Colorado Liberation & Autonomy
Revolutionary news and activities from inside so called "Colorado"
Report back from a demonstration at Out Boulder County’s Pride Motorcade on June 13th, calling for an end to that organization’s collaboration with police, and for the queer community to reconnect with its roots and build support structures apart from and in opposition to state violence, capitalists, and the non-profit industrial complex. Continue reading “Report Back from Boulder Pride Blockade”
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.
On the night of May Day, we attacked the office of BI Incorporated in Gunbarrel, Colorado. Phrases such as “¡Chinga La Migra!” “Abolish ICE” and “Fuck Your Shackles” were written with spray paint at the entrance of the building. “Profiteers of white supremacist violence” was painted on one wall. “Fuck ICE” was written on the BI sign facing the roadway, and rocks were thrown through the glass panels on the main entrance doors.
BI Inc. is a company owned by the private prison company The GEO Group, which runs the migrant concentration camp in Aurora. The company manufacturers the GPS ankle monitors that GEO and ICE use to surveil the movements of migrants who live outside of their camps, and to subsequently incarcerate them if they move too freely.
BI’s ankle monitors are nothing more than high-tech shackles. BI originally manufactured cattle monitors, and now applies that technology to dehumanize people, earning hundreds of millions of dollars from ICE contracts in the process. BI also runs ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), which requires participants to check-in regularly at BI offices, where many have reported discrimination, harassment, humiliation, and assault by BI employees.
This is all unnecessary and deliberate cruelty. Borders are arbitrary creations used by the powerful to prevent international solidarity among the working class. They should not exist, and no one should be punished for crossing them, whether by incarceration in a physical building, or by being forced to wear a spying device.
Through our small act of defiance, we hope to demonstrate to our comrades that they too can take immediate action against the oppressive forces of capital and the state. We also hope to inspire the workers at BI to end their support for La Migra in solidarity with the global working class. Together we can work to erode the power of our country’s white supremacist policing apparatus. As long as it festers in our communities, we must fight it.
No more borders. No more shackles. No more “USA.” Freedom for all.
Jock Waldo, the President of BI Inc, is registered to vote as a Republican at 11192 Twin Spruce Rd. in Golden, CO.
Solidarity.
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”)
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