Category: Reading Material

EDITOR’S NOTE: This short book was originally published with ilustrations and explanations on how to hunt and dismember non-human animals. We found the rest of the content interesting enough for those wanting to live in the wild and fight the capitalist machine, but we were unwilling to share it due to its links to hunting. Some folks created a slightly more anti-speciesist version, which is the one we have linked. They decided to leave some of the traps, we can only guess because they are intended to be used towards bigger animals, and in the fight to protect the wild those traps could be useful tools on fighting those who destroy the planet alongside wildlife and other comrades. It is not ideal, but it contains interesting and useful information, so have a read!

“Originally intended to be a zine, expanding to a short book, How To Survive The 9 To 5 focuses on direct action in wilderness and woodland areas and Land defense – specifically in North “georgia”. Deeply influenced by the movement to Stop Cop City and Defend the Atlanta Forest, this writing aims to aid in compiling information useful to this fight; covering topics on basic camping know-how, the local flora and fauna, natural building and skills, security and defense, and some useful tips and tactics for direct action.

In the fight for the defense of the Land, the compilation, sharing, and study of knowledge here is necessary, not only for our own safety as a movement but also for the very safety of the Land itself. We must dedicated ourselves daily to knowing and understanding the Land and how we can establish our relationship with it, which in turn means we will be able to work with it for its defense. The Forest and the Land will defend itself and we must work in solidarity with each other and it in this struggle.”

Some of the words from the anti-speciesist editing team:

“These edits were made by admirers of the original text and are overjoyed by the intentions of the original authors

These edits remove pages and text that involves hunting and trapping

It does not remove suggestions of shooting animals in “self-defense”, or edited other areas where we may have of liked, but we wanted to maintain the integrity of the text as much as possible

Yes, killing animals is murder.
No, it is not “more ethical” because you do it yourself
No, it is not “respectful” to hang an animal by their neck from a tree lined up next to the other victims, nor by bullet, nor by putting a hook in them and suffocating them in air

Yes, we are animals . Animals with the capability of agency, control, stewardship, careful relationships, observation, reflection, responsibility, and insight among many other traits that allow us to choose to live varying lives in different relationships to the earth we live in.”

READ THE SHORT BOOK HERE

We have updated our prisoner support list to include addresses for the Atlanta Forest Defenders currently in prison. A vast majority of them are locked up at a jail that only allows for USPS pre stamped postcards, which makes difficult ending letters from outside of the USA. We have uploaded a list with a separation between those prisoners who can receive plain paper letters and those who can only receive postcards, so please chose a couple of folks to write to and send them warmth and love.

Everybody on that list has charges under Domestic Terrorism, a clear tactic by the institutions to scare and quiet down the resistance against the complete destruction of the Atlanta Forest to build a mock city for cops to practice how to kill people on the streets. The level of corruption is tangible, with the judge’s partner being involved within the main funding body for the Atlanta Police Foundation. The defendants need as much love and support as you possibly can send them, so write to them, maybe tell them about a recent walk in the woods that you think they’d like to hear!

Please don’t discuss any topics related to their case, and don’t include anything that could seem illegal. Understand that all mail is monitored (even more when defendants are facing terrorism charges), and keep it light, writing about good news or experiences!

If you want to support them financially, Atlanta Solidarity Fund is managing cases, bail and legal support, you can donate here:

https://atlsolidarity.org

Find the addresses of the defendants on our website:

Prisoner Support

THE FOREST FIGHTS BACK!

art: @gadzooksB

In a world with no centre of power, where can we as anarchists direct our rage? Previously there have been kings, lords or factory bosses who we could identify as the enemy. But in this nebulous world of capital, our enemy is an entire system and an internalised psychology that needs new strategies to resist. This is the quandary that Total Liberation, published anonymously in 2019, confronts.

To bring us up to speed Total Liberation provides a brief history of radical ideology. An anarchist critique of Marxism as narrow-mindedly focussing on class is easy, and turns over no new stones. However it also provides a valuable critique of more modern identity politics and its obsession with atomising and itemising oppressions, that have won mostly liberal reformist victories.

Instead Total Liberation draws its inspiration from Murray Bookchin’s social ecology. However while Bookchin was unfairly dismissive of anarchism, and particularly antispeciesism, the author distils from these polemics a holistic understanding of the existential threats to the planet, and goes a step further by applying it to anti-speciesism and biocentrism. It therefore straddles a complex understanding of hierarchy to show that not only are all fights interconnected, they also ultimately have a common enemy.

However just as there is no central focal oppression, there is also no focus of power against which to direct our efforts. Our fight must therefore be similarly decentralised, comprised of autonomous affinity groups and rather than the large unions and political parties of the early 20th century. Total Liberation therefore provides hope to anarchists – these tactics are our bread and butter and should come naturally. Indeed, it often uses the examples of the ALF and ELF to illustrate how cells of individuals have inflicted millions of pounds of costs to heavy industry. Total Liberation does perhaps overstate the revolutionary potential of sabotage actions. That is, however much money such actions cost ecocidal industries, these industries do still exist and are constantly expanding. We need to recognise that either these actions need to be overwhelmingly more widespread, or massively more destructive.

The biggest challenge it provides to anarchism, however, is that in the face of the climate crisis, we really are fighting for our lives. No matter how insulated we are from it, almost everyone’s lives will be radically altered by global warming. It predicts a future not too far away when capitalism will not be able to put food on the shelves, a rather prescient observation considering the pandemic that was to come less than a year after this book was published. We must therefore work to build alternatives to live by, that will provide for the material and social needs of people by providing food, shelter and care without the state. As much promise we can find in our social centres and autonomous zones, the author identifies the need for such spaces to not just be refuges for radicals, but bases from which to organise and create our alternatives outside the state.

At this point Total Liberation draws inspiration from the seminal eco-anarchist book Desert, and calls for recognition that for better or worse, catastrophic climate change has already begun and is irreversible – a terrifying opportunity for us. Although it will likely create space for fascism to flourish and industry to develop into previously frozen landscapes, it will also create the space for anarchist revolution. The author highlights the success of the Rojava revolution in doing so – undoubtedly inspirational but does gloss over the terrible cost of the Syrian civil war, and also the revolution’s dependence western state power. This criticism is a nitpick, however. The point is revolutions never fit a perfect plan and nor should they. We should be dynamic and adapt to our local needs. It is an intimidating realisation that everything we want really is in our reach. The question is whether we have the courage to organise now and seize the opportunities as they arise.

Total liberation sums it up best with this passage:
“Within such an unforgiving context, it is necessary to take a side. That can be done with courage and purpose, or we could resign ourselves to getting swept up yet again, only this time by the most genocidal of centuries… Waging war with the system of death, far from being a matter of declaration, merely faces up to the reality that already engulfs us.”

A Burning Rage Of A Dying Planet, by Craig Rosebraugh, is a book that features the experiences of Craig as the Earth Liberation Front Press Officer, from the moment on which they receive the first ALF communique and realise they need to put it forward towards the press to the subsequent ELF actions throughout the USA and the work that the press office does to try to give a voice to anonymous activists.

It gives a good insight into how the government and the police spend resources to prosecute those who release direct action news to the public and try to silence folks who believe that those news are worthy of press and conversation. It also explains the experiences of facing a grand jury and being forced to talk in front of them with the threat of prison.

All in all, it is a good book for those who want to understand how the ALF and ELF evolved through the 90s, how those direct actions taken by the forest elves were intrinsically connected to pressure campaigns and how the authorities will try to control the narrative about what is deemed newsworthy and what is understood as “promoting terrorist actions”.

It is also interesting as an analysis of how 9/11 revolutionised the concept of “domestic terrorism” pointing at completely non violent actions taken by earth and animal liberation activists.

At the end of the book there is an interesting thought process that many press officers have mentioned in the past as the main reason for their cease as PO. The acceptance of ALF and ELF activists to remain completely non violent, and the possible need to expand the toolbox away from non-violence if the world has to be changed.

Email your nearest radical bookstore and ask them if they have a copy. Amazon probably carries it but Jeffrey Preston Bezos is a piece of shit that does not deserve more money, so if you can, avoid it.