A few nights ago we sabotaged about 50 parking meters by gluing their locks, coin slots, and card readers. This was a simple act which took no specialized skill. Get some superglue, cover your face, keep your eyes peeled for cops or loyal citizens, and act.
These parking meters were targeted because they fund the Bloomington Police Department and because they force people to pay to be downtown. We hate the police and we hate gentrification and class society, so we chose to attack them.
We act as a gesture of combative memory for Lambros Foundas, anarchist of Revolutionary Struggle killed by the forces of the Greek state on March 10, 2010. Our memory is not one of passive mourning or martyrdom, but of active struggle against the state, capital, and domination in all of its forms. The flame of Lambros’ life kept us warm as we walked through the winter night, and we will carry that flame with us in all parts of our lives, which are lived at war with this society of masters and slaves.
We send strength to all anarchist combatants held captive in the dungeons of the Greek state.
We send solidarity to all those facing the state’s latest attacks against squatters, anarchists, and refugees: we are inspired by your refusal to be paralyzed.
Traditional systems of authority are dead or dying. It matters increasingly less whether one identifies with their job, loves their country, kneels before God, or worries about tarnishing the family name. In the past, anarchists have fought to the death against these institutions, believing that if people rose up and destroyed them, humanity would be free. While these relics are decaying, it is due to many different forces, rebellion not being primary. As a result, daily life is still bound to alienation, livelihood tied to the whims of the precarious market, and obedience maintained by the threat of the justice system or the normality of habit, or both. Humanity is still submissive, but our rulers are faceless abstractions: invisible flows of capital, imagination-killing technologies, the justice system, etc. These systems have their agents in our midst: police, prison guards, CEOs, judges; but they no longer solicit respect, they just do their jobs to keep the system running, and they are interchangeable in our minds. So we are followers without leaders, waiting to be led. Continue reading “Floodgates: The Urge to Obey, A Flight from Initiative, and Identity Politics”
ATTACK poster series is an attempt to keep acts of revolt alive. In a time of technological alienation and lobotomization by media, rebellious acts become just another entry in the police blotter or subject of social media temper tantrums. With this poster series, we seek to bring these acts into dialogue with our daily lives, allowing them to resonate beyond their initial moment.
Posters can be emailed to: plainwordsbloomington [at] riseup [dot] net
Plain Words is a website and publication that focuses on spreading news and developing analyses of struggles in and around Bloomington, Indiana. As anarchists, we approach these struggles from an anti-state, anti-capitalist perspective. However, we aren’t interested in developing a specific party line – even an anarchist one – and instead value the diverse forms resistance can take. Our anarchism is vibrant, undogmatic, and finds common cause with all others who fight for a world without the state, capital, and all structures of domination.
We actively seek collaboration. If you have news, images, reportbacks of actions and demonstrations, communiques, event information, publications, analyses of local trends and situations, updates on projects and campaigns, or anything else coming from an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist perspective, please get in touch.
If you have comments on or critiques of anything we’ve printed that you’d like us to publish, feel free to send them our way.
CONTENTS
“Revenge! Rainbow Bakery Sabotaged for Feral Pines”
“Anti-Oppression & the Internet”
“New Year’s Eve Reportback”
“Reflections on the September 9th Prison Strike”
“How to Wheatpaste”
“We Have Only Begun to Fight: Reportback from the J20 Bloc”
“What is Anarchism”
Action Chronology
Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross presents a documentary on the life of anarchist Emma Goldman. A Russian Jewish immigrant to America, Goldman became a major figure of the US anarchist movement until she was deported for her opposition to WWI. Labor struggles, riots, an assassination attempt on an industrialist, radical newspaper publishing, the killing of President McKinley, anti-militarist organizing, the women’s liberation movement, the Russian revolution and its betrayal by the Bolsheviks, the Spanish revolution and its hope for human freedom are all explored through the life of one woman who lived it all without compromise and with fiery vision.
After the movie, we’ll be writing letters and cards to anarchist prisoner Sean Swain.
The Anarchist Movie Night is a free monthly film series on freedom and subversion. Showing documentaries, features, cult films, and experimental shorts of an anarchic sort.
Here are some nice lil’ things I’ve seen around Bloomington lately. Sending love to Denver anarchist comrades who caught charges for writing on walls. Throw some money their way if you got it.
A documentary film on the anarchist revolution in Spain(1936-39), told through interviews with those who participated in the uprising, subsequent experimentations with freedom, and war against the forces of the State, Church, and Capital. The film explores the attempts at self-management leading up to the popular rebellion of 1936, the place of anti-authoritarian militias in defending against fascism, the betrayal of the revolution by Communists, and, ultimately, the vitality of the anarchist Idea.
Join us after the film for writing birthday cards to anarchist prisoner Marius Mason.
[All ages welcome. In Spanish with English subtitles.]
January 7, 2017
Monroe County Public Library
Room 1C
4-6pm
How did Trump come to power, and what does that tell us about the era we are entering? What strategies will be effective in countering repressive government policies and the rise of grassroots nationalism?
Framing Trump’s victory in a global context will explore various approaches to self-organization and self-defense, drawing on the principles of mutual aid and direct action. They will also present updates about organizing for resistance to the inauguration in DC on January 20.
Breaking away from the jail demo tradition, we kicked off the new year with something fresh and exciting. At the stroke of midnight we dropped four banners and let five thousand fliers rain down from two downtown parking garages. United with friends, we reveled in the togetherness we will carry with us into the new year. 2016 was shitty and we expect that 2017 will be as well; however, we recognize the need to continue fighting. With these modest acts, we sharpened coordination practices that we will need in the coming months and years. Each of the banners reflects an element of our revolt we intend to strengthen and spread over the next year – combative memory for our fallen fighters, solidarity with our imprisoned comrades, determination to continue fighting no matter what is thrown at us, and struggle against immediate manifestations of power.
“Vengeance for William Avalon Rodgers & Kuwasi Balagoon. Long Live Anarchy.”As December ends, we also take time to remember the lives of our fallen warriors. William Avalon Rodgers was an Earth liberationist who took his own life on December 21, 2005 while in jail awaiting trial on arson charges. Kuwasi Balagoon was a former Black Panther, fighter in the Black Liberation Army, bisexual, and anarchist who died in prison from medical neglect due to AIDS-related illness on December 13, 1986.
December 2016 marks 11 years since Avalon’s death and 30 since Kuwasi’s. We will not allow those who sacrificed everything for freedom to be forgotten. As we continue our struggles against Power, we keep alive the memory of Kuwasi, Avalon, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, Sebastián Oversluij, Lambros Foundas, Mauricio Morales, Feral Pines, and all of our other comrades who have passed on. Memory, like fire, burns our enemies and keeps us warm.
“What would Marius do? For defenders of the earth and of the wild. For a local history of resistance. supportmariusmason.org”We are consistently inspired by Marius Mason’s spirit and take strength from each of his paintings, poems, and letters. In an attempt to return the favor, we also chose to highlight his acts this New Year’s Eve. For many years, Marius lived and took action in Bloomington and we intend to maintain the passion and fighting spirit that he once embodied here.
“Safe and civil for whom? No complicity with gentrification and social cleansing.”As a quaint college town and liberal bastion in a red state, Bloomington’s iteration of state violence often takes the form of closing off public space to undesirable populations to maintain a sterile, commerce-friendly environment. One of the primary targets of this cleansing is the sizable homeless population. The city has deployed social worker cops, signs discouraging giving money to people on the street, and several new security cameras in popular hangouts like People’s Park. Despite their language of safety and compassion, we know that the city government has no interest in genuine solutions to the problems of poverty, unaffordable housing, and addiction; in reality, it exists to manage and police the conditions that create these problems. We have made a choice to not fall for the soft policing of the non-profits and charities that are in the pocket of the city.
![Vengeance for William Avalon Rodgers & Kuwasi Balagoon. [snarling wolf face] Long Live Anarchy](https://plainwordsbloomington.noblogs.org/files/2017/01/vengeance-close-crop-1024x683.jpg)
![What would Marius do? [flame image] For defenders of the earth and of the wild For a local history of resistance supportmariusmason.org](https://plainwordsbloomington.noblogs.org/files/2017/01/marius-1024x683.jpg)
![“Safe and civil for whom? No complicity with gentrification and social cleansing [crossed out City of Bloomington logo] [crossed out security camera]](https://plainwordsbloomington.noblogs.org/files/2017/01/IMG_0201-1024x768.jpg)
