-Contains material solely for the purpose of achieving breakdown of prison through disruption-
by Dan Baker at Mongoose Distro on 16th Dec 2022 via thefreeonline
“This essay is being written from prison. I am a political prisoner, which has made me strong in my convictions and allowed me to define myself and uproot patriarchal, racist, sexist, hierarchical, specieist and capitalist conditioning. But the programing has done damage deep within my mind, so I must struggle daily to change and grow in a more wholesome direction.“
In a previous essay we explored how to cultivate motivation for direct actions, and to visualize how to make meaningful progress toward the liberation of all beings, in detail. We will now build on that with specific examples and further motivations
Obviously we can be moved by current events, like the Women’s Revolution in Rojava and the more recent uprising of women in Iran, and the global support pouring in for that struggle.
There is also the regressive efforts of sexist religious fanatics in Amerikkka struggling to take away women’s bodily autonomy which need to be opposed. Ignoring these will only allow them to go further and further, slowing breaking down the healthy boundaries of progress that protect women’s rights.
If you still lack motivation to take direct actions then feel free to resort to the media of modern capitalism itself, which can be used against itself. I would like you, the reader, to respond to me directly. Tell me a revolutionary story. Tell me how someone defended the Earth, how someone resisted oppression. We have many examples, and we have many fictional stories too.
The true stories of the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, Algeria, Vietnam, Kurdistan, Cuba, Venezuela and so on. A thrilling example is the movie “Beritan” which is available for free on YouTube. This film, produced by actual activists and revolutionaries, some of whom I was honored to meet in person in Rojava, tells the true story of a Kurdish woman named Beritan, who was a revolutionary guerilla fighting against forces of oppression. She and her lover sacrificed their relationship to join the revolution. I met the man who played Beritan’s lover in this movie. He has striking blue eyes. Beritan was betrayed and her team was attacked on a mountain, fighting to the last partisan.
She refused to surrender, surrounded and outnumbered, and when she ran out of ammunition she smashed her own rifle and threw herself off a cliff rather face the humiliation of capture at the hands of misogynistic men. Her act of defiance moved the enemy deeply and many of them renounced their cause. Please watch this movie, it was filmed with real weapons instead of special effects, and realistically shows what modern combat is like. When I got home from Rojava I received death threats from Turkish soldiers who sent me pictures and videos of themselves killing and abusing Kurdish women. This struggle is still going on.
Another more recent film is “Les Filles du Soleil”, “The Women of the Sun”, which shows Kurdish women organizing and fighting back against Islamic jihadis in Syria during the recent civil war, fighting to rescue their children and take back their homes. We grew up with shows and movies like Captain Planet, Fern Gulley, Hoot, Free Willy, Avatar the Last Airbender, Avatar (with the blue aliens), Star Wars, The Expanse, The Handmaid’s Tale, even Harry Potter. These shows include stories where the characters go ‘underground,’ live on the road, on the run, in resistance, going through hardships like lack of food, vitamins, nutrients, coffee, emotional and mental health support, facing violence of a large force of oppression that outnumbers and outguns them. They defend the environment from polluters and deforestation, protect endangered species, free animals from captivity and resist dogmatic mysticism and tyranny. There is a movie similar to Beritan, but I can’t remember the name, which is also on YouTube.
This film shows two Kurdish men who are living in a hideout deep in the mountains. In their isolation they play chess, listen to the radio and await orders. They play guitar, smoke, eat poor quality food, discuss politics and ideology and read revolutionary books. One day, after many months of waiting, they get a call on the radio and dig themselves out of their snowed in shelter.
They struggle through the difficult terrain in the freezing mountain weather. One of them gets sick. They hide from patrols of fascist forces and helicopters with clever means, like umbrellas and tarps painted white to look like snow drifts on rocks. Eventually, after dealing with twisted ankles, freezing mountain streams and dangerous climbs, they reach their target and attack, ambushing an enemy unseen to the viewer. The deplete their ammunition and retreat, pushing themselves across the treacherous terrain, unable to stop to build a fire. One of them succumbs to hypothermia and disease and eventually dies from the illness and freezing cold. His friend is filled with despair at the loss of his comrade, but they both seem to understand that this was the choice they made, to dedicate their lives, and deaths, to the struggle. In this they find meaning in their suffering. This is the reality of a revolutionary struggle. Other fictional accounts are found in the novels “Kraken Calling” and “After the Revolution.”
Previously we started where we are and radiate outward to make practical progress a reality. We do this again by focusing on the breath, wherever we are. We need fresh, clean air to breath, more than even water and food. In order to have clean air we need to transition away from fossil fuels and put an end to pollution. Major contributors to air pollution include the meat industry and coal burning. So these are sources we can bring our attentions to right away in order to defend our lives and the lives of others from needless suffering as the hands of those driven by profits. When you see a ‘coal roller’, a truck driver who has taken it upon themselves to attach devices to their vehicle which spew massive amounts of black smoke, take it upon yourself to shut that shit down. This is an act of self defense, the right to clean, fresh air, a life free of lung cancer. In the positive aspect we can plant trees and grow edible gardens and food forests in order to protect and purify the air. The act of planting trees helps us make acts that will bear fruit long after we are gone.
Clean drinking water is another basic human right. This was brought up in the previous essay. We can take direct actions to protect water where it is being polluted. Only by making in unprofitable for those who pollute the air and water can we defend our right to a healthy life free of preventable disease. We can go to where people are without clean drinking water and deliver bottled water to them in an emergency. But this is a temporary solution which only profits companies like Nestle, who actually try to patent water so they can monopolize the sale of drinkable water. This also simultaneously pollutes the environment with the water bottles. Every front like war zone is littered with as many empty water bottles as shell casings from expended ammunition. The Earth Liberation activists have made great examples for us to follow in defending the water, and the Water Protectors fighting against oil pipelines have also set the bar high for us.
Water Protectors in Minnesota March Onto Line 3 Pipeline .
They need our help when they face the fury of the state for their actions of self defense. Jessica Reznicek is one such water protector. I offer the self criticism that years ago my friend Shareshten Kerry invited me to join her in defending the water at Standing Rock and I was not yet conscious enough to join her, distracted as I was by my own selfish ambitions and the struggle to survive late stage capitalism. But her efforts to raise my awareness did spark a chain reaction which led me to full time activism. I hope she reads this one day and knows that I respect and admire her.
Healthy food is another foundation of human rights and liberation. This is also related to clean air. We can grow our own food, collect food that capitalist supermarkets throw out and distribute it to the hungry. Food pantries and soup kitchens are needed now more than ever. My friends make great works in this area and I send them all my love and regards for their progress. They are doing this better than I ever did and I hope to keep up with them when I get out of prison. Everyone has a right to healthy food. One way to ensure this is to eat vegan or vegetarian.
We should also be reasonable and not alienate allies who do not share our vegan lifestyle, and distribute whatever food is available, even giving meat to people who eat it. No one likes fanatics, but we can be radical in our own private spaces and in public when we are not feeding meat eaters. This also relates to the excellent works of Animal Liberation Activists, who free farm animals from lives of slavery and suffering, leading to mechanical death. They have liberated horses and cattle, sheep and animals slaughtered for their fur. This kind of liberation is very symbolic and powerful merit.
When humans treat animals as commodities for meat and skin and fur they are really setting the stage for this kind of treatment for other people, in wars and prisons and factories. There is Hindu prophecy that says that one day humans with farm each other for meat in an age of degradation. This is already a reality in wars for profit and the prison and military industrial complexes. The reality is that meat is an emergency food for times of survival, but people have gotten so used to nation state’s constant forever wars that they live on canned foods, dehydrated foods and meat even when there is no war in their area at the time.
So ideally we can distribute vegan food, vitamins and means of purifying water which do not corrupt the environment or put living beings in danger of extinction. Life straw water filters are a better solution than bottled water in my opinion. But I offer the self criticism that I have used much bottled water on the front lines and left many empty bottles there, contributing to the litter of the battlefield in the heat of the moment. All people need are fruits, veggies, carbohydrates and plant based proteins. The International Commune in Rojava is doing admirable work to find ways to provide these solutions for the community in sustainable and ecologically friendly ways, with ecological preserves, tree planting, organic farms, solar power, hydroelectric power and composting.
Everyone needs stable shelter. There is an illogical amount of homeless people in countries where empty homes sit unoccupied because no one can afford them. “Indecline” is one group who has taken a very creative direct action to help solve this problem. They cut up billboards own by big companies and used the material to fabricate small houses for homeless people. Then they dropped these structures off at homeless camps. I have spent many years struggle against homelessness after becoming alienated from my family, who are white Christian nationalists. Once you are on the street it is extremely difficult to get out of homelessness without a infusion of cash, a permanent shelter near sources of water, food, transportation, education, medical care and a trade to work. Squatting is another solution. People simply occupy spaces which are habitable because they are not currently being used. Profits for landlords, banks and property owners are not more important the survival of individual lives. If you have seasonal homes in different locations and do not house the needy then I feel personally insulted by your lifestyle. Your comfort is a threat to my existence and the existence of entire armies of homeless people all over the world. Consider doing something to help the situation rather than make it worse. You could give one of your homes to become a safe house for activists. I have stayed at places like this, and when safe houses were not available my life was infinitely more dangerous and difficult.
People need heath care for the effects of exposure, the stress of regular work and survival, and especially for the lifestyle of resistance. We need activists who are trained medics, EMT’s, Paramedics, Medical Assistants, Nurses, Doctors and caregivers. People are needed who can treat wounded fighters and help homeless populations address specific problems, like addiction and exposure to the elements, extreme temperatures and malnutrition. Even many housed up people living in poverty require basic medical care and suffer from preventable diseases. There is the example of the Rainbow Gathering, which is a roaming tribe of hippies and assorted types who caravan from national forest to national forest to live a lifestyle of protest by rejecting the material excess of conventional society, called Babylon. They need educated and skilled friends to contribute to the culture they are building.
Riot Medicine, Medics in Protests & Mutual Aid …
There is a need for skilled mentors of trades and crafts, and schools of these skills for building shelters, infrastructure outside of the nation state. In the revolutionary movement there is a huge amount of respect for the foundational trades, like carpenters, plumbers, welders, iron workers, auto mechanics, electricians and so on.
These skills require 10 to 20 years of daily practice, training and application of skills to create competence, mastery and eventually intuition. We all have an obligation to humanity to master a skill in addition to a general ability to ‘adult’, and to pass on this skill to the net generation. Some people are very good at surviving on the road with very little, and this is valuable. These kinds of levels of mastery amount to 10,000 to 20,000 hours of applied practice and work. This can be art, construction, medical care, food production, agriculture, making clothes, anything which contributes to the movement. We are all interdependent on these various fields, none of us is truly independent. We all rely on immigrant farm workers and construction workers. We all rely on janitors and teachers. The idea that we are separate from one another is an illusion of the ego which stalls progress. It is like a wave or a series of mountains and valleys. We are individual waves of matter reaching for the sun and the stars, but we are still simultaneously and paradoxically one with the valley, just as much as we are individuals.
This is why I recommend the mental exercise of reflecting on “no self, no negative self talk, no inherent existence, just emptiness”. This exercise is the first of a two part practice, the second being the visualization of a light manifesting as our ideal, our fullest potential, which is a compassionate and joyful member of a universal community complete with skillful means of accomplishing the liberation of all beings. So we are simultaneously hollow forms full of peaceful emptiness and we are, for all practical purposes, also individual and unique beings with specific needs and creative expressions. I don’t recommend engaging in the extremes of completely hopeless nihilism or the extreme of egotistical selfishness. The ego really is bullshit, just a compilation of memories without an inherent existence. If there s an eternal soul, which is debatable, it is not the collection of memories that is our organic brain. This organ will not survive death. Ask any raver tripping on psychedelics, any physicist, any yogi or serious meditator who is not completely brainwashed by religious of patriarchy and hierarchy. There is a reality which is the ground of all being from which all forms emerge and to which all forms return.
When we encounter obstacles in our movement we can consider the obstacles to be part of the path towards liberation. How we deal with obstacles is very important. It is crucial that we do not compromise our ideals in dealing with difficulties, so that we do not become the monsters and enemies that we struggle against. We have to take the moral high ground. both in our own eyes and the eyes of the world, who we are trying to call to arms in our cause. There is the saying that we can do better with honey than with vinegar, and that our kindness will be more effective to “force” a lover to kindness in return than force would move them to kindness by contrast.
Reflecting on these mental exercises can help us find an ideal as we strive to purify environments and bring everyone to liberation and their full potential. Fascists would have us believe that a great mass of workers toils so that a few can reach a state of superiority. This is the fundamental flaw of their ideology, that they must always strive against each other for superiority. We build each other up and strive for equality, so that everyone can experience the best of life in community with their neighbors, instead of at their expense. So we still have to dialogue with our allies and enemies and neutral parties in order to build and define ourselves and to struggle against those who consider themselves superior to others and harm the world in their attempts to dominate.
We have an obligation to argue against terrible ideas, like slavery and caste and class. We must speak up when we hear these people, at work, at the market places, at parties and clubs and school, wherever they try to platform their hatred. It is a moral obligation and an act of self defense for those who are targeted and for all of humanity to fight against these ideas. We must destroy bias and prejudice. Even within our own hearts and minds we must “kill the dominant male.” Instead we cultivate love, compassion, joy and patience. Consider that a warrior monk who is attacked on the road does not consider it a “sin” to fight for survival, to teach a thief a magic life lesson by beating them within an inch of their life, but then also being responsible for nursing them back to health id the damage is extensive. When we hear people displaying racist “dog whistles”, microaggressions and outright hate speech, we have to say, “That’s racist, your ideas are trash, I fundamentally reject everything you just said, and you need to fuck all the way off right now.” We should always be ready to stand on our beliefs and fight for that. It s often dangerous. We can use “verbal judo” and “Jedi mind tricks”. While we should not assume that others will agree with us or harmonize with our ideas, even if they don’t openly disagree, we should not compromise on issues like racism, bigotry and sexism. We must cultivate the ability to argue patiently, with logic, wisdom, humor and wit. Don’t let bullies interrupt and talk over you- finish you complete sentence without raising your voice, making eye contact, with your arms crossed. Study body language and put it into practice.
Don’t put blind faith in those who seem to agree with you, practice equanimity towards friends enemies and neutral parties- everyone is a potential spy, and 1 in 10 people are informants. Anyone with a loved one, an illness, addiction or a career can be used against you by states and organizations who have some leverage over them. So be careful about what you say and don’t go to far, while drawing your opponent out to extend themselves too far. Bring other in to a conversation to back you up, and go to the aid of those being bullied, verbally or otherwise.
Consider if you would be willing or able to commit your body, speech and mind to a total transformation towards your highest ideals. This involves uprooting the programing of capitalist propaganda, hierarchy, patriarchy, selfish egotism, individualism, racism, bigotry and domination. Honestly examine yourself and see if you have been tricked into sexualizing any of the unwholesome ideologies and ask yourself if this is really healthy or just an inherited trauma. Think of the sacrifices of the cadres of revolutionary guerilla worldwide over the years, from the beginning of “his” story, where resisters fought against the walled cities that enslaved countless peoples, especially women. The history of “civilization” is the history of the oppressions of women, also known as the domestication of cattle like people. There are also many peoples who have resisted for all time, like the Kurds, and they are naturally brave and strong, including the women, due to their preference for freedom over slavery.
So we can help them and become like them by imitating them until we get used to living free. We can also donate to revolutionaries, and panhandlers. activists, disaster relief, political prisoners and join them. We can give heart felt home made gifts to friends without expectation of return. I will offer a self criticism here that I was not a better, more revolutionary kind of friend in Rojava, where my friend Hiwa gave me a very nice birthday present of seeds, because he saw that I like to garden and grow things, even when conditions are not ideal. There is a ragged beauty in dystopia gardens springing up from the rusty ruins of a war torn city. I feel the loss of Hiwa’s friendship deeply because he later shot himself in a fit of hopeless desperation. My other friend Dilsoz, whose name relates to the heart in Kurdish, gave me a very nice patch to wear on my uniform. I could have been a better friend, and I hope he is still doing well. I try to be a good friend to my defense committee back home, and remember birthdays and call and write them regularly. These connections define us and motivate us. We really must prioritize repaying other’s kindness, both the direct kindness of others and the indirect kindness of teaching us who ad what to avoid by negative interactions. Other self work includes uprooting attachment, to our homeland, to our ideas of what genders should be and how we want others to be, to political structures and luxuries and the illusion of security at the expense of real freedom. We can also uproot aversion, avoidance of discomfort, gossip and self centeredness. I will offer another self criticism, that on the front lines I failed to communicate effectively with my friend Karker while we were holding off the enemy jihadis.
When we were ordered to take the VICE News journalists to safety Karker stayed behind with an Arab machine gunner and we were very worried about them. I felt torn because I was compelled to follow orders but I wanted to stay with my comrades. The next day we were all back in the same building on the front lines, minus the civilian reporters, who had been evacuated to safety. That day we were overrun and this time I made sure to communicate effectively and I was one of the last people to leave the building, after Karker and the Arab machine gunner went to safety before me. Myself and my team leader, a former Marine, stayed back and helped carry the wounded, cover those falling back, and carry the equipment left behind by the wounded, their weapons and bags. It was almost an argument between us, but my team leader turned out to be stronger with steadier nerves and he was the last to leave that day. I respect him for that. With his guidance I was able to focus through the stress to treat some of the wounded, and he even criticized and guided me through treating his own wounds later that day, when he was shot twice and slightly blown up. These are the high stress situations in which we really have to examine our hearts and decide what kind of person we want to be. Will you protect the civilians with your body and take them to safety? Will you stay and fight, and possible die or be captured, while your friends escape? Will you succumb to shock and injuries or make yourself useful and help others after treating your own wounds? It is better to do the thinking now, because when the time comes you won’t be able to keep up with the details if your haven’t done all the thinking before hand.
We can do some mental gymnastics to build up the fortitude for these situations, like cherishing our enemies. They teach is wisdom, force us to learn and use grand strategy and small scale tactics. Enemies make us learn self defense and cultivate fortitude, endurance, patience, and tolerance, both for friends and enemies. They give us a target for all of our primal energy, and help us define exactly what we are not, and who we are and want to be. In the absence of enemies we can made deals with our friends to cultivate a harmless rivalry in order to leap frog one another in skills.
We can also equalize ourselves and others. Everyone fears death, all being avoid pain. So we can help others in that respect, to ease their pain and rescue them from death. Almost everyone has seen an automobile accident or knows someone dealing with pain. Get involved, personally, in other’s lives, if they give you consent. Unconsciousness in a life and death situation implies consent- you would probably want help if you were in a similar state. Out of ten patients they ma all need ten different treatments, and ten beggars may all have different needs, so we must learn various skills and cultivate the means to help others and create the conditions in which everyone can be happy, healthy and free. We can also help other equally. When I was at the CHAZ/CHOP barricades we were attacked by a car full of gang members with guns. They ha been provoked by someone in the crowd. They shot at me and my friends. I had been advised by the community not to bring firearms, so I didn’t. I did bring lots of emergency medical supplies. These kids who were shooting at us were eventually run down by people with firearms and they crashed. I rushed forward with several friends, other street medics, and we treated the wounds of the kids who had been shooting at us. We were able to save one of them, despite gunshot wounds to the head. We may have been able to save the other if the police had not confiscated my extensive medical supplies the day before. But the point is to help all “others” equally, and in doing so you may win allies who were previously enemies. Caregivers are admirable in this, that they skillfully help others even when they are being unpleasant or combative. One must also consider that current friends can become enemies and we should still help them in certain circumstances, like when they cannot hurt us.
So we can engage in writing, debating, politics, direct conflict, elections, and raising and teaching kids and future generations. But when we are interacting with young people we should not be overbearing and fanatical like religious zealots. That will only alienate people. Casual, conversational ideology put in action through words, deeds and lifestyle, is much more powerful than preaching. In “Life of Pi”, a lovely fictional story about an interfaith boy who survives a horrible situation at sea, Pi says that there would be more converts to Christianity if Christians said less and just left their Gideon Bibles in the hotel rooms for people to find when they need guidance during dark nights of the soul. In the same way we need to spread ideology, write books and pamphlets and leave them everywhere, without getting in the average pedestrians face and interfering with their routine.
It’s like panhandling: no one likes aggressive panhandlers, scaring and bothering people, invading their personal space. Passive panhandling is much more effective, simply holding a sign at a busy intersection, perhaps at the top of a hill where it will take sometime for the light to turn and people will be slowly climbing the hill. This is even spiritualized by Buddhist monks, with specific guidelines for when and how it is appropriate to beg and preach. Media is also an important way of reaching others. Videos, documentaries, and music are all necessary for a successful movement. I was deeply moved by Lee Brickly’s music, and the revolutionary songs by Chumbawumba.
Here are some more examples of Revolutionary music that moves me: ACAB by Iberia, ACAB by Sebastian Thunder/Babylon Race, ACAB by city morgue, ZillaKami and Nascar Aloe, Acid Rave Sex by Henrix, Animal Rights by deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner, BYOB by System of a Down, Bella Ciao, Bold Fenian Men by Judy Collins, everything by Anti Flag and Against Me!, Building the Barricades, Do You Hear the People Sing, and Red and Black in Les Miserables, Come out Ye Black and Tans, Fight for Your Right by the Beastie Boys, Forever Black America by Common and Gucci Mane, most of Rage Against the Machine songs, I Shall Be Released by Peter, Paul and Mary, I Shot the Sheriff by Bob Marley, War Is my Destiny and other songs by Immortal Technique and Ill Bill, I’m Gonna Join that One Big Union by Woodie Guthrie, Imagine, Lie, Cheat, Steal and other songs by Run the Jewels, Living with War by Neil Young, Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman, Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, Mississippi Goddamn, March of the Levelers, the Diggers Song, Masters of War, Megalomaniac, When the President Talks to God, War Pigs, Oxygen by Willie Mason, Religious Wars by Fuck You Pay Me, Modern Day Emma Goldman, Rifles of the IRA, Sacco and Vanzetti by Christy Moore, Smashing of the Van, Sound of da Police by KRS One, The Guillotine by The Coup, The Last Gasp of the Patriarchy by Kris Bowers, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gill Scott Heron, The Times They Are a Changin by Flogging Molly, This Land is Your Land, Waiting on a War by Foo Fighters, Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer, WAP by Cardin B and Meghan thee Stallion, War by Outkast, War by Screwdriver, White People for Peace, Baby I’m an Anarchist and I was a Teenage Anarchist by Against Me, Pussy Riot, and so on.
Here are some examples of works of art from INDECLINE: in 2012 they installed billboards reading “Dying for Work” and “Hope You’re Happy Wall St.” with a dummy hanging from a noose. In 2015 they created the Largest Piece of Illegal Graffiti in the World, writing “This land WAS our land” on a disused military runway in the Mojave Desert at (35.280664*N 117.397822*W). The same year they responded to Donald Trump’s statement that illegal immigrants were “rapists” by spray painting a mural depicting Trump with the slogan “!Rape Trump!” on an old border wall on U.$. territory about a mile from the Tijuana airport. In 2016 they glued names of Black people killed by police over the names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars.
Also in 2016 they glued life sized nude statues of Trump to the sidewalk in Cleveland, LA, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. In 2017 they tagged several Union Pacific trains, one like a tiger. In response to the murder of Heather Heyer at the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville they hung eight effigies of KKK hooded and robed clowns, calling it Ku Klux Klowns. A sign on one said “If attacked by a mob of clowns go for the juggler.” In 2020 they made silicone heads of world “leaders” who are known to be corrupt, like Jair Bolsonaro, Vladimir Putin and of course, Trump, then used them as soccer balls. I’d like to see this done with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s synthetic silicone face, and Bashar al Assad’s likeness. These people admire Hitler and Mussolini and we know what happened to them. GWAR and Kathy Griffith have also made very nice political art effigies of terrible people who are famous. We can also create billboards of the martyrs and victims of police violence, like they do in the Middle East. So go forth and be creative! We have a duty to mock authoritarians.
Direct actions are self defense. Here are some examples from recent history: protecting the environment from urban sprawl, squatting, employing and housing the homeless, picking one homeless person to sponsor, studying pure mathematics, chemistry, engineering, physics, computer science, going camping, backpacking, learning and mastering a martial art, shooting safety, tactics and skills, practicing search and rescue drills, partner carry drills and learning emergency medical rescue basics. Create ethical rules of engagement, define yourself and how you will act in specific scenarios with detailed and repetitive drills. You can practice clearing buildings, defending a location and so on. There are many examples I cannot legally give here. So think about who and what you are willing to live and die for. Watch real combat footage and search and rescue videos.
One source of these is a site called funker. There is an excellent channel on YouTube called Academy of Emergency Medicine, which is a long series of real life and death videos of combat medics in Iraq and Syria during the Syrian Civil War recently. From these you can learn how to treat gunshot wounds, sucking chest wounds, wounds to limbs and head, wounds with protruding organs, amputated and partially amputated limbs, shock, broken bones and more, including triage and how to deal with death and stress.
How would your ideal community’s self defense function? Invite neighbors to discuss grievances and work together to find solutions to your personal and interpersonal problems. Expect to find difficulties and to experience failures, then continue to work anyway. Practice builds skill over long periods of time, with trial and error. We also need to build unions where we work.
If you are ready to dedicate your life to a movement then form a network of secret cadres whose members prepare the masses for revolution by helping them identify the enemies of humanity, building confidence through practice, creativity and actively struggling, fighting with mobility and at barricades. These people should reject power and only use grassroots organizing, spontaneously.
There should be no ranks, only partisans and allies. When something dramatic and dangerous must be done, consider doing it alone without involving anyone else, so that there is no opportunity for informants to divide the movement. Divide to attack and unite to build up community infrastructure. In some circumstances this dynamic must be reversed, but that would come at a later stage. All ambitious charismatics must be rejected, criticized and stripped of power. There should be no public office or political power for these cadres, it would be too dangerous and create dictators. They should distribute ideas and organize the masses. Like waves in the sea, no one rises above the others.
We can cultivate the habit of free communal life by learning to disobey unjust laws while getting along with our comrades and neighbors by practicing solidarity. Also practice daily acts of resistance, defiance, disobedience and solidarity. Sometimes all we can do are small things. But look at the brave Persian and Kurdish women of Iran. Some of them can take up arms, others can only make rude gestures of disrespect towards the dictator and morality polices, others openly show their faces by removing their head scarves in public.
Everyone does what they can and faces the consequences together or alone, as circumstances unfold. There is no army that can resist the will of the working class. Look at the examples of Vietnam, Afghanistan, India, the IWW, Tsarist Russia, the Chinese emperor, and so on. There is even an anarchist autonomous zone forming in the Ukraine, and there is modern resistance in North and South America, Russia and China. We are in global solidarity with all oppressed peoples everywhere. We do not want authoritarian communism, capitalism, democrats, republicans, or fascists.
Take inspiration from the myths of Prometheus and Lucifer, and ponder their so called crimes and fates in these fictional stories. A real life example we can draw practical inspiration from in the fight against the gods of slavery is Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha. Through seeking truth we incur the wrath of authorities and for that history will remember us and set the example for future generations.
There is a civil war looming on the horizon. “Oh the air is sultry and pregnant with lightning… The passion for destruction is a creative passion too!” – Mikhail Bakunin. It is time to pick a side, take a stand and build a brave new world in the ruins of the old pyramids and temples. Tear them down and use the bricks to build schools, homes and hospitals. If your “middle path” is an excuse to hide in your privilege and do nothing then you are really just demanding change but expecting others to do what you are too lazy and too afraid to do.
This is not the The Middle Way, your frame of reference has been displaced by state propaganda. U.$. Democrats are center-right on the political compass in the eyes of the majority of the world beyond the border wall. We should use diplomacy but we should negotiate while advancing physically to add pressure. Do not trust diplomacy alone. It is a sacred duty to fight against oppressors, for all civil rights activists, rebels, revolutionaries, anarchists, leftists, true communists, communalists, communitarians, socialists, environmentalists, feminists, libertarians, humanitarians, medical personnel and lgbtq+ populations, with the battle cry of love and sympathy for all oppressed peoples, chanting the names of the martyrs. We have gotten used to the chains of wage slavery and bureaucratic “remedies”, we fail to realize our shameful state of captivity, limited in range by preventable disease and living expenses.
No one is free until everyone is free. We demand true freedom, the freedom to survive the climate change genocide and inevitable supernova. We demand an end to all oppressors, whether Russian, Syrian, Turkish, Iranian, Amerikkkan, British monarch, Korean dictator, all monarchies, dictatorships, oligarchies and puppet and representative democracies. We need direct democracy. We don’t need borders, despots, states, patriotism or nationalities. Amerikkkan “freedom” is a lie sold by Walmart “culture”, shipped by FedEx and Amazon. I send all my support to the Amazon and FedEx workers going on strike to unionize.
Revolution is a necessary act of survival and self defense. Wherever one being is oppressed we are all held back from the stars. The practical application of ideals is a difficult task but inevitable- it cannot be done by passive discussion of dead ideas and failed models.
We need goodwill and unanimous cooperation, faith in humanity. It is time to update the conditions of our present day structures. We no longer rely on myths for our hopes and dreams as we make them a reality.
Dan Baker 25765-509
FCI Memphis
PO Box 34550
Memphis, TN 38184
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The Free 