Trump’s win of the electoral college (despite losing the popular vote by 2 million votes) thrust many into the streets for the first time against the billionaire real estate mogul and the wider system and crisis of capitalist civilization he seeks to manage. Suddenly, tens of thousands were blocking freeways, clashing with riot cops, and throwing down in the streets. At the same time, the far-Right and white supremacists are continuing to actively mobilize to support the regime and scores of racist and sexist attacks have been carried out throughout the US. In response, anti-fascists are mobilizing to shut them down and actions against Trump continue to build towards #J20. With so many new to radical action in the streets, many people are coming up against for the first time attempts by liberals and protest managers to contain and direct revolt. This dynamic of course is not new, and played out in the Occupy movement, the Ferguson Insurrection, and in struggles throughout so-called North America.
In order to attack liberal delusions of struggle, we are putting together this collection of resources for those new to militant action. To be clear: those that would seek to contain and direct the demonstrations are our enemies. Liberal attempts at managing and directing our struggles are their only hopes in becoming relevant and must be stopped by any means necessary. At the same time, we must prepare for the very real threat of far-Right auxiliary violence that seeks to support the new Trump regime and push forward it’s policies. Thus, this collection of texts and resources should be seen as a starting point for understanding our current situation and how to begin to organize ourselves to act within in.
Lastly, we are publishing a compiled list of actions that have taken place since the election, as well as maintaining a collection of anti-Trump and anti-fascist mobilizations that will be updated as new ones are announced. To get yours listed, submit here or email us at: info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org.
In order to attack Trump, we first have to attack the world that he represents and defends. That begins with understanding the history and process of colonization and genocide in the Americas, the creation of capitalism and it’s racial order that gave birth to slavery, the growth of resistance movements to this new system of domination, and the tendency of institutionalized forms of social change to derail and suffocate struggles. These texts are a good starting point for those looking to understand the foundations of power and profit in the US.
From Freedom to Democracy
The Mythology of Work (PDF)
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance
Colonization and Decolonization (PDF)
What Could Possibly Be Beyond Democracy?
Class Struggle and the Origins of Racial Slavery
Delusions of Progress: Tracing the Origins of the Police
Poor People’s Movements: Why the Succeed, How They Fail
The Climate is Changing: False Solutions to the Climate Crisis (PDF)
The Other Side of COIN: Counter-Insurgency and Community Policing (PDF)
Trumpism didn’t fall out of the sky, but is a direct result of the failure of neo-liberalism, reactionary backlash to black insurgency, and growing anger at the continued degradation of the working-class after the re-organization of the economy following the financial crisis of 2008. These texts examine both the failure of the electoral Left to offer any real alternative or ability to confront capital in any meaningful way, while also looking at the growth of both the autonomous far-Right and the right-wing populist and proto-fascist Trump regime.
The Thin Blue Line is a Burning Fuse: Why Every Struggle is Now a Struggle Against the Police
Next Time It Explodes: Revolt, Repression, and Backlash Since the Ferguson Uprising
Bern Notice: Building A Material Force In An Age of Trumpism (PDF)
After Bern: An Open Letter to the Newly Disheartened (PDF)
Nightmares of Capitalism, Pipedreams of Democracy
Morbid Symptoms: The Rise of Trump
Trumpism (PDF)
Why Riot?
Just as bureaucrats suffocated social struggles in past periods in order to keep them from becoming revolutionary movements, in modern struggles and moments of revolt, people, groups, and organizations often try and insert themselves into leadership positions while acting as a wet blanket on the fires of revolt. This is done as a means to keep bureaucratic organizations firmly in positions of leadership while also stopping people from physically confronting the police, the state, and capital itself. In the modern age, police agencies and movement bureaucrats often present social struggles as being divided by “good” and “bad” actors as a means of stopping people from organizing themselves and taking militant action.
You Can’t Shoot Us All (PDF)
How Non-Violence Protects the State
God Only Knows What Devils We Are
The Making of ‘Outside Agitators’ (PDF)
What They Mean When They Say Peace (PDF)
Another Word for White Ally is Coward (PDF)
Smash Pacifism: A Critical Analysis of Gandhi and King (PDF)
Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex (PDF)
In Defense of the Revolutionary Politics and Actions of Occupy Oakland
Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism (Free E-Book)
Who Is Oakland: Anti-Oppression Activism, the Politics of Safety, and State Co-optation (PDF)
Non-violent modes of social change have focused on simply getting media attention or registering dissent with an elected official. While there is much to learn from these movements, over all they have proven themselves to be unable at building the kind of movement that can engage in self-defense and also provide an offensive capacity. This selection of writings looks at other street tactics and ways to organize that propose just that.
Defend the Territory: Tactics and Techniques for Countering Police Assaults (PDF)
Warrior Crowd Control and Riot Manuel (PDF)
Blocs, Black and Other Wise: A How To Guide
The Black Bloc Papers (PDF)
What is a Black Bloc? (PDF)
Fashion Tips for the Brave
In the wake of growing black resistance and mobilization from the poorest and more oppressed segments of society, there has been a growing reactionary force on the far-Right. This can been seen in both the “Alternative Right,” which seeks to influence and grow within the established right-wing and the Republican Party, and the various Neo-Nazi, KKK, and white nationalist formations which seek to build power in the streets towards fascism. The following collection looks at this present reality and discusses its dangers and the need for anti-fascists to confront it.
Three Way Fight
Militant Anti-Fascism (Free E-Book)
How to Set Up an Anti-Fascist Group
“Death to the Klan” And Armed Anti-Fascist Self-Defense in the US
Confronting Fascism: Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement
Big Nazi on Campus: How Well Dressed Racists Are Coming to a College Near You
The New Neo-Nazis: How Matthew Heimbach Is Building a Racist Network Across the US
If you have a smart phone, get the Signal app for texting and for making encrypted phone calls. The app can be made to delete text messages after a certain amount of time and be sure to put a password on your messages in case you are arrested as well as on your phone when you turn it on. Get a mail.riseup.net email and a PGP encryption code if possible. On your computer, start using Tor and other programs that help stop surveillance. These are basic things you can do and below are some other ideas. Be smart offline too – must people entrapped by undercovers say things they shouldn’t to people they barely know. Protect yourself and practice good security culture.
An Activist’s Guide to Information Security
Security and Counter-Surveillance
Surveillance Self-Defense
What is Security Culture?
New Braunfels, TX: Counter Protest Against Neo-Nazis
Tucson, AZ: No Presidents, No Pipelines: Against Trump, DAPL, and the World they Represent
Brooklyn, NY: Emergency Assembly: Organize Against Trump
Denver, CO: No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!
Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Ingobernable!
Austin, TX: Stop Neo-Nazi ‘White Lives Matter’ Rally
1300 Pennslyvania Ave NW, Washington, District of Columbia: Stand Up to the Alternative Right: Stop the National Policy Institute (NPI)
North Carolina: Stop the KKK and Nazis in NC!
Washington DC: Call for a Bold Mobilization and General Strike to Disrupt the Inauguration of Donald Trump
IGD USA #1: Resistance to Trump 1st Night to 2nd Night
IGD USA #2: Resistance to Trump 3rd Night to 4th Night
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