking answers to similar questions. Most importantly, this diffused condition makes it impossible to claim a true image of all the currents within the left, since each component will know better about their immediate field of action, and may neglect some other components. So, instead of making a detailed list, we need to start from the whole picture of the Iranian left. There is a huge gap between what the Iranian left actually is today, and the promising potential it bears for a radical change in the region.
\n\nIf you look at the actual position of the left today, you will recognize various intellectual and discursive improvements concerning issues such as gender, precarity, minorities, etc. But this has no actual effect on the outcome of so many crucial issues, from the coronavirus to sanctions, from the suppression of minorities to traditionally left issues such as minimum wage. There is no need to mention that we live and struggle in an overdetermined situation with so many domestic and foreign agents who, despite their divergent and differing interests, are ultimately integrated in their opposition to the left. So, it is inevitable that the left, lacking a sustainable organization or a tangible program, does not play a dominant role in immediate matters. But looking at the course of events, and in light of the multiple and compounding effects of different crises—from political legitimacy, to satisfying basic needs, from social issues to natural disasters such as earthquakes—and waking up to a new crisis every day, you will realize that none of those agents can present a coherent response to all these matters. The left, on the other hand, despite its organizational incoherency, is creating a discourse that could address our social, political, and cultural problems alike. This is the reason why our government is promoting a counterfeit leftist image of itself, commonly referred to as the “axis of resistance.” But that is such an important issue that we will discuss it separately.
\n\nAs for the composition and currents within the Iranian left, and as ill-fitting as it may seem, the categories that the government uses to classify these currents could be a revealing starting point about the dynamics within them. Not long ago, the intelligence services had three categories for all leftist activists. First, what they called the “workers’ left,” apparently referring to leftist currents among workers; then there was the “Marxist Left,” which mainly referred to organized activists usually associated with leftist parties; and finally, there was the “cultural left” sometimes referred to as the “new left,” which were the intellectuals, usually based in bigger cities, sometimes having connections with other components of civil movements. They had a clear conception of the potentials of these categories—and, of course, of how to suppress each of them.
\n\nBut since 2017, a change in the internal dynamics of these categories, combined with an increasing popularity of the left among other activists and progressive forces, has rendered this conception obsolete. Since then, the so-called cultural left has taken an active part in workers’ demonstrations, the so-called Marxist left has adopted new approaches towards “unorganized” masses, and the workers’ left is waging a new level of struggle relying on their comrades outside the workplace. Hence, the composition of the Iranian left is a work in progress, and it has yet so many new meanings to unfold. What can be said for certain is the old (self-) conception is irrelevant to the new path that the left has been making since 2017. Today, one can observe a strong leftist current in most of the organizations and affinity groups; among teachers, workers, students, women activists, intellectuals, etc. It seems that people are less obsessed with their identity as “left,” but leftist currents and tendencies are taking the initiative in many of these groups.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/2.jpg\")
“Bank accounts are full of blood.”
\nWhat was the outcome of the 2018 wave of strike actions that took place throughout the whole of Iran—involving the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane worker in the north, workers at National Steel of Ahvaz in the south, and the nation’s truck drivers, who organized three nationwide strikes? At the time, it seemed that this cycle of struggle was conditioned by two key factors, both of which have much to do with the question of the global flow of capital towards finance and liquidity (the twin indicators that capital has shifted away from production and toward circulation): the United States’ economic sanctions that resulted from its withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement in 2019 and the depression of the Rial on the global market. Would we be right in saying that these were key factors that led to the strike wave? And how has the situation in the country changed since then, especially with the compounding effects of the sanctions alongside the COVID-19 pandemic?
\n\nJ: The anti-Western discourse of the Islamic Republic should fool no one. From its Supreme Leader Khamenei to its president Rouhani, the regime supports the free market economy and a large-scale privatization plan that has been in play for decades. It is one of the largest in the region, beside Turkey, Pakistan, and recently, Saudi Arabia. The Iranian regime has always wanted to join the World Trade Organization and has followed the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) restructuring programs. The impact of such neoliberal policies is visible in “reforming” the healthcare system, the housing sector, the pension system, the de-subsidization of energy units, a strong move towards privatization through the stock exchange market, exponential growth of financial institutions and private banking, drafting austerity budgets, and massive lay-offs in formerly state-owned factories and large companies.
\n\nThis is the situation that served as the backdrop for the wave of strikes that you mention. This is a cycle of struggle that started around 2015 and saw an intensification of daily actions among the workers affected by those policies, the citizens that have been indebted or literally robbed by the new private financial institutions (which are connected to the Revolutionary Guards and went bankrupt in a few years), minorities and marginalized communities whose livelihood were endangered by anti-environmental development policies or simply negligence by the central government, and others. Reports had shown a daily average of six to eight local protests across the whole country during that period.
\n\nIt is true that the US sanctions contributed to the protests, but in an indirect way. The sanctions made daily life much harder and deprived the government of its financial resources. But as I said, the neoliberalization and gradual dismantling of the semi-welfare state that was established after the revolution should be seen as the main cause of the protests. As one famous slogan of the Aban protests formulated it: “Our enemy is here/they lie that it is in the US.”
\n\nNow, I mentioned the semi-welfare state that was established after the revolution… there is an important consideration here. Even if there was a kind of welfare system for ordinary citizens, it was like any other racialized state that did so at the expense of the minorities. Baloch, Arab, and Kurdish areas are much more underdeveloped, and the environmental issues resulting from unsustainable development in favor of the center are worse. The deep roots of identity-based (religious or ethnic) discriminations are another cause for social protests.
\n\nAs you rightly mentioned, the COVID-19 epidemic and its related economic challenges have intensified discontent. But the Iranian government, already in the midst of an economic crisis, reopened the economy much sooner than it had to, and the workers have had to work despite the coronavirus threat. This is another sign of the Iranian government’s neoliberal approach to social problems, in which it reduces all aspects of life to the exchange economy. However, the crisis has led to the intensification of protests from health workers and nurses, who were employed on 89-day contracts during pandemic without any recognizable benefits for such hard work.
\n\nRight now, protests are raging again in Iran. Haft-Tappeh workers are on their 78th day of strike, and their main demand is the cancellation of privatization, among other demands regarding wage and job security and health insurance. Additionally, some workers in oil fields have staged strikes. Factory workers in Tabriz, Arak, Mahshahr, and Asaluyeh, among others, railway workers in Tehran and Khorasan and Semnan, teachers and municipality workers and many others are protesting on a daily basis again. The left in Iran is careful to keep its distance from any American initiative against the Islamic Republic and it rightly rejects sanctions and any idea of foreign intervention. When a group from the royalist pro-Trump opposition began to voice support for the Haft-Tappeh struggle, the telegram channel of striking workers published a post rejecting their support, saying, “You are an agent of states, not a supporter of people.”
\n\nJ-P: Let me start answering this question with a popular meme that became viral before the new wave of sanctions. The first image was an old apparently underprivileged elderly man sitting on some stairs with a look of utmost despair. The caption read “before the nuclear deal.” Underneath was the exact same photo with the caption “after the nuclear deal.” Today, you can add the same photo with the caption “post-post-nuclear-deal.”
\n\nThe sanctions are not the root of the problem; they just intensify the situation. Privatization and the instructions of the IMF are the key factors that led to the strike wave. The policies started immediately after the war between Iran and Iraq (1988), and they have grown hand-in-hand with unimaginable corruption ever since. The problems in both of the companies that you mentioned (both are situated in the south of Iran) started after they were handed over to the private sector. The documents regarding how and under what conditions Haft Tapeh was handed over still remain confidential; today, as the new wave of strikes takes place in Haft Tapeh (and they have marched in the city of Shush for three months now), the workers had to stop the robber-baron owner from selling the equipment of the company. Some scholars like Mehrdad Vahabi call this the “predatory state” that coexisted with some capitalist aspects of our society.
\n\nSo the predatory state and so-called privatization, the key factors of working-class degradation, were going on before the sanctions and continued after them. The problem with sanctions is that they are aimed at the genuine potential of our society to make a radical change. They are designed to put the pressure on the masses—to render it even harder to organize—and they provide the best excuse for vast domestic repression and a suitable platform for the ever-increasing corruption of the robber barons.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/3.jpg\")
“Bread, work, freedom—fight until liberation.”
\nHow has the Iranian government responded to the pandemic? What effects have US sanctions had on the government’s response? And has the pandemic afforded the Iranian left new avenues of mobilization and new lines of alliance?
\n\nJ: As I briefly said in response to the previous question, the government policy was that exchange value is more important than the value of human life. But this is not at all unique to the Islamic government, just like the many flaws and cover-ups in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. To mention just a few, the government has hidden the real official statistics, as leaked documents have shown. The official yet unannounced death toll is three times greater than the statistics made public, and the number of the patients also nears the same ratio. The virus was already in Iran around the time Wuhan was quarantined in China, but because the government-organized demonstrations for the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution as well as the parliamentary election were ahead, they did not report it to the public, according to those leaked documents. At the same time, the government did not provide financial relief or assistance to citizens, nor did it provide necessary services to the mostly Afghan refugees and immigrants who lack proper documents.
\n\nThe US sanctions have had an effect on the response to COVID-19 in Iran. Washington says that the sanctions do not block medicine and medical equipment and other humanitarian imports. Technically, it is true. But their secondary sanctions on financial transactions with Iranian banks, their ruthless prosecution of the traders and the necessity to apply for exemption for “humanitarian” trade with Iran have made many exporters of medical equipment afraid of doing business with Iran. According to the US Treasury statistics, the number of applications for sanction exemption in the case of medical trade with Iran has decreased from 220 in the last quarter of 2016 (Obama’s last quarter) to only 36 cases in the first quarter of 2019, the last available data on the issue.
\n\nBut again, the difficulties resulting from the US sanctions should not blind us to the decades-long neoliberalization of Iranian economy, the cuts in the health care budget and the increases in the military budget, the commercialization of health care, the precaritization of essential workers, and the like. Regarding the last point in the question, I cannot give a definite answer. In the beginning of the epidemic, new collective and local initiatives emerged providing care and support. But the intensification of the crisis made them weaker. The pandemic in Iran, as in many other places in the world, has shed light on the structural violence caused by class-based inequalities, neoliberalization, and various forms of discrimination.
\n\nDoes this necessary translate into any sort of widespread social solidarity? Che Guevara says: “solidarity represents the affection of peoples” and Massumi describes such affective solidarity as a “belonging in becoming.” The situation in Iran, considering this point of view, does not translate into a mass revolutionary becoming, a widespread solidarity. Social divisions are heightened; the fragmentation of productive social forces, which Negri calls “making salami out of social flesh,” is overwhelming. And a revolutionary movement so powerful that it can bring all the differences towards a strategic struggle with the regime is yet to come.
\n\nJ-P: The government’s response to the pandemic was basically similar to other right-wing governments around the globe. At first, they were also in a state of surprise, denying the existence or later the significance of the pandemic. Later, they reorganized themselves to let the public deal with this problem on their own, and they even blamed the public for the pandemic. So, there was no official quarantine announced, since the government would have to take minimal responsibilities, and since then, they have only considered the needs of big businesses.
\n\nOur particular problems around this issue stems from two factors. One is the ideological elements that are vital to the power structure—for instance, these days we have the Moharram ceremony, a sort of carnival with no social distancing, and it was the government that decided to hold this ceremony. The other factor is the privatization of the health system and other forms of reproductive or care work, which makes collective self-care even more difficult.
\n\nThe sanctions are part of the negotiating process between the political and economic elite; they have no tangible effects on this issue. Moreover, with or without sanctions, the position of the public facing the pandemic would not improve. On the other hand, the left has undergone devastating burdens. As part of our vulnerable public, the left had to deal with the pandemic on its own (we lost a credible and influential icon, Fariborz Raees-Danna, to the virus); the economic pressure and unemployment has kept the Iranian left busy making ends meet, and this will only get worse; and the lack of coherent policies has made it impossible for the left and other progressive forces to hold meetings or even to meet each other indoors. So there have been no particular avenues or possibilities for the left, but the pandemic has escalated various gaps, most importantly between the government and the people.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/5.jpg\")
“Execution is premeditated state murder.”
\nIn your opinion, what are some of the major consequences of the February elections? If we understand the series of events correctly, there is a second round of voting that has been postponed till September due to the pandemic. In the interim, what do you see as some of the key factors that led to a favorable outcome for the “hardlined” or principalist faction? And what has been the response from the Left, whether parliamentary or extra-parliamentary?
\n\nJ: I mentioned that the Islamic Republic covered up the spread of virus in its early stage in order to do the parliamentary election; it was confirmed only the night before the polling. Why? Because the Guardian Council of the Constitution, a governmental body close to the Supreme Leader, made sure that conservatives would dominate the parliament by disqualifying even many “non-threatening” reformists, too. Conservatives won the election with the lowest participation rate in the history of the Islamic Republic. Now the head of the parliament is the former mayor of Tehran, a former Revolutionary Guard commander and former chief police, who has been accused of immense corruption but is very loyal to the Supreme Leader.
\n\nThe unified conservative parliament is one of the pieces of the puzzle in the “transition period,” referring to the selection of the next Supreme Leader. And the puzzle is a unified conservative government, homogeneous enough to ensure that the transition to the new Supreme Leader goes smoothly. The parliament, all the institutions of the so-called “republic,” and its representation apparatus are all defunct. The crisis in the Islamic Republic is no longer about “legitimacy”—it is a crisis at the roots of governmentality itself. One of the main slogans of the movements of the past three years was “Reformist, conservative—it is the endgame.” The slogan is an echo of similar slogans shouted at Syntagma Square in Athens or “Puerta del Sol” in Madrid or in the streets of Beirut regarding all parties and representatives: “All of you out.” So the left has not participated in the elections, and historically, it does not participate. There was a brief moment in 2016, in City Council Elections, that a kind of social democratic left formed a list and tried to get into the Council, but the conventional reformists won overwhelmingly and those leftists did not receive so many votes really.
\n\nAt this point, it might be instructive to explain the political forces in the Islamic Republic in order to be clear about all the terms we use here in an international context, because in post-revolutionary Iran they have a particular meaning.
\n\nThe Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) consolidated its power by violently suppressing both right-wing liberals and left-wing socialists and communists. However, up to Mohammad Khatami’s surprise win in the 1997 presidential elections, the main political tendencies in post-revolutionary Iran had been called “the Left” and “the Right.” The differences between these two political currents inside the Islamic Republic elite came to the forefront after the impeachment and subsequent escape of Abolhassan Banisadr, the first elected president.
\n\nThe right wing of the IRI consisted of traditional merchants (Bazaaris), traditional clergy, and opponents of land reforms and critics of state interventionism in the economy. The left wing of the Islamic Republic had the support of Ruhollah Khomeini in the first years of the revolution. They called for the redistribution of wealth through subsidies, direct distribution of essential goods, and implementing heavy regulations on the free markets. Both political wings supported Islamization, the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (Velayat-e-Faghih), and anti-imperialist discourses.
\n\nThe third parliament was controlled by the left. However, after Khomeini’s death and Khamenei’s ascent to supreme leadership as a right-winger, the left became weaker and weaker. The fourth and fifth parliaments were controlled by the right. After Khatami’s election in 1997, the duality between left and right was reformulated in another duality, reformists versus conservatives (or principalists). The past differences between left and right in terms of economic policies are no longer a dividing issue here, as many reformists and conservatives are now advocates of the free market, globalized trade, and privatization.
\n\nJ-P: The elections in Iran have always been systematically unfair. In this context, only national elections (such as presidential elections) could make a slight difference. These elections used to be a medium to solve or postpone internal disagreements and contradictions within the ruling class by referring the matter to the public (usually mobilizing their dissent and rage against a group of political elites). Although this process used to be designed and engineered carefully, it still provided some semblance of political expression for our civil society.
\n\nThis mediatory process was annulled with the 2009 presidential election. On the one hand, the internal contradictions among the political and economic elite became so apparent that they could not fit even in an unfair election, and on the other hand, the internal gap was projected into a larger gap between the people and the government as a whole. Henceforth, the elections have been a series of attempts at healing the fracture, mostly within the ruling class, and sometimes with a select part of our civil society—namely, the urban middle class in the subsequent presidential election.
\n\nWithin this history, one could say that the February elections, by themselves, do not play a significant role and the second round will even be less significant. But they do mark a turning point in the integrity of the ruling political elite. Note that today, the so-called rivals in the previous presidential elections are the heads of the executive, judiciary, and legislative administrations. The February elections marked the ending point in this integration process—which does not mean that their internal conflict of interests is solved, of course. The heads of the three branches have already made extrajudicial decisions, one of which was the increase in petrol prices last November that resulted in an unprecedented national uprising and a bloodbath in which protesters were killed. The upcoming presidential elections will probably announce the indisputable annulment of any reference to the ballot box.
\n\nAs for the response of the left, I should remark that the terms parliamentary and extra-parliamentary do not apply to the Iranian left, since they are not recognized under any circumstances and since 1983 all left organizations have been considered illegal. But looking back at the December-January 2017 uprising, protestors forged a slogan that articulates the left’s stand on this issue: “Reformists and hardliners, your show is over!” This slogan, which became widely popular, indicated that the people are disinterested in the internal conflicts of the ruling elite. Of course, these conflicts, time and again, provide an opportunity for a political outlet of the people, but neither of the two factions represents the people’s interest.
\n\n![](\"https://crimethinc.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBcUFDIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--f5ebee2836cb7e5db144396d5d45071b084e0a08/against-all-wars-farsi_front_black_and_white.jpg\")
“Against all wars—against all governments—against all oppression”: a CrimethInc. poster translated by anarchists in Iran.
\nOver the past few months, images and articles have made the connection between policing here in the United States, in Hong Kong, and in Palestine. Has the news of the anti-police uprising here in the States encouraged or informed the strategy of the left, as it currently exists, in Iran? How has the Iranian government responded to, or reported on, the ongoing uprising here?
\n\nJ: Iran’s Radio and Television is under the exclusive control of the Supreme Leader and they always broadcast any kind of crisis, protest, and scandal in the US. The left were inspired to point out the same discrimination against Afghan immigrants in Iran and supported their “Afghan lives matter,” but this did not go beyond social media hashtags. The communication between the protest movements in the US and the Iranian left has been mostly an emotional one, not a transmission of tactics or strategies. The same goes for the protest movement in Hong Kong.
\n\nPalestine, however, is different. Traditionally, it holds a special status among the Iranian left. Many left guerrilla fighters against the Shah’s dictatorship were trained by the Palestinians or worked with organizations fighting for the cause of Palestine. Now, for a part of the people, supporting Palestine means supporting the Islamic Republic, as Tehran has financially supported Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Hamas after the revolution.
\n\nJ-P: Methods of policing, control, and repression are increasingly circulating among the ruling classes of the globe, just as protest tactics and news of uprisings are circulating and people are inspired and encouraged by other protests worldwide. I would venture to say that this twofold acceleration has certain connections with the ever-increasing flow of capital in the time of neoliberalism. But examining the responses of the Iranian government reveals a very crucial issue. Pro-government forces lit candles in the memory of George Floyd, while a few months back, lighting a candle for the victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was punished with up to five years of imprisonment. The pro-government media covered all the protests after the death of George Floyd, and they underlined the unjust and illegal killing of a citizen—while a few months back, in November 2019, the security forces killed thousands of protesters and even arrested the families who wanted to hold funerals for their loved ones.
\n\nI don’t intend to make oversimplified comparisons, but the international image of the Iranian government is deeply distorted, and the international left and progressive forces are partly responsible for that. The government has created a false anti-imperialist persona for itself, which is uncritically embraced by progressives who oppose the imperialist power of the US. I recall that part of our intellectuals are disappointed with a credible icon such as David Harvey, not because of his theory, but because he participated in an official conference which implicitly confirmed the anti-imperialist stand of the Iranian government. A similar story played out when Angela Davis signed a petition confirming this narrative about the government while people were being butchered on the streets. Of course, Angela Davis was so experienced in the intersections of various oppressions that she soon withdrew her name from the petition. The government’s international legitimacy strongly depends on promoting this false persona, and the progressive forces around the globe usually do not care enough to examine the details, prefering to embrace an easy ally against the imperial power of the US.
\n\nThis persona has a domestic projection, which I mentioned earlier as “the axis of resistance,” a current of workerist orthodox Marxists, who enjoy the freedom of speech and political practice (which is their unalienable basic right, of course, but their being granted it stands in stark contrast to all other leftist and progressive currents here). They are fearless fighters against an abstract conception of neoliberalism and imperialism, while remaining silent about the concrete measures of neoliberal policies inside Iran. Furthermore, they approve and promote the imperialistic interventions of Iran in the surrounding region, on the grounds that this means resisting the bigger imperialist. This complex propaganda machinery has compromised the solidarity our society would otherwise feel for oppressed people around the world. Nationalists take advantage of the situation by promoting slogans such as “Leave Gaza alone, think about our own people”—and the left finds it hard to take a genuine stand among these propaganda machines.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/7.jpg\")
“We will return to the streets.”
\nFor those of us in the US, America’s imperial presence throughout Latin America is a well-known fact. Iran’s presence in the region, however, gets less attention in the media. In light of General Salami’s recent remarks, defending Iran’s shipment of petrol commodities to Venezuela and celebrating the two countries’ continued alliance, how should we interpret Iran’s presence in Latin America? Would you say that it is part of a larger geopolitical strategy, or does this alliance between Venezuela and Iran come down to the simple fact that both countries have a mutual interest in alleviating the effects caused by US sanctions?
\n\nJ: I don’t have a comprehensive knowledge regarding this matter and I have not done much research on it. However, Iran has a presence in Latin America through its relations with Cuba and Venezuela and also its influence in the Shia community in Brazil and to a lesser extent, in Argentina. The right-wing populism of Ahmadinejad and the left-wing populism of Chavez are wielded together through their anti-Imperialist, anti-American discourse. And now, as you mentioned, both countries are under US sanctions and benefit from an alliance together.
\n\nJ-P: It is misleading to compare America’s presence throughout Latin America with the presence of Iran. But looking at the history of interactions between Latin American countries and their anti-imperialist allies (Cuba and the Soviet Union is an exemplary case), one could not identify a strategic alliance between Latin American populist governments and Iran. There has been no organic growth in the relationship even between Iran and Venezuela, and it is unlikely to occur due to the essential differences between the two parties. On the other hand, reducing the interactions to a set of measures alleviating the effects caused by US sanctions is also wrong. The significance of the international persona of the Iranian government exceeds these measures of mutual interest. Iran can only maintain the class oppression and domestic suppression by relying on the false anti-imperialist persona it presents on the global stage. On the other end, Venezuela, lacking a genuine ally, consents to this image of an international alliance which mainly serves to excuse its domestic problems.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/8.jpg\")
Graffiti in Tehran, 2020.
\nWhat does the future look like for Iranian leftists within Iran as well as for those living abroad, as political exiles or otherwise?
\n\nJ: I can only answer this question from a more personal perspective. So let me quote Kafka here: “Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung, nur nicht für uns.” (“There is an infinite amount of hope, but not for us.”) I think there is no hope for something. Any “something” that has come forth has also conditioned the hope, solidified it into an actuality that ought to be surpassed. I have come to believe that hopelessness in this meaning—affirming the disaster we are living through—may as well be the first step towards a radical politics: there is no space for keeping one’s hands “clean” anymore, there is nothing outside of neoliberal “integrated world capitalism,” to borrow a term from Antonio Negri and Félix Guattari. There is nonetheless hope for a hope: hope for a coming struggle that opens the space for hope.
\n\nJ-P: So far, we have been the No Future generation of Iranian leftists, both in Iran and abroad. For sure, many generations think of themselves as “No Future.” but I am not referring to general tendencies or abstract concepts. When you realize that your immediate history excludes any desirable future, you gradually learn to develop your roots in the present. You are forced to reject any mediatory stage, and only think of the best next step. Paradoxically, you will learn to live as if the future is unwritten; a situation similar to the slogan “Be realistic—demand the impossible.”
\n\nYet the potential of an unwritten future is projected on the present as a struggle for survival; we cannot survive without immediately and radically changing our conditions. That is why we need to develop our own politics of survival, new lines of alliance, new forms of self-organization and collective self-care. It seems boring, and far from the revolutionary self-conception of many Iranian leftists—especially those living abroad. But only then can the Iranian left translate its current potential into a concrete alternative—and its alternative would be widely accepted by the society, while the opposing forces would be incapable of terrorizing it.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/10/08/6.jpg\")
“Strangers everywhere.” A work by Claire Fontaine.
\nWith respect to the term “cultural Marxist,” it is important to note here the differences in connotation and meaning between the ways that the term is used in the United States and how it is used in Iran. While in the United States, the expression evokes the conspiratorial myth of the ascendency of a shadow Judeo-Bolshevism behind liberal democratic governments, seeking to render impure the white, European, race; in Iran, “cultural Marxist” is a pejorative term used to describe radical academics who are more comfortable as “public intellectuals” and invest more time in speaking engagements and the written text than in the practical exigencies of concrete struggles on the ground. ↩
\nWe’ve reached the first plateau of the Trump era. Round one is over and we’re still in the fight. With so much happening so fast, it can be hard to step back and get enough perspective to keep ahead of events. Let’s review the events of the past month and get a sense of where we are, so we can strategize for what comes next.
\n\nThe Trump era began with blockades and confrontational demonstrations in Washington, DC and around the country. Footage of white nationalist Richard Spencer being punched by a person in black bloc attire made antifascists popular even with television stars, though the shooting of a Seattle antifascist by a supporter of Milo Yiannopoulos ended the day on an ominous note. The Women’s March the next day saw some of the biggest crowds in protest history.
\n\nHere, at the outset, we encounter the fundamental tension between quality and quantity that has marked all resistance to Trump. On the one side, we see fierce and courageous rebels who are not numerous enough to avoid being isolated and repressed; on the other, we see truly massive numbers of people limited by their narrow tactical repertoire and naïve faith in existing institutions. Everyone invested in real social change should recognize how important it is for these two social bodies to cross-pollinate.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/23/portland.jpg\")
Even Portland, OR was uncontrollable on the night of the presidential election.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/23/limo.jpg\")
Washington, DC celebrated the inauguration in style.
\nUnfazed by this one-two punch, Trump presented a string of executive orders aimed at forcing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, stepping up deportations, and banning people from seven countries—essentially declaring war on the part of the US population that opposed his Presidency. This was a make-or-break moment, and people rose to it, shutting down airports around the country the weekend of January 28-29. These blockades were complemented by a taxi strike and demonstrations in several major cities.
\n\n\n\n\n“We will repel bullies. We will shelter freaks and outcasts; those who have no home. We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters… And when we are lost amidst the hypocrisy and casual violence of certain individuals and institutions… we will… punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak and the disenfranchised and the marginalized. And we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy.” \n-David K. Harbour
\n
Three days later, courageous demonstrators shut down Milo’s speaking event at the University of California at Berkeley. Anarchists saw this as a victory for direct action, while liberals wrung their hands and Milo’s fans congratulated themselves that the “tolerant left” were falling into a trap, discrediting themselves. Trump himself took notice with a series of tweets about “professional anarchists” and “violence,” while the New York Times dedicated a front-page article to the spread of anarchist anti-fascism.
\n\nIn this context of escalation, the stakes are double or nothing: either direct action tactics will spread to the population at large, enabling all the different demographics targeted by the government to defend themselves, or they will remain confined to a small minority that the authorities can use as an excuse to crack down on everyone. Standing aside “peacefully” in hopes of being left alone is no longer an option.
\n\nAfter these first two tempestuous weeks, concluding with the Bodega strike of February 2, the pace and scale of street protests subsided a bit as the spotlight shifted to the halls of power—where real fractures within the ruling class were appearing. February has seen much of the corporate media turn decisively against the Trump administration, evidence of rebellion within the White House, turmoil on the National Security Council as Michael Flynn was forced to resign in disgrace and Trump’s first choice to replace him refused the job, and the definitive judicial defeat of the first version of the Muslim Ban.
\n\nDoubtless, much of this was galvanized by the grassroots resistance of the first two weeks. By showing that the US will be ungovernable under Trump, demonstrators made it impossible for bureaucrats and pundits to line up behind the President for the sake of preserving order.
\n\nThese divisions now extend all the way into Trump’s party. Milo’s sordid demise on February 20-21 illustrates this adequately enough. The Republican Party that swept into power behind Trump was based on a tenuous alliance between traditional conservatives and a new generation of nationalistic racists like Milo. Milo sold himself to white nationalists and authoritarians on the basis of his status as a (barely) oppressed person willing to speak in favor of oppression; like so many others who have struck that Faustian deal, he learned the hard way that he was not the one calling the shots. While he is implicated in his own downfall, it was anarchists who forced the issue, compelling Trump and the Conservative Political Action Conference to embrace and then repudiate him.
\n\nWithout spokespeople like Milo, the Republican Party will lose everything that gave it a modern edge. And although Milo and other stooges of Steve Bannon doubtless hope that their explicitly racist nationalism will be the successor to Trump’s populism, allegations of promoting pedophilia do not make a good point of departure for a new far-right party.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/23/seattle.jpg\")
Crowds shut down Seatac on January 28 and 29 in response to Trump’s immigration ban.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/23/milo-protest.jpg\")
Protestors declare war on Milo at UC Berkeley on February 1.
\nIn short, a burst of grassroots resistance at the opening of Trump’s term has helped to discredit his Presidency and split his support base. This is the context in which Trump and his cronies are seeking to take his message back to the streets, starting with the rally in Florida and hoping to continue with events around the country on March 4. They desperately need to mobilize street-level support in order to rally Republican politicians to remain loyal to them and to build the grassroots momentum necessary to implement their fascistic agenda.
\n\nAlthough the resistance has made a good showing thus far, it is still entirely possible that Trump and his cronies will succeed in pulling off their plan. Escalating ICE raids around the country attest to the danger threatening millions. As this goes to press, Standing Rock is being evicted, showing that apparent victories under Obama were really just temporary compromises. The following months will be decisive in determining whether Trump can consolidate power behind a new form of fascism, or whether ungovernable social movements will make this impossible.
\n\nIn this situation, there are three basic errors we should avoid.
\n\nWe must not become immobilized watching the spectacle of resistance to Trump as it plays out in the courts and Washington, DC. The strength of the institutional pushback against Trump is a direct factor of grassroots mobilization and resistance. If Trump is removed from office by institutional means, he will only be replaced by a politician who will likely implement versions of the same agenda—just as Obama already escalated deportation and surveillance. Even if he fails to establish autocracy in the United States, Trump’s role will be to reestablish the legitimacy of the corporate media, moderate Republicans, Silicon Valley, and the Democratic Party—all the adversaries we were fighting before he made them seem ethical by comparison. For now, some Democrats and media outlets appear sympathetic to us, but their standard strategy in a situation like this is to use us as shock troops to obtain a little leverage over the authorities, then sell us out in return for a seat at the table.
\n\nWe must not make the same error as Milo, mistaking media exposure for power. Notoriety can help us when it enables us to make contact with new people or to spread our ideas and tactics in meaningful ways. But if we receive too much media coverage, more quickly than we can translate it into added organizational strength on the ground, it will only position the authorities to go after us with everything they’ve got. Remember the lesson of the SHAC campaign, which seemed to be making tremendous headway against an animal testing corporation by building up a fearsome reputation—until the government took advantage of this reputation to stomp it out. There are no shortcuts to doing the work of grassroots organizing, certainly not through corporate media.
\n\nWe probably won’t be able to avoid open conflict with Trump’s civilian supporters, but we should not let it distract us from taking on the government directly. If the Trump administration fails to fulfill its promises, many of those who currently support it may reconsider their position—the last thing we want to do is force them to entrench themselves in their current position. We have to find ways to take the offensive against the authorities while defending ourselves against rearguard attacks from freelance nationalists.
\n\nAbove all, we need to pass on all the knowledge we have accumulated over the past two decades of anarchist activity to a new generation of demonstrators—and quick. We are but a small part of the huge social body that is prepared to enter into struggle now, but that struggle may never get off the ground unless we share what we know with others. Never before have so many people been open to anarchist ideas and tactics, but this window will not last long. Expanding our ranks is the only way to survive the waves of repression that wait ahead. Let’s go into round two with more numbers and more strength.
\n\nThe Landing: Fascists without Fascism
\n\nLong Term Resistance: Fighting Trump and Liberal Cooption
\n\n\n\n\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/19/resistance-repression-and-media-lies-in-philadelphia-reportback-from-the-black-resistance-march-21717", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/19/resistance-repression-and-media-lies-in-philadelphia-reportback-from-the-black-resistance-march-21717", "title": "Resistance, Repression, and Media Lies in Philadelphia : Reportback from the Black Resistance March, 2/17/17", "summary": "In this eyewitness report, participants relate how Philly police attacked them with batons and pepper spray, then persuaded local media to report that it was the demonstrators who pepper-sprayed them.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/header-2.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/header-2.jpg", "date_published": "2017-02-19T19:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2024-09-10T03:55:33Z", "tags": [ "Philadelphia", "media", "repression", "fake-news", "protest" ], "content_html": "Donald Trump has taken to his soapbox to carp about “fake news,” as if the corporate news media were a subversive force. On the contrary, while biased or outright dishonest reporting is the rule rather than the exception, it almost always serves those in power. The interests of the corporate news media cannot be disentangled from the advertisers who fund them and the authorities they count on for scoops. In this eyewitness report from a demonstration in Philadelphia last Friday, participants relate how police attacked them with batons and pepper spray, then persuaded local media to report that it was the demonstrators who pepper-sprayed them.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/philadelphia-1.jpg\")
\nLast night in North Philadelphia, four people were arrested and many were injured by batons and mace during a march organized by a local militant Black Lives Matter group, Philly Coalition for REAL Justice. The flier described it as a “Black Resistance March.” The online description expanded on this:
\n\n\n\n\n“All are welcome as long as they make space for black people at the front of the march. The issues contained in the assaults on LGBT folks, on Muslims and refugees, occupation and militarization abroad are intersectional. Today we center our black women, our black immigrants, black LGBTQ family, and our black Muslims. Dress warm and be vigilant.”
\n
The march kicked off with a line of Bodyhammer-style shields made from large city traffic cones. Each one had a letter painted on it so that together they read “U-N-G-O-V-E-R-N-A-B-L-E.” Even the protest chants had an air of militancy. “Bullets Trump Hate” resonated throughout the streets as the march headed north on Broad Street. One person with a megaphone paid homage to the words that became a rallying cry after police officers murdered Eric Garner. “They say ‘hands up, don’t shoot,’ but we have another one for you… ‘guns up, shoot back.’”
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/philadelphia-2.jpg\")
\nThe march made its way north towards the Temple campus. We stopped at the bustling intersection of Broad and Girard, a main artery for traffic and public transit. The crowd blocked the streets and burned American flags while people of color talked about police repression and terrorism through a megaphone. “This is not my flag. It has never been my flag. We’re burning this flag for Emmit Till. Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. This is for Brandon Tate Brown.” There was more talk about the current racist stop-and-frisk policy, and, of course, the MOVE bombing of May 13, 1985. The list went on while the fire grew.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/philadelphia-3.jpg\")
\nAfter it began to burn out, the march started to move again. The group wasn’t half as large as some anti-Trump demonstrations that brought out thousands only a few weeks ago. In a fashion typical of Philadelphia Police, the march was followed by dozens of squad cars and at least two police helicopters, and surrounded on either side by bike cops who seemed to outnumber participants by at least two to one. The strategy for policing mass mobilizations in Philadelphia is heavily influenced by former Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey; usually, the police avoid making arrests, while oversaturating the area with officers. This approach is informed by the “Vancouver Model” as outlined in the police manual Managing Major Events: Best Practices from the Field by the Police Executive Research Forum.
\n\nAs soon as we neared Temple University, the march became confrontational. Those with megaphones tried to rush into the campus dining hall. Uniformed officers tripped over each other as they hurried to block the entrance and exits, using their bikes to shove people who stood in their way. They formed a line in front of the doors with their bikes as blockades.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/philadelphia-4.jpg\")
\nSomeone noticed a Bank of America across the street and everyone rushed in that direction. Only one officer stood guard before all the shielded protestors formed their own line at the entrance. Bike cops rushed over, clumsily tripping over each other again as they scrambled to catch up with the crowd. A scuffle broke out. Someone threw black paint over the bank window and perhaps an officer or two. Cops extended their batons. Shielded protesters stood their ground and moved forward, chanting “Kill the Rich.” Police pepper-sprayed a large portion of the crowd, then began swinging their batons and hitting many people. Four arrests took place. There was an unsuccessful attempt to de-arrest someone. I saw at least one person bleeding from the head after being hit by police. Street medics took care to help flush the pepper spray out of the eyes of those struck.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/19/philadelphia-5.jpg\")
\nAll the local news media outlets that covered this event reported that protestors pepper-sprayed the police and that police were hospitalized with injuries. No one I spoke with has witnessed anything other than the police pepper-spraying protestors. One person’s account is as follows: “Here’s what happened. We wanted to get inside Bank of America. A bunch of cops started beating people up with bikes and batons because they care more about capitalist institutions than people. One of them started spraying us with pepper spray. I got it in my eyes. The cops started shouting to their own guy, “Who’s spraying? Stop spraying!” Now, in order to cover up their incompetence, the press is implying that we were the ones who injured them.”
\n\nEight more people were arrested outside the precinct the next day while doing jail support. It took over 24 hours before everyone was released. The Up Against the Law Legal Collective worked nonstop to find out where everyone was being held and when they would be eligible for bail, while the local Food Not Bombs chapter fed the gathering crowd of people expressing support outside the jail. The charges being filed against the arrestees are outlandish, but we plan to fight the system with solidarity.
\n\nThe courts and the police want us to feel scared and isolated. Yet all of these long-term groups working together have helped make Philadelphia a place where a lot can happen. Those networks will be crucial in this new era. If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.
\n\nAs long as we have each other’s backs in the mounting resistance to come, we can win. And we will win.
\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/15/take-the-offensive-moving-from-protest-to-resistance", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/15/take-the-offensive-moving-from-protest-to-resistance", "title": "Take the Offensive : Moving from Protest to Resistance", "summary": "It’s time to strategize. Should we fight a thousand defensive battles—or a single offensive one? And what happens if Trump faces a real crisis of legitimacy?", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/15/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/15/header.jpg", "date_published": "2017-02-15T19:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2024-09-10T03:55:33Z", "tags": [ "Trump", "protest", "resistance", "strategy" ], "content_html": "It’s time to strategize. Is it more realistic to set out to overturn the Muslim ban, halt further construction of the border wall, help our friends and loved ones evade ICE roundups, stop the DAPL and Keystone XL, protect our drinking water, slow down global warming, tame the financial sector and stop the police from killing people and defend abortion access—or to take down the government itself? Should we fight a thousand defensive battles—or a single offensive one?
\n\nIn less than four weeks, the Trump administration has accomplished something that American radicals haven’t been able to do for almost 250 years: it has convinced the majority of the American people that the government is a public menace. Trump and his cronies have picked fights with Black people, Latinos and Latinas, Native Americans, Muslims, immigrants, feminists, environmentalists, radicals, progressives, liberals, and a swath of federal, state, and municipal employees—in short, with the better part of the population. For good measure, they appear to be trying to provoke a major terrorist attack in the United States in hopes that it would shore up their dubious mandate. Undoubtedly, I’m forgetting something. It’s been an eventful month.
\n\nFurthermore, the administration has antagonized the CIA, the NSA, and the Mexican and Chinese governments; aligned itself with Russia to such an extent as to create national security scandals; and threatened to upset the entire post-Cold War global order. On the public relations side, it is making up fantastic stories out of thin air and has randomly gone to war with CNN.
\n\nConsequently, the American corporate, political, industrial, financial, media, military, and intelligence elites are at cross purposes, deeply divided among themselves. Some factions are betting that neo-fascism is the wave of the future and that it will be good for business. Other factions would prefer to return to business as usual. Given the events of the last twenty-five days, it seems possible that the administration will overstep its authority and bring about a constitutional crisis at some point over the next four years, if not sooner. If such a “crisis of legitimacy” does develop, it is likely that the latter factions of the ruling class would prefer regime change to dictatorship.
\n\nI hate to resort to Game of Thrones references, but Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are acting the parts of Cersei Lannister and Maester Qyburn respectively: not only are they playing with fire, oblivious to the dragons circling on the horizon, but they consider themselves to be very clever.
\n\nIf this is really how the administration wants to do things, they can bring it on. White conservatives and a small number of web-based reactionary activists versus people of color, white liberals, a seasoned cadre of radicals and progressives, and the vast majority of Millennials? Let’s do this. They may have more guns, but we definitely have more numbers. Home team bats last.
\n\nTrump and Bannon have had a few weeks to push people around. In doing so, they’ve backed themselves into a corner and alienated over half of the country. Now, it’s time to do like our grandparents taught us and punch these bullies in the face. Here are a few suggestions for how to do so—and what comes next.
\n\nProtest is so 2003, people. Resistance is the new black. It is all well and good for thousands or even millions of people to assemble in the street. However, doing so accomplishes nothing in and of itself, as many of us bitterly remember from the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq fourteen years ago. On the other hand, gathering at times and places where our presence impacts the day-to-day operations of essential infrastructure can accomplish a great deal, as many of us remember fondly from the airport occupations two weeks ago. This is the difference between symbolic protest and direct action, which anarchists have been pointing out for upwards of 150 years. Less protest, more action, please.
\n\nSeriously, there is no point in pleading with this government or registering our opposition to its policies. They truly could not care less what we think. We need to make it impossible for them to govern. We can do this. For the moment, it may be enough to simply start picking targets to shut down, sending out calls over Twitter, seeing how many people show up, and taking it from there. I think that the airport actions were the right idea—we just need to apply that model to some part of the government itself.
\n\nThey always say that the best defense is a good offense, and it did just work out that way for the Patriots in the Super Bowl. The Trump administration is trying to send us scrambling in a thousand different directions at once. It’s a trap. They hope to prevent us from capitalizing on the fact that their government is out of step with the values and desires of most American people and holds questionable legitimacy in the eyes of millions.
\n\nIt is true that many of us have to stay focused on solidarity work, mutual aid, and self-defense. There’s no way around that. However, the time has come to ask ourselves: under an extremely hostile administration, is it more realistic to set out to overturn the Muslim ban and halt further construction of the border wall, help our friends and loved ones evade ICE roundups and stay out of prison, stop the DAPL and Keystone XL, protect our drinking water and slow down global warming, tame the financial sector and stop the police from killing people and defend abortion access all at the same time—or to take down the government itself?
\n\nWe may find that the only way to prevent everything from getting drastically worse is by going all in on revolution.
\n\nHuge segments of society are angry and afraid, full of fresh ideas and energy, open to radical perspectives, paying attention, well informed, struggling to survive, and ready to fight. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.
\n\nResistance to the Trump regime will succeed or fail depending on how effective we are at finding each other and making the most of our various strengths. We need great numbers of people to participate if we are going to prevail. No crack team of specialized activists can do this on their own. No judge or politician is going to set things right. Nobody can save us but ourselves. That should be more than enough.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/15/out-of-yarn.jpg\")
\nSuppose, then, that there is a crisis of legitimacy ahead for Trump. What are the likely scenarios, and how do we prepare? Let’s look ahead a little further since things have been happening so fast lately.
\n\nThe most likely possibility is still that the Deep State (as represented by entrenched elements in the CIA, the neoconservatives in the Republican Party, etc.) will manage to rein Trump in somehow, permitting him to carry out the ordinary racist aspects of his program but preventing him from going overboard with economic protectionism, haphazard foreign policy, and collusion with Russia. Repression will keep pace with escalating social tensions as the law-abiding Left sells out protest movements in return for another shot at state power. In this scenario, we lose, Steve Bannon and the white nationalists lose, and the Deep State wins, stabilizing capitalism for another four years or more.
\n\nThose losses would be temporary, however—throughout such an administration, anarchists would compete with white nationalists for the allegiance of increasingly disillusioned sectors of the Left and Right. In such a scenario, it should be possible to make the case to white working people that the bankers and businessmen have bamboozled them once again by getting them to back Trump.
\n\nIt is less likely—but possible—that Trump will face a real crisis of legitimacy. In this case, protest movements will rise to a boil, forcing the Deep State to choose between Trump’s presidency and the stability of the state itself. If the Deep State steps in to depose Trump, whether covertly or overtly, real social change may be on the table—but only if the momentum that drives events is coming from below, beyond the control of any party with a stake in state power. In this scenario, Steve Bannon and the white nationalists lose—at least temporarily—and we duke it out with the Deep State.
\n\nThis scenario involves tremendous risks. Remember, this is basically what happened in Egypt in 2013 when the Egyptian military deposed Morsi and installed the strongman al-Sisi in his place—effectively bringing the so-called Arab Spring to a close and re-stabilizing totalitarianism in the Middle East. If we count on elements in the government to take care of the situation, they will do whatever they have to do to sideline or suppress radical activity—and people will look to the state to solve their problems for another full generation or more. On the other hand, if we proceed into open battle with the Deep State in conditions of upheaval, we had better have a great deal of the population behind us, and we had better do so in a way that doesn’t leave any space for white nationalists to regain their footing in opposition movements while we are reeling from repression.
\n\nFinally, it is possible that there will be a crisis of legitimacy but Trump will come out on top, using it to purge the opposition and wipe out protest movements. In this case, Steve Bannon and the white nationalists will win and everyone else will lose. This seems to be the least likely scenario—but most of us were surprised by Trump’s victory, too. In this case, it will be possible for Bannon and his ilk to portray anarchists as tools of the Deep State at precisely the same time as they are able to silence us with repression.
\n\nReviewing these possibilities, a few things become clear. It is essential to organize in a way that distinguishes us from all state actors and leaves no space for the state to regain legitimacy; antifascism must mean opposition to the state itself, lest we topple Trump only to pave the way for an equally authoritarian regime. The sooner a crisis comes, the better, before Trump, the Deep State, and the Democratic opposition have the chance to get their feet under them; at the same time, we have considerable work to do making our proposals comprehensible to the general public. Last but not least, if regime change takes place, the momentum must come from the streets, not from within the halls of power. As usual, we’ll get out of revolution what we put into it, nothing more.
\n\nIn any case, our work is cut out for us and the stakes are double or nothing. We’ll see you at the front.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/15/liberals-can-we-riot-now.jpg\")
\nAs massive anti-corruption protests shake former socialist countries and NATO and Russia mass their troops along the border between East and West, anarchists are asking how best to intervene in the upheavals ahead in this contested region. Seeking a case study in resistance along the Eastern European rim, we talked with anarchists in Armenia about their experiences in recent demonstrations against corruption, the cost of living, and the current government. The lessons they pass on are instructive for participants in social movements all around the world.
\n\nArmenia gained independence in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. Its first years as a country were marked by war, as it fought Azerbaijan over the still unresolved territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The last two decades have seen repeated bouts of social unrest in this country torn by the consequences of war and economic hardship, but only in the last four years has the Western media paid the protests much attention.
\n\n“Leaving Armenia and joining the ranks of immigrants is currently the most widespread form of radicalization,” one comrade from this small nation in the Southern Caucasus tells us. And yet a small but committed community of anarchists has stayed, demonstrating what it means to fight against capitalism and the state in four consecutive years of protests in this post-socialist country.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/12/armenia-4.jpg\")
Clashes during the Electric Yerevan protests of 2015.
\nIn 2013, the city government of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, tried to increase the cost of public transportation from 100 to 150 drams. This provoked unprecedented anger. It only took a week for a thirty-person campaign to snowball into a massive decentralized movement attracting mostly high school and university students. Most of the participants were taking the streets for the first time. Simple and effective direct actions helped the movement to grow quickly. “You just went to the nearest bus stop, handed out fliers, paid the same amount you paid before, and urged people to do the same. Everybody knew why we were protesting. The task at hand was very specific and real,” our comrades remember.
\n\nThe movement stayed autonomous, free from the influence of political parties. Highly focused on everyday issues, it inspired people to fight and organize in various ways. Young people drove unofficial buses all day long and encouraged passengers to boycott the new fare, while others supported the riders financially. A self-organized car pool initiative spread across the city, with people sharing cars and even offering free rides to strangers. Things got serious when even some bus drivers joined the protests by skipping work or refusing to take money from passengers. Total chaos was right around the corner.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/12/armenia-2.jpg\")
\n“It was a truly exciting experience, until the government did what it always does; it quickly agreed to the minimal requirements, thus preventing the expansion and radicalization of the movement,” comrades observe with disappointment. The movement’s focus on everyday issues and avoidance of a more radical agenda were initially seen as strengths, as the movement drew a wide variety of people. Yet they ultimately proved to be weaknesses as well.
\n\nAs soon as the government caved in to demands, the movement dissolved. Some blamed the inexperience of protesters, while others pointed to skewed media coverage or to the lack of assemblies. In any case, the cancellation of the fare hike drew a massive amount of people to the streets in celebration. People had demanded lower costs of living, and once the government met their demand, they thought they had won. “Any argument with a more experienced activist was perceived as an unnecessary politicization of the issue. It was clear one should abandon any hope of a bigger change,” our comrades report, describing the moment they realized their movement had reached its own inborn limits.
\n\nThe dust of the transportation fare protests had not yet settled on Yerevan’s wide avenues when the turbulent year of 2014 began. The next big wave of protests, addressing the controversial reform of Armenia’s national pension system, were dubbed the “Dem Em” (I am against) movement. The new pension system targeted young professionals born after 1973, forcing them to contribute at least 5% of their gross wages to private pension funds of a highly suspect nature until they retire. “There are examples of similar reforms, both successful and unsuccessful, in other countries. However, in Armenia the main trigger for the resistance was not economic feasibility, but distrust towards the government, both current and future,” comrades explain. “Would you lend money to a racketeer who is moving to Panama? Of course not.”
\n\nThe reform particularly angered young people in the IT industry, who earn much more than the average income in Armenia. On average, an Armenian making minimum wage will earn $115 in US currency a month, whereas the starting salary for an IT specialist in Armenia is around $650 per month. “The first public discussions of the anti-reform campaign resembled a gathering of a non-existent trade union for computer programmers; the discussions were spontaneously horizontal, but at the same time they were distrustful towards outsiders, especially towards those who had participated in other campaigns.”
\n\nProgrammers weren’t the only ones organizing, though. Politicians had learned the strength of the street movement from previous protests. The “I am against” initiative was soon backed by the opposition parliamentary party. The movement didn’t just gain the support of politicians, it also brought thousands of people to the streets, got a fancy sound system, and soon started to resemble trade unions in the worst possible way. “There were appointed leaders recognized by the media and police, the language of the protest became populist, and the decisions were made behind closed doors,” our comrades report. The moment when the discourse about reform was taken over by political parties was the beginning of the end.
\n\nIf in 2013, the city government actually had to completely back down on a fare hike, this time the government only had to promise to postpone the pension reform. Once again, people believed they had won, and the movement dissolved. Several months later, the government went back on their word, but the movement never came back to life. Our comrades did not consider this to be their struggle: “Leftists and anarchists did not participate in the movement at the beginning, when it was narrowly focused on professionals and therefore closed [to their participation], and refused to participate when it was led by the political parties and therefore, indirectly, by the authorities.”
\n\nIn the summer of 2015, a completely new stream of energy drew people together on the streets of Yerevan. Things started out a lot like the previous protests: the government tried to raise electricity prices 17 percent. As before, people took the streets to march and hold discussions. But what truly got the movement going was unprecedented police violence. This opened up a completely new set of opportunities.
\n\nOn a warm June day, hundreds of people gathered in Yerevan to march towards the presidential palace. They soon stopped before a scene no social movement in Armenia had ever witnessed. The police had closed down the road with water cannons, cordons of officers, and barbed wire. Yet people refused to leave, transforming the march into a sit-in—successfully occupying and blockading main avenues in downtown Yerevan.
\n\nThat night, things got out of control. First, people delegitimized the self-proclaimed leaders of the protests, who tried to reduce the tension and even to get people to return to Freedom Square where the rally had started. The protesters had different kind of freedom in mind this time.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/12/armenia-5.jpg\")
Electric Yerevan protesters behind a banner reading “High Voltage.”
\n“Nobody wanted to return, so the suggestion was rejected,” comrades remember. It is worth noting that the discussion was not an assembly, and people did not try to vote or reach consensus. As the night was getting late, however, more and more people left the occupation.
\n\nPolice struck early in the morning, using water cannons to brutally attack and disperse the remaining few hundred protesters. The police detained about 240 protesters; 25 were injured and three hospitalized. Officers targeted people covering the protests as well, destroying their cameras and memory cards.
\n\nThis attempt to crush the movement by brute force produced the opposite effect. In less than 12 hours, about 8000 people returned to the streets under the banners of Electric Yerevan. Solidarity protests took place in many other cities and towns. It seemed that another clash was inevitable.
\n\nBut the police were learning fast; they did not make any further attacks. Instead, the protest turned into a standoff, with a barricade of trash bins separating police and the protesters. That was when space for radical ideas started to close down. “The barricade quickly became a stage for people with loudspeakers. In addition, artists and politicians formed a “human shield” to guarantee the security of people. Media were live-streaming 24 hours a day, and soon the protest took a more familiar and stable form.” By providing the protesters an opportunity to express a peaceful and inert disobedience, the authorities ensured that the protests would die down themselves.
\n\nAt the same time, our Armenian comrades report that those who wanted to radicalize the protest or expand the range of tactics—mostly anarchists and other radicals—faced different challenges. On the one hand, police were detaining people for wearing anarchist symbols or just for spreading leaflets. That spread fear inside the movement, and the protesters themselves started to label any attempt to distribute radical material or introduce new slogans as a provocation.
\n\nBut, as comrades recollect, anarchists were facing additional challenges. “Starting from the very first meetings, any attempt at public debate was immediately suppressed by the organizational group. As soon as there was any talk of expanding the protest agenda and the need to radicalize, the organizers would put on loud music, shady characters would appear to disrupt a conversation, so people were forced to leave the protest area, where police might detain them.”
\n\nAs the government once again used a cheap trick, claiming they would subsidize the difference between the old electricity price and the new one, some organizers started to encourage people to stop occupying the streets of Yerevan. Although they failed to convince the majority of the people, the number of protesters was dropping day by day.
\n\nThis was when the remaining participants started to organize assemblies. Yet the number of people in the streets remained small. “Media quickly dubbed the remaining protesters as alcoholics, drug addicts, and radicals.” The Electric Yerevan movement was dead. A year later, the government announced the end of subsidies as well.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/02/12/armenia-3.jpg\")
\nOn an early morning in July 2016, the people of Yerevan woke up to an odd series of events. An armed conservative nationalist group had seized the largest police station in the capital, containing most of the specialized equipment, ammunition, and weapons, demanding the resignation of the president of Armenia. This armed group was affiliated with the political prisoner Zhirayr Sefilyan, a leader of the opposition movement Founding Parliament. Their aim was to force regime change and to build a new type of state. Some were veterans of the Karabakh war. “They have experienced political oppression, but their conservative and nationalistic agenda was not much different from the government in power,” our comrades explain.
\n\nThey encouraged people to break through the police cordon with Molotov cocktails and arm themselves. On the other side of a police cordon reinforced by several military vehicles, more people gathered every hour, reaching over 5000 in the evening. However, people refused to attempt an armed uprising. Their main demand was that bloodshed be avoided. The members of Founding Parliament, who joined the protest, were detained and arrested. The most violent clashes took place between police and the residents of the surrounding area. The authorities once again adopted the strategy of wearing the armed group out, and the group eventually surrendered.
\n\nIn Armenia, as in most other post-socialist countries of the Eastern bloc, it is not easy to draw a clear distinction between protests seeking regime change and demonstrations triggered by more social and economic reasons. For now, people still believe that regime change will bring about a better life. “Power is personalized, while violence is systematic,” our comrades from Armenia conclude. “Social protests that have specific, concrete, and visible demands and results are perceived as ‘small victories.’ No wonder that success in those protests practically always motivates people to strive for more, but people only return to demand the president’s resignation.”
\n\n“Is there a visible large-scale anti-capitalist agenda in Armenia? Definitely not. There are, however, a few affinity groups, small organizations that share anti-capitalist ideas, implement some projects, try to organize small-scale interventions,” our comrades explain. Anti-election sentiments are more widespread, speaking to widespread disappointment with representative democracy. There is also a small but fierce feminist and queer community with radical views.
\n\nAlthough our comrades conclude that, for the majority of people, growing despair over their inability to change their lives appears to be the only thing transferred from one year’s protests to the next, the situation in Armenia remains volatile and unpredictable. Remember, anarchism has been a force in Armenia since the 19th century. Anarchists have never been numerous, but even today they remain determined to fight for a better world.
\n\nTo make contact with anarchists in Armenia, try this Facebook page.
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