Urbandale posted:

^all that basically. its really sad cuz a ton of people buy into it, especially youth, who see pouring into the streets or taking over a building as the most radical option presented. while i tend to view this as socialists paying for the sins of our fathers, it really just means there wasnt any forethought put into the action. Just some things to consider, since you're right that we should be suggesting things instead of shitting everywhere:

why is this building being occupied? does serve as a means of stopping work or is it really just meant as a predetermined site for a field hospital, logistics depot, coordination station, etc?

does the occupation provide any tactical advantage for comrades who are simultaneously in the street?

how many points of entry, counting windows large enough to accommodate a body, exist on each floor of the building?

If your occupation is ultimately indefensible (it most certainly is unless youre ready to stand against a siege), can everyone escape before pigs shoot gas through the windows or break down your barricade?


When Occupy Wall Street was happening, one of the cities started making a big fuss about breaking into foreclosed homes and putting up the homeless. Of course, cops raided the tent city in front of the house after a month went by and the families were tossed onto the street again. Another committee in another city decided the general idea was sound, but that resolution was not. Foreclosed homes were surveyed, primary, secondary and tertiary sites were picked out, and families were put into these homes covertly. Today some people still call these sites home and a network exists that continues this work. It was a fantastic campaign and it wouldn't have been possible without a core of dedicated revolutionaries, a cell structure, and a campaign outline that included a measurable end goal and how they were going to get to that point.

this committee also learned that there were only two rail lines exiting california, that these lines carried obscene amounts of freight, and they had been near capacity for about 2 decades. a public, outdoor occupation can be done with far less people involved than a public occupation in an urban area and have a far greater impact.you'll have to generalize this to your own ends, but try and find the enemy's weakest point, or at least a point with weaknesses that you can attempt to address, and strike there.

this is an excellent post.

when i was involved with occupy edmonton (LOL) there were early attempts made by radical indigenous groups to coordinate disruptive actions and provide significant support in solidarity. indigenous radicals are seasoned veterans with excellent knowledge in all fields: legal, tactical, logsitical, and strategic. they know the primary sites in which the bloodflow of capital can be truly disrupted (rail lines, primary highways, work camp service roads), how to supply and sustain camps occupying said sites even through the brutal northern winter, what to do when faced down with negative publicity campaigns and duplicitous legal action, and the tactics necessary to maintain passable operational security and morale in horrible situations.

their offers of assistance and coordination were consistently rebuffed through a combination of spook wreckers, cowardice, and old fashioned white bougie racism. they gave up on the "movement" at about the same time I did. early on during the period when there were still marches for publicity happening there was a consistent stream of people no one knew insisting that we immediately march on and occupy highly defended and logistically infeasible structures like banks and the legislature building, they would take up hours of general assembly time. the primary facilitators tried to minimize their disruption but there's only so much you can do with a crowd of gullible dumbasses who think everyone deserves to be heard.

in the end the camp was cleaned up with a small remnant chaining themselves to tentpoles in a desperate bid to either save the camp or be arrested trying. of course, none of them were actually arrested: they no longer needed to be, they'd been neutralized a long time ago.

Edited by shriekingviolet (April 11, 2015 08:13:01)

Red_Canadian posted:

Thank you guys for this. I think my problem right now is that I have the ideological spine to take action, but lack the concrete understanding to be truly effective.
As a white male that might actually have been raised middle-class thanks to a father who likes working 12 hour days and has been union for basically his whole life, I do still have somewhat bougie attitudes towards the police. Although I obviously understand that ACAB, and to protect and serve the status quo is something I'm in conflict with, I guess I figure my personal magnetism will enable me to appeal to their humanity.
I know, I know, but they were human beings before they were cops. Most of the french revolutions I know were able to mobilize some sectors of the armed guards in favour of the revolution. I know it's basically impossible in the current age, but I'm in favour of the impossible. There is a chink in their armour currently with the fact that they are in strike as well due to the fact their pensions and wages are being cut in the name of austerity. I did appeal to this, which may or may not have influenced the situation.
The worst thing about me is I have lived a charmed life. Things will always work out for me, I've encountered no true challenges. I was born white, male, tall and healthy (actually extremely sick, but canadian healthcare put me into an incubator until I survived long enough to live without it without putting my family in the poor house, thanks Tommy Douglas!) I know capitalism could work for me if I wanted it to, but I don't want to step over other people for my own satisfaction.
A movement needs dumb martyrs as well as underground revolutionaries. I will serve in whatever capacity necessary. Although towards the charmed life I was mentioned, I may be putting myself under the wing of a person far more experienced than me through a serendipitous sequence of events.

i may have regrettably contributed to it a little through my posting, but don't let the stupid side of tumblr-style privilege discourse hamstring your activity: you don't have to be a dumb martyr. the position you occupy can be leveraged for actions far more valuable than that. the presence of people with cop-resistant qualities is always of value as long as they remember where it is coming from and why it exists (when you forget that, you get monsters like Justine Tunney.) Opportunity cost is a huge factor in police deterrence, and loading in as many "lucky" white dudes as possible into direct action is a great tactic for every kind of action. it's valuable in large scale demonstrations recorded by televised media, just as it's valuable in small powerful direct actions by indigenous groups. in some of my conversations with the Mi'kmaq Warriors one of the things they valued most out of white allies was the ability to be present at risky direct actions as a cop deterrent: cops can do whatever the fuck they want if a white dude isn't around, because otherwise the media will never ever talk about it and the courts will railroad everyone present into a ruinous jail sentence.

good actionable politics should never devalue anyone: we all have skills, experience, knowledge, and presence that are of value. the important thing is to have the humility and genuine dedication to recognize where and how one can be of use, which includes long term decisions such as the extremely difficult risk/reward decision of where you need to minimize risk and maximize safety so that you, or someone else, can be of greater value later. those sorts of decisions are best facilitated by an experienced org capable of assisting its participants in evaluating the confluence of strategic vs tactical choices.

good luck in mtrl, shit is gonna get worse