Posted on

May Day Call To Action

This report back was submitted anonymously. If you would like to share report backs, analysis, calls to action, art, or anything else, check out our submissions page.

If you are reading this, you are likely deeply aware of the great and ongoing damage inflicted upon humanity by Capitalism and its twin pillars, Liberalism & Fascism. They lie at the root of every crisis – the occupation of Indigenous lands, ecological devastation and global warming, and the inability of the state to ensure the most basic components of public health, housing, education, food, and water. They impose artificial borders to separate us from each other, tearing apart families, stealing resources from colonized nations and hoarding them in the imperial centers, stoking xenophobia and nationalism to distract from their failures.

And in the so-called United States, under conditions that historically and internationally would lead to widespread rebellion, the people face oppression and suppression at every turn. Economic exploitation keeps us tired, desperate, and working, while alienating us from our own labor. And a vast system of police and prisons, descended from slavers and plantations, waits to destroy and sweep away any who do not comply, to rob and assault marginalized and vulnerable people.

Joining our comrades in other states, we are calling for a day of action on May Day – Saturday, May 1st – to deliver a message to those who harm us. We have compiled suggested lists of methods to express this message and recipients to deliver it to, but by no means should you limit yourself to our suggestions. There are many people and institutions in Colorado that are complicit in the murder and brutalization of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, the exploitation of workers, the criminalization of poverty & homelessness, the demonization of trans people, the oppression of immigrants, and state violence in many forms – incarceration, surveillance, policing.

We urge you all to find a crew and follow the guidelines of security culture, and strike at the infrastructure of power, not at its empty symbols. Directly obstruct the machinery of Capitalism & the police state, and/or directly aid your community in ways that the state disapproves of. Avoid the trap of downtown Denver, and keep the police confused and spread thin. Be creative. Be brave. Be ungovernable. Have fun and take care of each other. We keep us safe.

Autonomous May Day Festivities "Colorado Edition" Smash Capitalism and its many arms Find your COVID pods, affinity groups, or vaxd friends Act together, ditch your phones, don't say shit
Small Flyer with text publicizing the call to action
DIY Actions: Banner Drops Graffiti Lockdowns Home Demos Marches Squats, Takeovers, Occupations Dance Parties Community Gatherings Mutual Aid Sabotage Expropriation Blockades That thing you've been planning Targets: GEO Police departments Police Unions Jails Dept of Corrections CoreCivic Amazon Whole Foods IBM Google Banks Democratic Parties Republican Parties Impound Lots Your Local NIMBYs Your Local Nazi & More Autonomous May Day Festivities "Colorado Edition" Smash Capitalism and its many arms Find your COVID pods, affinity groups, or vaxd friends Act together, ditch your phones, don't say shit
A larger flyer with the same info as the smaller one, additionally listing suggested autonomous DIY actions and targets.
Posted on

Adam Toledo March Report Back

A report back from the people who put out the call for the march on 4/17/2021 in Denver for Adam Toledo, the 13 year old boy who was murdered by Chicago PD.

Regarding the march on the evening of April 17th for Adam Toledo and others murdered by police in recent days, we have heard criticisms– a lack of clear targets, long distance, and accessibility issues. We are trying to learn from this, and, among other things, have reconsidered Cheesman Park as a gathering area, and are thinking about ways to communicate approximate marching distances to potential targets.

Most importantly, we are not trying to be protest leaders. We wish to, foremost, help build a culture of autonomous demonstrations and direct action that “Colorado” is in desperate need of. Going forward, this means that any actions publicized by us will prioritize community planning and consensus building. Disagreement and satisfactory compromise are vital to autonomous movements, alongside a culture of respect for diversity of tactics and honesty about acceptable risk for individuals and collectives.

Accessibility – No space or action can be accessible for everyone, so we recognize it is important to give people enough information to know if it will be accessible for them. We aren’t going to demand “more bodies in the streets” and shame people for not doing things that are damaging or impossible for them. Potential solutions include having multiple contemporaneous actions with different tactics and purpose.  

Action –  Autonomous movements rely upon individual decision making, and we recognize the importance of those choices on the attitude of any collective engaged in direct action. We encourage the use of any direct action or march as an opportunity for any sort of antistate or anticapitalist actions — collective energy is important to the impact of direct action, and is built up from small acts of defiance to the oppressive system.

Every direct action, especially new protest routes and strategies, creates flak for DPD – every new scenario they have to plan for and respond to dilutes their overall repressive capacity. What are we accomplishing if we keep rattling the fences at the Capitol and the District 6 Precinct, getting gassed & arrested again and again? We aren’t saying nobody should ever mobilize at these places. But there is a difference between risking arrest and seeking arrest. As such, we are going to encourage creative and smart plans and actions that minimize harm to our community while most disrupting the system as it stands.

Arrests (& lack thereof) – We believe that posing a material threat to power can be worth risking arrest. However, mass arrests are (in most cases) no longer a beneficial end in themselves. In the words of Kwame Ture, “In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent has to have a conscience.” Tear gas is a weapon that police use against us and that we prepare to defend against; it is not a necessary badge of a successful action. State violence is spectacular and has been touted as an effective means through which to affect change, but relying wholly upon direct and dramatic confrontation with state forces often plays into their hands. As with electoralism, autonomous movements cannot be sucked into a belief that pitched battles with state forces are a meaningful route through which to abolish the police; we must embrace our strengths while denying the enemy theirs.

On a related note – there were too many cameras last night. This is in part our fault for not specifying that cameras are not welcome on the flyer. Let us all do a better job of stopping surveillance of direct actions. (see: “In Defense of Smashing Cameras”)

Targets – Our hope is to encourage community members to be more creative and flexible in their targets. That requires power-mapping and geographical knowledge. Last night’s march went past the Governor’s Mansion, the Colorado Democrats office, and CBS4 Denver. Find out where our enemies really live, work, and get their supplies. Think about racist symbols that haven’t yet been torn down. If you’re coming to an action, have knowledge of the area & bring your own ideas about where to go. Together we can come back smarter, stronger, and more adaptable, able to keep the cops off-guard and protect each other.
 

We think some things last night were very good – we appreciate the protective cars at the rear, and the art people created, and are very happy no one was arrested. Thoughtful critique helps us all grow and we look forward to seeing the community learn, iterate, and experiment with future actions.

– some anarchists