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Individual communiqué from Oakland 10/07/12
The only tears tonight will be for the countless lives that have been stolen.
Comrades when I looked into your eyes this weekend I saw a little bit of your pain fade. Somewhere in between the celebratory feminist vigilante march and the little pieces of civilization that were layed to rest on the ground as the hammers were swung at who knows how many parasitic shops tonight I found something.
Joyful violence against the state is the sanity to the everyday misery.
A misery so deep and so widespread. Countless lives contained, controlled, reduced, stolen, and destroyed by civilization, colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism. 11 years of war in Afghanistan, hundreds of years of colonization and my entire life of being socialized, categorized, identified...
Tonight was an intimate experience with the direct confrontation between what is wild and what is the negation of life. It was a little release from the choke of politics, of representation, and order. It's a peek into a proper response to what we face as contained life.
Our symbiotic relationship between each other, our kenesis, chaos, and our ebb and flow outran the law. Our bodies are equipped with joy and it may be our most valuable weapon when under attack. In this most impersonal world where one can fly a drone and drop a bomb killing untold amounts of life, our intimate bonds of life—our animal nature unleashes. Of course The Oakland Scientific Facility got some of our rage.
Yesterday the state took 25 friends away from us. The destruction tonight was in part our response—the struggle continues. Whether staffing the legal call-in center, covering imprisoned friends work shifts, smashing police recruitment stations, raising bail, or etch bathing the Community Policing Centre in East Vancouver we take care of one another. Every day agents of the state take people away and imprison them, and while 25 of our friends were nabbed, about 35,948 other people were arrested and carted off to jail yesterday.
It didn't start with Chase Bank and it doesn't end with City Hall or the Police recruitment station. It all must go, every last vestige of this wretched earth, and it is always a violent phenomenon.
An incomplete list of some of the attacks:
The last big window of the old Obama office on telegraph (The office has since moved because Oakland is to real for 'em)
The disgusting new Chase bank on 14th and Broadway
The whole side of California Bank.
Bank of the West
Some ATM's here and there
Some condos here and there
Sears
Oakland Tribune
Kaiser Permanente Office
AC Transit
Rudys can't fail
"Die yuppie scum" & "Gentry" were scrawled on some yuppie condos around 19th and Telegraph
OPD recruitment station
Oakland City Hall
Several BMW's and some other posh cars
The Oakland Scientific Facility, which houses computers and data storage for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
With love and dedication,
for myself
for the silent ones
for the revolutionary comrades behind bars
for the survivors and victims of US imperialism, colonialism, and war in Afghanistan, Palestine, and throughout the Muslim world.
Fight Genocide, Destroy what is civilized.
Joyful violence against the state is the sanity to the everyday misery.
A misery so deep and so widespread. Countless lives contained, controlled, reduced, stolen, and destroyed by civilization, colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism. 11 years of war in Afghanistan, hundreds of years of colonization and my entire life of being socialized, categorized, identified...
Tonight was an intimate experience with the direct confrontation between what is wild and what is the negation of life. It was a little release from the choke of politics, of representation, and order. It's a peek into a proper response to what we face as contained life.
Our symbiotic relationship between each other, our kenesis, chaos, and our ebb and flow outran the law. Our bodies are equipped with joy and it may be our most valuable weapon when under attack. In this most impersonal world where one can fly a drone and drop a bomb killing untold amounts of life, our intimate bonds of life—our animal nature unleashes. Of course The Oakland Scientific Facility got some of our rage.
Yesterday the state took 25 friends away from us. The destruction tonight was in part our response—the struggle continues. Whether staffing the legal call-in center, covering imprisoned friends work shifts, smashing police recruitment stations, raising bail, or etch bathing the Community Policing Centre in East Vancouver we take care of one another. Every day agents of the state take people away and imprison them, and while 25 of our friends were nabbed, about 35,948 other people were arrested and carted off to jail yesterday.
It didn't start with Chase Bank and it doesn't end with City Hall or the Police recruitment station. It all must go, every last vestige of this wretched earth, and it is always a violent phenomenon.
An incomplete list of some of the attacks:
The last big window of the old Obama office on telegraph (The office has since moved because Oakland is to real for 'em)
The disgusting new Chase bank on 14th and Broadway
The whole side of California Bank.
Bank of the West
Some ATM's here and there
Some condos here and there
Sears
Oakland Tribune
Kaiser Permanente Office
AC Transit
Rudys can't fail
"Die yuppie scum" & "Gentry" were scrawled on some yuppie condos around 19th and Telegraph
OPD recruitment station
Oakland City Hall
Several BMW's and some other posh cars
The Oakland Scientific Facility, which houses computers and data storage for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
With love and dedication,
for myself
for the silent ones
for the revolutionary comrades behind bars
for the survivors and victims of US imperialism, colonialism, and war in Afghanistan, Palestine, and throughout the Muslim world.
Fight Genocide, Destroy what is civilized.
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Hi Anarchist Collective of Oakland and the Greater Bay,
I am a brother of the resistance. I am of the generation that is now settling into comfortable lives with families and mortgages. I am on the brink of doing the same. I have been a resister of empire and misery since I was a pre-teen, scrawling pentagrams and Anarchy symbols on my middle school text books. I was at the protest in SF on Saturday. The one that was led by the beautiful banner declaring "end genocide, destroy the civilized". You will find many reasons to attack me, my ideas are half baked and my vocabulary generic. I don't write much, and I am always thinking. I am reading "The Art of War", by Sun Tzu, training in Martial Arts, employing myself in black markets hoping the economy of domination finally crumbles. I take every opportunity I can to express my right to live, and to break all walls between civilization and my animal self. I am an earth loving mystic misfit in this screwy society. I have lived as an expat in simpler places. I have returned home to face the most difficult journey I can imagine. I am aware of my privilege, and aware of the paradox I live day to day. I try to keep peace with my family while not agreeing with their doctrine. I am probably like you in a lot of ways, though we may appear different on the surface.
I do not understand your pride in vandalizing a transit station, which generally serves the underprivileged and working folk. I do not understand your pride in vandalizing Rudy's Can't Fail cafe, a place where I have gathered with friends on many occasions. Is it owned by a local working person? I do not understand why every demonstration must reflect what appears to be teenage angst and cyclical violence in the streets. I do not understand why you loathe the thought of potent leaders, or massive non-violent demonstrations (that often end up in euphoric street riots), or why you reject the non-violent approaches of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. I do not understand why our efforts cannot be focused into larger attacks, causing more destruction to the megalithic corporate villains while saving our comrades from unnecessary jail time and bail money, lawyer fees, court fees and all kinds of fees that end up in our enemies bank accounts. Please understand there is a place in my heart for savage releases of rage and uncomfortable principled living. But do you not worry sometimes that the violent reaction to systemic violence only perpetuates violence on both sides? Do you not worry that taking time to make banners, paint bombs, raising bail money and all that take time away from organizing a massive resistance that includes people of many walks of life? Refining the message, the tactics, and the outreach campaigns seems so important...so, what is going on with that? I see countless people everyday that are so easy to imagine joining a movement to take back the power, and yet at the same time they are so far from joining into our street ambush mentality.
Again, I did not go to school for politics, community studies, feminist studies or any of that. I read as much as I can but by trade I am a designer and a builder... I look at things in terms of the design process. Concept development, meaning, symbolism, philosophy, and then choosing a direction, design development, honing and refinement, making it understandable, communicable, functional, than into implementation, material selection, joinery, construction. I see these processes through and enjoy all parts of it. The struggle to fully engage a design challenge is no different than our struggle to overthrow a nasty dominate paradigm. Where are the elders in the movement? When are we going to have council meetings that include more than just your inner circle of badass anarchist activists? How long will you judge every person around you to the merits of their destructive capabilities, when will you reach your hand out for help? How much pride is involved in all this? I am only asking these questions because I hope to see radical change in my lifetime, and I wonder about these questions. Can we talk about Eastern approaches to right action and right speech, or will I be berated for being a New Age evangelist? Have you no room in your patience for accepting how other types of people deal with struggle? Have you no patience to reach out and build a bridge to another kind of person that may want to align with your ideals?
I am very sad today, after being with you at your march this weekend where we broke one window, and lost 20 of our friends. We painted a beautiful banner and now lost it for good. Hardly anyone saw it, or had time to join our march because it was over within minutes of it beginning. You write such a proud note about this weekends actions, but I am wondering if you choose to be critical at all, I am wondering if you think we need to expand the discussion on tactics and strategy. Are you really proud that we smashed some glass at a transit station? Do you think that is good for the movement? I am not angry with you, I am in fact happy that you have put yourself out there and said something...we need to continue the dialogue at all times. These are honest questions and things I am grappling with about our Bay Area resistance collective. This is a hard time...with all the nationalist and patriotic fanfare in the Bay, and the bullshit we can't hide from in politics...we may feel burdened with the responsability of being the only ones who care enough to take action. But, don't you worry about isolating yourself, alienating others, and being too headstrong about your approach? Are you afraid of being vulnerable for enough time to have an honest conversation with someone that is more hesitant to applaud your every move and speech? Please let me know if I am just another zombie buying into the bullshit or if any of my questions are relevant to you and if you'd like to continue a dialogue. I work with a lot of people that can design and create things and I think we can work together to create actions that are more effective in the future.
In solidarity for a more humane life,
Brother of the Resistance
I am a brother of the resistance. I am of the generation that is now settling into comfortable lives with families and mortgages. I am on the brink of doing the same. I have been a resister of empire and misery since I was a pre-teen, scrawling pentagrams and Anarchy symbols on my middle school text books. I was at the protest in SF on Saturday. The one that was led by the beautiful banner declaring "end genocide, destroy the civilized". You will find many reasons to attack me, my ideas are half baked and my vocabulary generic. I don't write much, and I am always thinking. I am reading "The Art of War", by Sun Tzu, training in Martial Arts, employing myself in black markets hoping the economy of domination finally crumbles. I take every opportunity I can to express my right to live, and to break all walls between civilization and my animal self. I am an earth loving mystic misfit in this screwy society. I have lived as an expat in simpler places. I have returned home to face the most difficult journey I can imagine. I am aware of my privilege, and aware of the paradox I live day to day. I try to keep peace with my family while not agreeing with their doctrine. I am probably like you in a lot of ways, though we may appear different on the surface.
I do not understand your pride in vandalizing a transit station, which generally serves the underprivileged and working folk. I do not understand your pride in vandalizing Rudy's Can't Fail cafe, a place where I have gathered with friends on many occasions. Is it owned by a local working person? I do not understand why every demonstration must reflect what appears to be teenage angst and cyclical violence in the streets. I do not understand why you loathe the thought of potent leaders, or massive non-violent demonstrations (that often end up in euphoric street riots), or why you reject the non-violent approaches of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. I do not understand why our efforts cannot be focused into larger attacks, causing more destruction to the megalithic corporate villains while saving our comrades from unnecessary jail time and bail money, lawyer fees, court fees and all kinds of fees that end up in our enemies bank accounts. Please understand there is a place in my heart for savage releases of rage and uncomfortable principled living. But do you not worry sometimes that the violent reaction to systemic violence only perpetuates violence on both sides? Do you not worry that taking time to make banners, paint bombs, raising bail money and all that take time away from organizing a massive resistance that includes people of many walks of life? Refining the message, the tactics, and the outreach campaigns seems so important...so, what is going on with that? I see countless people everyday that are so easy to imagine joining a movement to take back the power, and yet at the same time they are so far from joining into our street ambush mentality.
Again, I did not go to school for politics, community studies, feminist studies or any of that. I read as much as I can but by trade I am a designer and a builder... I look at things in terms of the design process. Concept development, meaning, symbolism, philosophy, and then choosing a direction, design development, honing and refinement, making it understandable, communicable, functional, than into implementation, material selection, joinery, construction. I see these processes through and enjoy all parts of it. The struggle to fully engage a design challenge is no different than our struggle to overthrow a nasty dominate paradigm. Where are the elders in the movement? When are we going to have council meetings that include more than just your inner circle of badass anarchist activists? How long will you judge every person around you to the merits of their destructive capabilities, when will you reach your hand out for help? How much pride is involved in all this? I am only asking these questions because I hope to see radical change in my lifetime, and I wonder about these questions. Can we talk about Eastern approaches to right action and right speech, or will I be berated for being a New Age evangelist? Have you no room in your patience for accepting how other types of people deal with struggle? Have you no patience to reach out and build a bridge to another kind of person that may want to align with your ideals?
I am very sad today, after being with you at your march this weekend where we broke one window, and lost 20 of our friends. We painted a beautiful banner and now lost it for good. Hardly anyone saw it, or had time to join our march because it was over within minutes of it beginning. You write such a proud note about this weekends actions, but I am wondering if you choose to be critical at all, I am wondering if you think we need to expand the discussion on tactics and strategy. Are you really proud that we smashed some glass at a transit station? Do you think that is good for the movement? I am not angry with you, I am in fact happy that you have put yourself out there and said something...we need to continue the dialogue at all times. These are honest questions and things I am grappling with about our Bay Area resistance collective. This is a hard time...with all the nationalist and patriotic fanfare in the Bay, and the bullshit we can't hide from in politics...we may feel burdened with the responsability of being the only ones who care enough to take action. But, don't you worry about isolating yourself, alienating others, and being too headstrong about your approach? Are you afraid of being vulnerable for enough time to have an honest conversation with someone that is more hesitant to applaud your every move and speech? Please let me know if I am just another zombie buying into the bullshit or if any of my questions are relevant to you and if you'd like to continue a dialogue. I work with a lot of people that can design and create things and I think we can work together to create actions that are more effective in the future.
In solidarity for a more humane life,
Brother of the Resistance
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