Rose City Counter-Info

[I am writing as an insurrectionary anarchist in the u$a and speaking to that context]

Unity Of Fields is a counter-info project that emerged in August of 2024. They describe their project as “a militant propaganda front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism.” It used to be Palestine Action US and has since changed its orientation. It has a website and some social media accounts, some of which have are banned at the time of this writing, they seem to be most popular on Telegram. Although it links to mostly anarchist sources for technical knowledge, Unity Of Fields does not seem to be an anarchist project and their political reading and media suggestions are all over the map. They suggest classic decolonial texts by Fanon and Cesaire, Black liberation writings from the BLA and BPP, texts from various Palestinian resistance factions, as well as authoritarian communists like Lenin and Mao among others.

Mostly their website is a clearing house for news, action analysis, and communiques. Many of the communiques posted are original submissions though they also repost from other counter-info projects and from social media. They also post some of their own original writings to their website. The fact that they post sketchy criminal stuff and link to technical advice on how to better carry out insurrectionary forms of struggle is probably a large part of why they are discussed in anarchist circles at all.

What does the emergence of a project like Unity Of Fields mean for us as anarchists? For one thing Unity Of Fields expands some spaces we occupy as anarchists — the combative struggle space and the digital counter-info space. We are clearly not the only ones re-coloring walls, opening windows, and carrying out our little sabotages and then writing about it, though at least for now others seem to look to our collective knowledge and experience for technical guidance. We are sharing a struggle space, one which is not limited to riotous moments and combative demonstrations, with other rebels who have made themselves visible to us. We are being included (at least some of the time) in a dialogue with other rebels through the sharing of our words and news of our actions, and anarchists have shared writings from Unity Of Fields on our own websites.

Local struggles against zionism, imperialism, and colonialism are visibly taking on more destructive, decentralized, anonymous, and autonomous approaches, a long-term dream of insurrectionary anarchists, yet new questions arise for us. How do we want to contend with other rebels with whom we have ideological differences and tactical similarities? How do we avoid getting lost in the vanguardist, unifying, nationalist tendencies that often accompany revolutionary leftist approaches to combative struggle? Are we interested in conspiring with these others outside the spontaneity of spiky demonstrations, occupations (and potentially riots), and if so how? Continue reading “Some Initial Thoughts On Unity Of Fields”

This text is addressed to the international anarchist movement, which we’ll define as the sum of individuals fighting for anarchist ideas around the world. This movement is in conflict with its natural enemies — the State, fascist groups, and so on — and must protect itself if it is to survive in this conflict. In this text, we make three proposals for the international anarchist movement to consider in the coming years in order to allow anarchists to continue attacking while limiting their chances of getting caught.

1. Share knowledge internationally

Our enemies organize internationally through cooperation between police and intelligence agencies and new developments in science and technology — the increasing precision of DNA forensics and the proliferation of drones being just two examples. This means that a repressive technique used in one country may soon appear in another where it is not yet being used. It also means that an effective countermeasure used by anarchists in one country may be effective in another. We should therefore share knowledge of repressive techniques and countermeasures on an international level.

Ideally, any experience of repression or experimentation with countermeasures that might be of interest to other anarchists should be written up, translated into several languages, and made public. When anarchists are arrested and brought to trial, we can often obtain court documents that reveal how they were caught: we should exploit this and publish analyses of such documents, bearing in mind that information obtained in this way may be partial or distorted. We should experiment with new countermeasures and write and publish reports on these experiments (except in cases where the State might adapt and weaken the countermeasure by reading the report). We should try to collect information at the source: read police training manuals, steal police files, analyze data leaks from police servers.

A specific feature of the international anarchist movement is its decentralization. We see this not as a weakness but as a strength: in addition to preventing the hierarchies inherent in centralized organizations, it makes it harder for our enemies to target us because they cannot topple the whole movement by disrupting one part of it. However, this decentralization also makes it harder for us to share knowledge across borders. To overcome this, we see two options: developing informal bonds with other anarchists by meeting at international book fairs and other events, and using the Internet. We propose using the No Trace Project as an international platform to share the knowledge that is suited for sharing on the Internet, not as a replacement for informal bonds but as a useful supplement to spread information beyond existing informal networks.

2. Establish a security baseline

Anarchists who carry out direct actions should analyze the risks associated with their actions and take appropriate precautions: dress anonymously, be mindful of video surveillance and DNA traces, and so on. However, this is not enough. If only those who carry out actions take precautions, it is easier for our enemies to target these individuals. This is, firstly, because they stand out: if only a handful of comrades always leave their phones at home, for example, this could be an obvious starting point for an investigation with no other specific leads. And secondly, because our enemies can get information about them through their friends who do not carry out actions: if someone doesn’t use social media but is mentioned on their friends’ social media, for example, an investigation could query their friends’ social media to get information about them. We should therefore establish a security baseline that everyone in anarchist networks agrees to follow, including those who have never carried out direct actions and have no intention of doing so.

We can’t say what this baseline should be, as it will depend on each local context, but we can give some ideas. As a bare minimum, everyone should help hide information from our enemies by not speculating about who is involved in an action, not bragging about one’s own participation in an action, not talking to the police, and encrypting any computer or phone used for conversations with other anarchists using a strong password. Discuss sensitive matters exclusively outdoors and without electronic devices, and don’t make it obvious to your social environment who you are having sensitive conversations with (e.g. don’t ask someone to “go for a walk” in front of people who aren’t involved in the project being discussed). In addition, we think everyone should stop using social media (and definitely stop posting photos of other anarchists, even with their consent, because this helps the State map anarchist networks) and leave their phones at home at all times (not just during actions). Carrying your phone with you has security implications for everyone you interact with.

It can be difficult to convince people to follow such a security baseline, especially if they think they have no personal interest in following it. If someone is reluctant, we should remind them that it’s not just their security that’s at stake, but also the security of other anarchists around them who may be carrying out or planning to carry out direct actions. Everyone who wants actions to happen has an interest in making anarchist networks as difficult as possible for the authorities to repress.

3. Explore new horizons

Our enemies evolve over time as they refine their strategies and techniques. We should prepare not for the battles that already took place, but for those yet to come. We should therefore go beyond our current security practices, anticipate the evolution of our enemies, and develop new countermeasures.

Here are three issues we think the international anarchist movement should explore in the coming years.

Drones

Aerial surveillance is rapidly becoming cheaper and more efficient. How should we react to the presence of police drones at riots, anarchist events, and so on? How can we detect or take down drones? Should we prepare for the risk of drones being used for routine aerial patrols, and if so, how?

Facial recognition technologies

In 2023, a journalist tracked down German left-wing militant Daniela Klette, who had been in clandestinity for decades, by using facial recognition technology to match a decades-old photo of her with a recent photo from Facebook taken during a dance class. What can we do against this threat? How can we prepare for the increasing integration of facial recognition technology into public video surveillance systems?

Lack of insight into police activity

Until a few years ago, radio scanners were used by anarchists to monitor police frequencies, for example to learn about nearby police activity while carrying out a direct action. In most contexts, this is now impossible because police communications are encrypted. Can we develop new techniques to functionally replace radio scanners or, more generally, to gain insight into police activity in a given area?

About the authors

We’re the No Trace Project. For the past three years, we’ve been building tools to help anarchists understand the capabilities of their enemies, undermine surveillance efforts, and ultimately act without getting caught. We plan to continue in the years to come. We welcome feedback. You can visit our website at notrace.how, and contact us at notrace@autistici.org.

This text is available as a zine (in Letter and A4 dimensions).

Let’s prepare ourselves, and may luck be on our side.

from No Trace Project

As election night draws near, it seems like many anarchists are content with sitting back and watching what unfolds. We cannot predict what will happen- perhaps widespread riots, perhaps widespread nothing- but this should be even more reason to attack!

For months, we have been inundated with news blurbs about the plans to prevent election night unrest. The Portland Police have bragged about their preparedness to handle protests and have shown off their new riot squad and its fancy new toys. Although the police have made changes since 2020 and 2021, they are not all-powerful. Our desire for freedom will always be stronger than their control.

On last two election days, in 2016 and 2020, anarchists had a large presence in the streets. Things still managed to get rowdy in 2020 even after the National Guard was called in. It got rowdy, most importantly, because people (not just anarchists) wanted it to. If we want unrest, we need to make it. Attacks away from the crowds, all across the city, can show that no matter who they elect, we are ungovernable.

Riots create opportunities for other people to experiment with attack, they subvert property, authority, and capital and unleash the boldest of desires- a desire for freedom and destruction. But even after the riots end and everything goes back to how it was, they continue to live in a collective imaginary as a memory of what is possible- and this memory is the kindling for the fires to come.

At the same time, we have to think critically about the meaning of a night or two of rioting and what role we might play. How do these riots, ever momentary ruptures, fit into a goal of insurrection and generalized subversion? How can we contribute to making these moments last? How do we spread attack and create the conditions for other people to strike as well?

Instead of sitting at home and waiting for someone else to throw the first stone, or waiting for activists to tell us why we need to be out in the streets, let’s strike first, and strike for ourselves. Let’s smash the spectacle of the election and reject their calls for social peace- after all, we are explosive beings with unpredictable reactions. We are dynamite.

 

submitted anonymously

At the end of 2010 an individual act of despair in the town of Sidi Bouzid ignited a daring, enraged, and joyful upheaval that travelled through North Africa into the Middle East and beyond. People defied the oppressive systems they had been immersed in for generations and came together in the streets to topple the political elites at their helm. The authorities, at first stunned by this courageous spirit that they couldn’t understand, then unleashed a cynical and brutal response.

This defeat is still being inflicted on the people in the region, and is also felt all over the world by those who stood in solidarity with the uprisings but were mostly unable to overcome their powerlessness as the uprisings were massacred.

The horrors in the region during the last decade are many. To name some that stick most in my mind: Sisi has turned back the clock in Egypt to military dictatorship with the material support of the US. The regimes in the other North-African countries are paving over any sign of freedom while being coaxed by European countries to shut down the immigration routes over the Mediterranean. Without the murderous military campaigns of Hezbollah and the IRGC in Syria, Assad wouldn’t have survived the uprising. The Iranian regime itself brutally oppressed three different uprisings in the country in the last decade. Most people in Lebanon are in a daily struggle for survival because of the greed of its political leaders while mobs at the orders of Hezbollah beat down street protests. Early on in the uprisings, Hamas, who has shot political opponents in broad daylight on the streets of Gaza, culled attempts at an uprising by rounding up protest organizers and threatening them with murder. Leaders in the region understood once again that they can use any means against the populations under their control without real push-back from outside. Indifference, cynicism and opportunism trump moral appeals, and strategic alliances are always in play. The world churns on. For those of us who have not looked away, how can we not see a connection between Assad bombing Syrian cities into obliteration and Netanyahu razing Gaza? Continue reading “Towards Another Uprising”

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been taking action in what is colonially known as Portland, OR to target banks and other corporations that are directly funding and enabling israel’s genocide in Palestine. We targeted 3 Bank of America branches, 3 Chase Bank branches, and a Wells Fargo. We used gorilla glue to disable ATM machines and plug up door locks, tagged walls and doors, and super-glued “WARNING: THIS BANK FUNDS GENOCIDE” messages to ATMs. We also tagged a Nike billboard and a McDonalds. Continue reading “Targeting funders of Zionist imperialism”

Answering the national call to “shut down tech” on October 24th, autonomous groups of community members targeted Microsoft headquarters in Seattle, breaking glass jars full of “blood” (red paint) on its Executive Briefing Center building, pouring “blood” on the big Microsoft sign, and leaving behind the message “Azure: Drop Israel Not Bombs” painted in dozens of places. This action brought attention to companies in Seattle have with the israeli occupation forces (IOF), that many are unaware of. Continue reading “Microsoft Executive Building hit in Redmond, WA”

This week tension cables that holds a wooden power pylon were cut causing the pylon to lean.
This was done with the hopes that the pylon later fall causing an outage.
Electricity is exists today as a crucial component of state power, capital, and ecological destruction.
However small this action, the secret is to begin.
Solidarity with the volcano group.
SWITCH OFF! THE SYSTEM OF DESTRUCTION

submitted anonymously

On June 4th, The Israeli Defense Ministry penned a deal to procure a third F-35 fighter jet squadron from the United States government. This deal totaling 3 billion dollars, financed by US military aid to Israel, would bring the Israeli Air Force’s F-35 fleet to 75 fighter jets. The F-35 considered to be the backbone of the Israeli airforce, has played a critical role in the IDF’s assault on Gaza, escalating Israel’s aim of the total destruction of Palestinian life within Israeli occupied territories.

So on the morning of June 9th, we started a fire at the Portland offices of Parker-Hannifin located at 6458 N. Basin Ave in the Mocks Bottom industrial area. The mainstream media did not report on this fire. The full extent of the damage is unknown. Continue reading “Claim of Responsibility for Parker-Hannifin Arson”

Over the weekend, two simultaneous attacks occurred at construction sites for a major refined petroleum pipeline running through the forested hills of Portland OR. Work is ongoing to upgrade the pipeline, which is run by Kinder Morgan and carries diesel and gasoline between Portland and Eugene. The pipeline is an essential supply line for gas stations in the area and part of a bigger network that runs up the West coast. Continue reading “TREES SPIKED AND MACHINES DESTROYED AT PIPELINE WORKSITES”

This piece is a little bit late to the party, but after reading the other reportbacks published locally and participating in discussions with dear friends and close strangers, we still felt that some ideas were in need of sharing. We don’t wish to recap the events of May Day but hope to contribute some thoughts and expansions on other takeaways of the occupation and the march. As Palestine solidarity actions continue to grow, we feel that these points are still important. Additionally, much of what we have to say applies far beyond this struggle. What follows is a compilation of thoughts from a few different voices, which we hope can add to the conversation. Continue reading “Additional Thoughts on May Day and the PSU Occupation”