The only people you are messing up in practical terms with this are more than likely proles. I remember a time when I was in a big hurry to get out of town, and something like this would only have hung me up, and not the CEO and other class enemies.

You need to try something else that will only mess with the interests of the exploiter class.

I took some photos after reading this communique posted here. There were people who appeared to be proles, as Nestor says, that were not able to use the ATMs while I was present.

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE IMPRISONED AT I.C.E. DETENTION CENTERS AROUND THE COUNTRY:


To the businessmen who rot behind desks at the Wells Fargo Financial office in Olympia,


Last night we attacked your storefront and spray painted a letter of hatred on your wall as an assault on your participation in the prison-industrial complex. The company you work for is a major stockholder in the GEO Group, owners of private concentration camps around the globe, including a rather infamous one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The GEO Group also owns the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Northwest Detention Center, located in Tacoma, WA, an institution which imprisons hundreds of human beings each year for indefinite periods of time, rips families apart, and ruins lives. This cannot continue.

To those who use their jobs as an excuse to aid the transformation of the world into a complex of prisons:
YOU ARE NO LONGER SAFE.

Wow! Such a massive blow against the Machine!

You stupid, dumb twit.

So a few people can't get money at the ATM and you call this important?

And you wonder why no one takes the left seriously in this country.

This particular act of sabotage comes across as a much better idea than previous acts (most likely by others?) against locally owned eco-friendly businesses (Greenspace) and other non-specific or non-threatening targets (Seventh Day Adventists elsewhere). Sometime only large scale acts of sabotage seem newsworthy, though low level acts of sabotage are easier to cary out without complicated planning and networking..

The cost of the sabotage to Wells Fargo will be in repairs and lost customers as people who realize their bank is being targeted by vandals may decide to switch to another bank (or preferably local credit union) to avoid the hassle of having atms inaccesible. This is part of the application of pressure, sending customers the message,

"If you continue to bank with Wells Fargo, consider having alternative plans when the atms are rendered non-operational by acts of sabotage."

Three cheers for this act of sabotage!! : )

Like anybody seeing the ATMs is possibly going to know of this obscure connection, or care. They're just going to figure it's some random vandal.

GOD BLESS ICE! Vandalizing these ATM's just shows us how bad these criminals need to be deported. Don't forget that MOST LEGAL AMERICANS want you out. If I were you, I would self deport or face the consequences of your crimes just like the rest of us.

"So a few people can't get money at the ATM and you call this important? "

I know it might be hard for you to understand the point of this, since you apparently can't "connect the dots" on your own, but the point isn't to prevent a few people from using the ATM. As you may have noticed, there have been half a dozen or so instances in Santa Cruz alone in the past few months where ATMs have been attacked in Santa Cruz (including 13 ATMs being smashed on Mayday). The point is to cost the bank money. Money in repairs and lost business. Obviously each atm is only going to cost a few hundred bucks to fix... but when these kinds of things happen on a regular basis, (which appears to be happening), and more and more people start replicating this simple action, the $$$ starts adding up. Companies who invest in ICE will be attacked until it isn't profitable to invest anymore. Simple as that.

Keep up the good work ATM smashers!

I find this rather funny since Wells Fargo was one of the banks found to be giving home loans and credit cards to illegals but I guess these vandals forgot about that one.

Sorry, but this silly vandalism is not costing WF. Diebold will come and repair the ATMs, as they have a contract for this sort of thing with all the major banks. If you think WF, bank capitalized in the hundreds of billions, is going to lose money over this, you're wrong.

This sort of idiocy accomplishes nothing. The bank doesn't care. If it get worse, the bank will simply close the branch and reopen elsewhere. It's just business.

I really wish some of the more excitable lefties out there would at least try to act like adults and addresses issues in a way that makes sense. This action certainly doesn't.

According to the Anti Defamation League, violent acts of vandalism cross the line into the fourth tier of the Hate Pyramid.

Wells Fargo is not being generous in providing immigrants with loans and credit cards, they are making money off of them the same way that they make money off everyone else. Banks are not charitable organizations. They control the flow of capital and fund systems of repression. The money that one as a WF customer puts into their bank is put into a large pool of money part of which goes directly to fund Immigration Detention Centers. While minor acts of vandalism like these may not do huge amounts of damage to WF, at least it is an attempt to show that people will not silently tolerate the chains of capital. It would have been nicer if there was some way to communicate the intention behind the action to people who came to use the atm's, but there is only so much you can do in one night.

To the HatePyramidAntiDefamationHateGroupOrgBS:
How was this an act of violence?
It wasn't against a person.
It wasn't against a person's belongings.
No one owns the ATMs. Corporations do. The machines themselves are an act of violence as they are composed of circuit boards and monitors and so forth which are composed of natural resources extracted at a valuable price in pollution, energy waste, habitat destruction, etc.
You should redefine violence and a whole new world of activism will open up

"Sorry, but this silly vandalism is not costing WF. Diebold will come and repair the ATMs, as they have a contract for this sort of thing with all the major banks. If you think WF, bank capitalized in the hundreds of billions, is going to lose money over this, you're wrong. "

First off, WF is going to pass the cost of repairing these machines off to their account holders. So it's really hurting the average person with an account and not the upper management of the company.

What I have a problem with is the whole Diebold coming to fix the machines part of this act. Every time you do this Diebold will make more money as they have to come out and fix them and will charge WF for it. Now Diebold is the same company that manufactures the electronic voting machines. Diebold, and it's CEO raise enormous amounts of money for the Republican party. The CEO of Diebold helped raise some of the largest amounts of cash for Bush's election and re-election. Do a google search for Diebold and electronic voting machine fraud. There are many many people that believe Diebold, through voting fraud, helped GB get re-elected.

So in effect you are helping enrich the coffers of a corrupt company that raises vast sums of money for the republican party and who possibly swayed the election through fraud. Way to go!!

In the end you're only hurting the consumers. And believe me, no one except a small fraction of the population reads this site or knows squat about your cause.

While I am all for disobedience against injustice, this only wreaks of a veiled justification to vandalize.

Although I'd rather see all banks in flames, this is a nice start. You are an inspiration to all of us taking direct action, however small, against the corporate machine. Keep up the good work!

To the naysayers: Your pacifism is a symptom of your privelige and passivity. If you are not activly fighting corporate and state power in every manifestation you can lay your hands on, you're complicit in its exploitation of us all. By nitpicking about theory in your activist ghettos, by not supporting all vigorous activity the economic mammon, you do a real disservice to the cause of total liberation from capitalism. Shame on you for deriding the efforts of someone with the fortitude to put into practice what y'all only read about.

Wells Fargo is the bank for Becthel, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, .. that is all I can remember know.

*** I think it would be better to protest out front with signs of who Wells Fargo's major clients are. Maybe people will start takign their money out of Wells.

The unfortunate reality is that these kind of actions (much like the actions of the misguided anarchists who vandalized the SEIU office a few months back - calling for wildcat strikes with spray paint and anger) do NOT bring about the world that these same anarchists wish to see. I say this and I am on your side, politically. In theory, I consider myself an anti-capitalist rooted in the anarchist and socialist traditions, dreaming of a better more just world with community and collective economics as the foundation for a society based on communalist values. I wouldn't dare assume the individuals involved in these actions would disagree.

HOWEVER,

Your logic is flawed in assuming that a structure like Capitalism can even begin to see dents at small, self-righteous actions like this (that in the end hurt working, poor and dispossessed peoples unable to access the minimal economic resources they have). If anything, this system thrives off actions like this. The majority of people using these ATMs will not be turned away in anger (thereby boycotting the targeted bank) but will in fact be angry at the actions and political motives behind said actions.

There are times in revolutionary strategy to push and times to talk. I don't think the smashing of ATMs was an intelligent use of political time or energy. Why not volunteer? Start and run a free skool class? Write? Love? For your motives, these are much more beneficial methods in this very political situation. When there are 500,000 people in the street all smashing ATMs on every corner demanding revolution - than this kind of action will be warranted and welcomed.

Until then, keep on alienating possible comrades. It will do a disservice to the world you wish to see.

What Repost doesn't seem to understand is that the people who "rot" behind their desks there are doing so because they have families to support, and have little, if any, effect on the corporate policies of Wells Fargo.

This was pointless. If the "protesters" really cared about their obscure cause, they would stand in front of Wells Fargo handing out fliers to customers going in or out or writing to their representative, or even better, coming up with what they should think the banking system should be like and implementing it themselves (this is what capitalism is for right? you got your own idea, try it). Most people won't see the point to smashing ATMs because there really is no point to this vandalism anymore then say your typical nonsensical graffiti you see on the sides of buildings. The fact that indybay is being used by the lastest vandals to tell the world 'SEE WHAT HULK SMASH TODAY!' is absurd. What's next? If you are so against Gitmo why aren't you in Cuba smashing ATMs? That's the communist country providing the land that Gitmo is on.

My point is there is no point to this.

Thank you for the enlightening information although vandalism is still vandalism no matter the cause, and if I would have know WF supported immigrant detention centers I can assure you that I would have told all my friends, family and acquaintances to open accounts there.

That's right, ATM smashers -- not only are you pissing people off, thereby turning them against whatever random cause it is you support, but you are helping justify increased law enforcement budgets during lean financial times!

Puhleeze, you aren't making a difference -- making a difference would involve actual work, not smashing a hammer into a screen. I can't believe you guys actually think you're making a difference -- you're not -- As others said, these acts don't hurt anyone you want to hurt, they hurt average people in many different ways, however...

Tell you what, where's you're home? I'm going to smash your windows, because according to you, violence is the answer -- Hope you don't complain when the cops use your tactics on you...

Wow. I'm not surprised but nevertheless still troubled. This kind of sabotage only seeks to claim a kind of self-righteousness which ends up being egoistical. Just as you (meaning those who did this sabotage) can claim a kind of self-righteousness in their view of what is right and wrong about the world, those that you (meaning those saboteurs) are calling enemies can also harbour self-righteous views and claim that their version of the world is the way the world should be.

And thus, what do we end up with? We end up returning to where we were before--war, fighting, hatred, finger-pointing etc. We end up with one group of people claiming they have the right kind of view and another group of people claiming they have the right kind of view and they go to "war" at each other. It's another version of the Al-Qaida vs. U.S. (Bush) and other similar repeats of history.

This act of sabotage is misguided.

I woke up this morning, expecting just another ho-hum day. Imagine my surprise at seeing all of the world's problems solved, the military-industrial complex shuttered, Wells Fargo divested from evil activities such as ICE, and why, ICE itself no longer enforcing immigration and customs laws.

Thanks ATM-Smasher-Guys for devising such an awesome solution! Who knew it was so easy to win hearts and minds to the cause of justice? We struggle no more, thanks to ATM-Smasher-Guys!
What innovative and courageous activists you are! You rock!

the atm cameras were on when he/she took the pics above...

(it seems like you are trying to make the photographer implicit with the crime)

who cares if the cameras were on when the photos were taken?
the photos are a simple form of documenting the result of the incident, it doesn't matter who the photographer is.

they were also taken after the incident
the placement of the signs on the ATMs were put there after the initial incident.

so the photographer probably wasn't present when the incident occurred.