ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #4

(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)

🖤🩷🖤🩷

If you go to “No Kings” rallies today, no doubt it will be all you can do—as an anarchist who believes deeply in liberatory practices and politics—to maintain your cool when faced with both liberals’ and authoritarians’ lack of solidarity. Go with other anarchists and be each other’s support system, and debrief (rant, cry, laugh, and/or chill) afterward.

But also go as “friendly anarchist factions” to model what solidarity actually looks like—even if too many nonanarchistic folks don’t yet know what that feels like or how to do it. I always wish that people didn’t need to be, say, tear gassed or arrested to learn that ACAB isn’t just a slogan, and that anarchists will almost certainly be the ones to have their backs. But such is the wearisome “learning curve,” and the more folks who see beloved community self-defense modeled for them, unflinchingly, on the streets, the more they’ll understand how (and why!) to stick side-by-side too—including with us.

Be solidarity.

#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #3

(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)

🖤🩷🖤🩷

Back in the day, ahead of a big protest, anarchists set up “convergence centers”: big, scrappy, communal spaces where folks could not only find each other, make and eat food, plug into art and media making, etc. in the days before an (often direct) action based on a wide-ranging diversity of tactics—under an umbrella name like “Carnival against Capitalism” or “No Olympics on Stolen Native Lands”—but also skill up together.

There’s no time to do this before the poorly named “No Kings” (aka, it’s fascism) protests tmrw. Yet you could easily do pop-up skill shares. So many “newbies” are open to learning and eager for alternatives!

Remake the urban landscape into temporary autonomous “classrooms.” Use public furniture or gathering spots, or bring blankets or chairs to sit on. Write the skill share topic on cardboard and display it. Run around and announce skill shares as they start. Bored protesters waiting for a march to begin or tired of listening to rally speeches make great participants. Circle up and start passing along handy skills—say, how to help each other rinse tear gas out of eyes or turn a T-shirt into a mask (over your N95), or how to do forms of community self-defense or jail support. Offer an Anarchism 101 or local rad history talk too. Exercise hands and minds, encouraging liberal and progressive folks to (begin to) think and act for themselves.

#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #2

(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)

🖤🩷🖤🩷

It’s tough not to fume over the “peaceful protest” call for a “sit-down wave” at this Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies, such as one that asserts: if you see so-called infiltrators “destroy[ing] property,” “sit down and leave the provocators” standing. That’s how the self-appointed leaders of these nonprofit-corporate “ally” demos uphold a status quo that benefits them. In practice, it means anyone not falling in liberal line will get the brunt of police violence and state repression.

Enough fuming. My anarcho-prefigurative self says: outorganize the “peace police”! #BeGayMakeFun! Alongside bringing many zines to gift out at these rallies: Set up carnivesque “no kings, no masters” participatory games! Bring screen-printing supplies (stencils, silk screens, or even humble potatoes carved with printable slogans) and let folks print your rebellious designs on T-shirts, patches, or cardboard! Create playful shield-making art station! Become snack faeries, carting around yummy treats in wagons to freely distro! Do some rebel street theater or radical cheerleading! Bring a queer rebel marching band or amplified music, and start a street dance!

Anarchism is not just good politics; make it good fun, and when folks are drawn to you, anarchism will not only be welcoming but irresistible too. Plus, who knows, maybe you can joyfully teach people how do a “stand-up wave” against the real provocateurs (cops).

#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, #1

(Note: this was written for an earlier No Kings rally, but it might be helpful for the ones tmrw, which should at least be renamed “No Fascists” aka “We Are All Antifascists”!)

🖤🩷🖤🩷

I know it’s no fun to go to liberal-progressive rallies, but thousands of newbies and/or newly awakened folks will be at this Saturday’s “No Kings” protest. Don’t let the nonprofit “ally” complex siphon off the genuine energy of those seeking social transformation—those who don’t yet know that, for instance, “police are not our friends” or “solidarity is our best weapon.”

Instead, print thousands of zines that allow people to “educate themselves in freedom,” especially accessible ones that include rebellious ideas and do-it-ourselves practices! Take those zines to rallies. Walk around and freely gift them to people!

From personal experience, I know that a single zine can change many hearts and minds—and create “accomplices” now willing to experiment with anarchistic forms of street militancy, from varied types of community self-defense to myriad types of collective care and mutual aid.

#MakeMediaBuildSolidarity
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#TryAnarchismForLife

On many days of late—too many of them—it feels like we’re up against such monumental brutality on so many levels, it’s hard to imagine what “winning” looks like, much less even being able to put small yet well-placed wrenches in the gears of fascism. Yet each and every day, I force myself to notice at least one messy-beautiful anarchic example of what we can do and what we are doing. And on some days—like this one—my weary heart is stretched past the ugliness of this world and feels comradely warmth that no borders can contain.

I woke to beloved friends sending me this photo of a solidarity banner in Athens, Greece. The banner hangs off a balcony on a squatted social center called Zizania (“weeds”), which when evicted at one point, set up a social center on a nearby public plaza in what’s largely an immigrant and refugee neighborhood, until folks could squat the building again. This squat has a distinctly queer and feministic sensibility, and many of its projects revolve around care, from a solidarity kitchen and squatted communal garden, to free Greek-language classes aimed at those who’ve been compelled to flee their homes in other lands. Like many a liberated space in Athens—and walls in general—the exterior of Zizania is covered in rebellious street art, including the words “this building has been squatted,” but it also has an events calendar chalked on its front.

Today, Zizania’s exterior now includes this banner, aimed at raising awareness and support for anarchists and others in Texas facing state repression following an alleged July 4 noise demo outside an ICE detention facility. For the overall situation, see and follow @dfwsupportcommittee. In particular, see and follow @free.des.revol to support my beloved friend who is now also incarcerated, charged with alleged “evidence tampering” for allegedly moving some zines from one place to another. The banner, in a mix of English and Greek, reads:

“From Frontex to ICE, against detention centers, concentration camps, borders, and deportations everywhere in the world. Solidarity to the arrested Texas comrades.”

We may only have scrappy tools, but we use them well and defiantly, and especially, lovingly.

#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

Over the past 3 days, I’ve gone to three different gatherings that all share 1 common theme: brutally unnecessary loss, which in turn is inseparable from brutal forms of theft.

On Friday, I walked up a steep hill in the middle of urban Montreal to a secluded grassy area surrounded by trees and filled with birdsong. It felt instantly sacred. And instantly ugly. The bodies of Indigenous children, victims of nonconsensual psychiatric experiments in the 1950s-60s, are likely buried in unmarked graves on these grounds—a former psychiatric hospital owned by McGill University. At a weekly vigil, people and orange ribbons cry out for the “TRUTH” of colonialism.

Yesterday, I listened to panelists talk about the 20th anniversary of a 7-day “Solidarity across Borders” walk from Montreal to Ottawa, with ethics like “status for all.” It took 6 months to organize, and brought together people compelled to move from all corners of the globe. Rad banners from demos over the years had been put up around the room, and someone noted an addition to the oft-used “No One Is Illegal” slogan: “Canada Is Illegal.” Yet various folks on the walk were later deported. And as the contrast between collective possibility 20 years and how much worse things are now filled the air, the banners started falling to the ground.

Today I went on a funeral march for DIY cultural and political spaces. A marching band accompanied us through the streets. We stopped outside now-bland, hipster-upscale businesses that had once housed lively evenings, or as one person put it, “places to fall in love with art, friends, communities, the city,” to speak to the ravages of capitalism. There were relatively few of us. Passersby seemed confused, for they had no idea what gentrification had erased.

Last night, at midnight, a friend in Vienna had just woken up and texted: “My body is in a state of shock. I hug you, because I don’t know what else to do at this moment.” I knew they meant because the US had begun bombing Iran. Minutes before, I’d read the news, wondering how I could go to sleep. How can any of us sleep at night—we, who are intertwined by brutally unnecessary losses and our broken, rebellious hearts?

🖤💔

Photos (continued in comments): “Destroy Power Not People” sticker seen in Stockholm, June 2018; “Land Back,” “ACAB,” and “Neither Quebec nor Canada” stickers seen in Montreal, August 2024; “No Human Is Illegal” sticker seen in mid-Michigan, December 2022; the word “TRUTH” spelled out in orange-fabric ribbons on a fence as seen in Montreal, June 2025; “No Borders, No Nations” spray painted on a wall, as spotted in Athens, March 2025; “Nationalists Not Welcome” sticker seen in Portland, OR, April 2018; “Capitalism Ruined My Life” sticker spotted in Montreal, June 2025; orange-fabric ribbons tied to a tree with glimpse of unmarked burial ground for stolen Indigenous children in the background.

#DestroyPowerNotPeople
#NoBordersNoNations
#AllStatesAreIllegal
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE, pt 4

If you go to “No Kings” rallies today, no doubt it will be all you can do—as an anarchist who believes deeply in liberatory practices and politics—to maintain your cool when faced with both liberals’ and authoritarians’ lack of solidarity . Go with other anarchists and be each other’s support system, and debrief (rant, cry, laugh, and/or chill) afterward.

But also go as “friendly anarchist factions” to model what solidarity actually looks like—even if too many nonanarchistic folks don’t yet know what that feels like or how to do it. I always wish that people didn’t need to be, say, tear gassed or arrested to learn that ACAB isn’t just a slogan, and that anarchists will almost certainly be the ones to have their backs. But such is the wearisome “learning curve,” and the more folks who see beloved community self-defense modeled for them, unflinchingly, on the streets, the more they’ll understand how (and why!) to stick side-by-side too—including with us.

Be solidarity.

#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

(photo: pink and black circle A heart spray-painted on a wall in Athens, Greece, during a queer+trans International Women’s Day march on March 8, 2025)

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE, pt 3

Back in the day, ahead of a big protest, anarchists set up “convergence centers”: big, scrappy, communal spaces where folks could not only find each other, make and eat food, plug into art and media making, etc. in the days before an (often direct) action based on a wide-ranging diversity of tactics—under an umbrella name like “Carnival against Capitalism” or “No Olympics on Stolen Native Lands”—but also skill up together.

There’s no time to do this before the poorly named “No Kings” (aka, it’s fascism) protests tmrw. Yet you could easily do pop-up skill shares. So many “newbies” are open to learning and eager for alternatives!

Remake the urban landscape into temporary autonomous “classrooms.” Use public furniture or gathering spots, or bring blankets or chairs to sit on. Write the skill share topic on cardboard and display it. Run around and announce skill shares as they start. Bored protesters waiting for a march to begin or tired of listening to rally speeches make great participants. Circle up and start passing along handy skills—say, how to help each other rinse tear gas out of eyes or turn a T-shirt into a mask (over your N95), or how to do forms of community self-defense or jail support. Offer an Anarchism 101 or local rad history talk too. Exercise hands and minds, encouraging liberal and progressive folks to (begin to) think and act for themselves.

#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE, pt 2

It’s tough not to fume over the “peaceful protest” call for a “sit-down wave” at this Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies, such as one that asserts: if you see so-called infiltrators “destroy[ing] property,” “sit down and leave the provocators” standing. That’s how the self-appointed leaders of these nonprofit-corporate “ally” demos uphold a status quo that benefits them. In practice, it means anyone not falling in liberal line will get the brunt of police violence and state repression.

Enough fuming. My anarcho-prefigurative self says: outorganize the “peace police”! #BeGayMakeFun! Alongside bringing many zines to gift out at these rallies: Set up carnivesque “no kings, no masters” participatory games! Bring screen-printing supplies (stencils, silk screens, or even humble potatoes carved with printable slogans) and let folks print your rebellious designs on T-shirts, patches, or cardboard! Create playful shield-making art station! Become snack faeries, carting around yummy treats in wagons to freely distro! Do some rebel street theater or radical cheerleading! Bring a queer rebel marching band or amplified music, and start a street dance!

Anarchism is not just good politics; make it good fun, and when folks are drawn to you, anarchism will not only be welcoming but irresistible too. Plus, who knows, maybe you can joyfully teach people how do a “stand-up wave” against the real provocateurs (cops).

#EverydayAnarchism
#TryAnarchismForLife
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

(photo of a brick wall with a circle A spray-painted on the concrete foundation below it, as spotted on the stolen lands of Tioh’tià:ke/Montreal, June 2025)

ANARCHIST PUBLIC SERVICE:

I know it’s no fun to go to liberal-progressive rallies, but thousands of newbies and/or newly awakened folks will be at this Saturday’s “No Kings” protest. Don’t let the nonprofit “ally” complex siphon off the genuine energy of those seeking social transformation—and don’t yet know that, for instance, “police are not our friends” or “solidarity is our best weapon.”

Instead, print thousands of zines that allow people to “educate themselves in freedom,” especially accessible ones that include rebellious ideas and do-it-ourselves practices! Take those zines to rallies. Walk around and freely gift them to people!

From personal experience, I know that a single zine can change many hearts and minds—and create “accomplices” now willing to experiment with anarchistic forms of street militancy, from varied types of community self-defense to myriad types of collective care and mutual aid.

#MakeMediaBuildSolidarity
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#EducatingEachOtherForFreedom
#TryAnarchismForLife