Shit’s getting tough and a lot of anarchists are leaving their own social bubble to spread the word that real resistance to fascist governments is possible. I love that. But I see some stuff missing.
Posts about the theory of anarchism are good (and if they’re full of short words and practical examples I probably love them) but I think that in a time when there is a potential shift of left wing ‘democrats’ into more radical movements or a shift where less radical groups are criminalized the way us anarchists are used to, the most important thing people need are practical posts. Like:
- What does every activist need to know when arrested?
- How do you prepare a protest when you know there’s a strong likelyhood of mass arrest?
- What are effected strategies to resist mass arrest? How do you calm down inexperienced protestors and keep up moralle in the face of mass arrest?
- How do you set up an arrest support group to get everybody released as quickly as possible?
- How do you cope with the long term impact of police brutality on your activist community?
- What lies will the police probably spread about you? (I started a post like that here)
- How do you spot undercover cops and other infiltrators?
- How do you resist when the state tries to exhaust your movement with endless fines, bans and criminal charges that take money and energy to fight in court?
And way more. I don’t see a lot of information out there on radical blogs beyond how to mask up and how to combat tear gas. Both are important skills but far more is needed and we need to provide more on the more complex nitty gritty of organizing under criminalized conditions.
As most of us know, when a protest has prepared for it, a mass arrest can be something that does a limited amount of damage and strengthens the community because we went through it together. When a protest is unprepared for a mass arrest it can destroy a movement and leave it’s members dealing with shock and trauma on their own.
Fascism is on the rise across the world. A lot of our activists who could previously do their work without getting arrested, infiltrated, etc. are probably going to find themselves criminalized in the near future. I don’t care that a lot of them aren’t anarchists and I don’t care that a lot of them are democrats, liberals, reformists, etc. Their new experience with the fascist state is likely to change that, but if they don’t survive criminalization they’re never going to get to that point.
QueerAnarchism 