Some of y’all weren’t around for the Green Scare, or the raids before the RNC protests in 2008. This is what it looks like: a Trump-appointee just listed “eat the rich” memes in arrest documents for a leftist vet, to paint him as a leftist terrorist. 1/ reason.com/2021/02/16/fbi…
Even the FBI probably doesn’t think that posting memes, or calling for community self-defense, or posting info on protest medicine, makes you a terrorist. The point is to make everyone a little more paranoid about even being willing to say those things in the open. 2/
(Before anyone points it out: yes, this account has done all of the above. Also don’t eat rich people, they’re full of Goop™️ products and apathy. That shit’s bad for you.) 3/
If you don’t know a lot of loud, brassy anarchists and agitators who have been continuously active since before 2008, it’s partially cuz shit like this keeps happening: m.startribune.com/police-raids-e… 4/
The FBI was, quite explicitly, created to carry out political repression. It is not a politically neutral institution. It has never once, in its history, felt nervous about directly targeting anarchists or Black liberationists for the views they hold. 5/ greenisthenewred.com/blog/fbi-raid-…
After Mayday 2012 in Seattle, grand juries started with a series of warrants authorizing seizure of “Anarchist Literature” & “black clothing.”
If you’re thinking “I wear lots of black,” exactly.
If you’re wondering whether that one zine counts as anarchist lit: it does. 6/
If you’re thinking “I wear lots of black,” exactly.
If you’re wondering whether that one zine counts as anarchist lit: it does. 6/
People got arrested, and people went to prison. But not that many. Not nearly as many as got scared into being quiet. The goal was never to arrest everyone. The goal was always to fuel paranoia and fracture communities of resistance. 7/
The first time I was introduced to the game Werewolf, it was around 2009, and it was with the explicit purpose of showing how easy it is for community bonds to break down, until everyone is accusing everyone else. 8/
The moral here is not that you should throw out your black clothes and burn your zines.
The moral is that we kinda fucked up, cuz it worked. The radical scene was, on the whole, tight-knit and cohesive, & still, lots of us got spooked.
Knowing your phone is tapped SUCKS.
9/
The moral is that we kinda fucked up, cuz it worked. The radical scene was, on the whole, tight-knit and cohesive, & still, lots of us got spooked.
Knowing your phone is tapped SUCKS.
9/
There’s also the relief that comes when so many of your friends have gotten door-knocks from the FBI that, when the FBI knocks on your door, you know that your friends aren’t immediately going to think you’ve turned informant. 10/
Security culture is important, & it’s not just bloc. It’s jail solidarity, and letting your friends know they’re supported & don’t have to take the plea deal. It’s making sure people’s kids are taken care of, if they need to go to jail for refusing to testify in a grand jury 11/
Even in the middle of the polar vortex, we know summer’s coming. The feds know it too. There’s every likelihood that this is the start of a wave of crackdowns trying to defuse the current movement before it picks up speed again.
Don’t get shook.
Don’t get shook.
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