Radical Tech Zine

Some comrades and I are currently working on a very thick zine on Anarchist hacking and computer security. It will aim to provide basic understanding of computer networks, drive linux adoption in anti-authoritarian communities, and provide basic computer security knowledge. Following are several spot illustrations I have made for the interior, as well as a cover I've designed for it. I am currently writing the Linux and FOSS section, while other comrades write sections on Networks and Hard Disk Encryption.

Boardgames for the Revolution

I'm working on a game. I wont say much about it yet, but the basic premise is that it is like a wargame or boardgame that simulates street conflict. Players can be either Police forces or Radical Demonstrators. Following are the designs for some of the major pieces that will be used, and the cover to the rules zine that will accompany the game. Hope you all enjoy.

From Infrastructure to Intervention

This is an article I am continuing to work on, and a model I am intending to implement locally. Most of the components of the article are nothing new, but perhaps the perspective and level of thought I've put into it will allow some old ideas to take on new life.

The Proposal - Mutual Aid Networks

In this text, I intend to lay out a basic proposal for the implementation of a tactic that has the potential to build the much referenced Anarchist Infrastructure that seems so lacking, especially in North America. It should be noted that there's plenty of “infrastructure” this tactic doesn't explicitly refer to but is highly compatible with or complementary of, especially Free Schools and the like. At its core, the idea can be summed up as the creation and development of local Mutual Aid Networks comprised centrally of a number of production and service cooperatives. The makeup of the Network is intended to be scalable and is a tactic that can be fielded on a small scale and grown. The point of the proposal is to clarify the general philosophy behind Anarchist Infrastructure, and to address the practical concerns and valid criticisms from certain sectors of the anarchist milieu as to the revolutionary potential of so-called anarchist infrastructure. Let's start with those criticisms, many of them rightly leveled.

The problem of workers cooperatives

At a glance, workers cooperatives are exciting. They seem to give a taste, however compromised of what it might be like to govern ourselves, to see to our own affairs, to produce things for ourselves and serve each other willingly without bosses or hierarchy. It's little wonder that when properly managed by their workers, they far outperform traditional businesses. The problem is that historically many of the success stories in workers cooperatives were not Anarchist in nature, and too often in a modern sense, they end up serving subcultural niches in the anarchist or counter-culture scenes and don't do good business. At best, when isolated as single cooperatives, they became self managed capitalism, with some revolutionary content, but disconnected from anything remotely resembling a real mutual aid based society. They achieve one component in being worker owned and operated, but remain essentially capitalist. It is not the nature of workers cooperatives that is at fault but rather that most iterations of the concept lack a vision of how to connect to or empower a mutual aid society, and are often liberalized or co-opted, or else remain revolutionary in spirit, but completely non-threatening to the establishment. With that criticism in mind, let's move on to more informal, anti-capitalist endeavors that have been touted as either embodying or lending credence to ideas of anarchist infrastructure.

The failures of common mutual aid and infrastructure projects

There are many projects, which are essentially franchise activism that claim to be working in a productive way towards a more equal future, but the bulk of them fail completely at posing any sort of threat whatsoever to the state and capital. Food not bombs, Critical Mass and Really Really Free Markets come to mind, and while one could hardly argue that such projects are entirely without merit, each lacks several things. Firstly, in their more popular forms, they all lack any productive capability. At best, they leech from the production of capitalist enterprise. At worst, they collaborate with it, and engage in charity which does nothing to challenge anything whatsoever. It's not that the idea of addressing real world concerns like hunger and lack are in and of themselves counter-revolutionary but that these projects address them in very limited ways, never producing for themselves and with a stunted analysis of how to pose a real threat to the state and capital. They offer a so-called alternative, but the alternative is often subcultural and actually directly reliant on capitalism, not simply compromised by virtue of existing under capitalist domination, something we'll address later. Another major flaw in these sorts of projects is the fact that they are franchise activism which will be addressed next.

A tactic not a franchise

Franchise activism at first sounded good to me, largely because I liked the idea of creating models that I could use to push forward the revolutionary project, and which I could create for other people to utilize. In my mind, the term initially seemed to refer to the creation of a tactic that was well explored and could be fielded from place to place. Of course the problem with this was that generally these projects tend to be set up by inexperienced activists and radicals who don't understand how to tailor such projects to their location, and aren't critically analyzing the value of such a project or the tensions and needs that exist in their communities. So for instance, a critical mass will be set up in a town without enough cyclists to constitute a critical mass, or a food not bombs in an area that the homeless don't congregate (surprisingly, myspace bulletins are remarkably ineffective at promoting events to the homeless and many homeless people aren't keen on traveling by public transit to get to your fnb picnic). The fundamental idea still appeals to me; the idea of creating general tactics and models that have worked other places but there must be an insistence that the tactic be tailored to your locale. That's what I hope this idea has the potential of becoming. Not like an FNB that anyone can set up without much thought, but a tactic that committed revolutionaries interested in dual power can field to engage the working class and ease the cost of living for themselves and those around them. So let's actually talk about the idea in general, comprised chiefly of two components.

Production Cooperatives

The fundamental organization is the network which is comprised of a number of members, self-organized into cooperatives. Membership in the network requires a certain amount of dues be paid to the network to fund its activities. The dues can vary, and policies can exist to allow those without sufficient income to volunteer at anarchist spaces or workers cooperatives for membership in the network. Also, it should be noted that the funds gathered from dues will be distributed in a democratic, consensus process by the members of the network themselves.

The first type of cooperative I envision is the Production Cooperative. In essence, production cooperatives produce goods ranging from the very simple to the very complicated based on the skill-sets of the people involved in the network. To start, this can be as simple as having a bakers co-op or brewers co-op that makes bread, pastries, beers and mead for the members of the network. The network will be comprised of a number of these cooperatives whose costs are covered by the funds from dues and whose productive value according to a capitalist market is well in excess of the cost of materials, saving the network members money. In time, as more members join, more dues are collected and more equipment and materials are purchased or appropriated, the function of these cooperatives can increase in sophistication until eventually they grow into full blown workers cooperatives that produce goods at cost for the mutual aid network, in addition to their business, with profits funneled back into the cooperative or other anti-authoritarian projects. This goes a long way towards addressing the problem of a workers cooperative functioning simply as self-managed capitalism as the cooperative would not only prove the efficacy of self management, but also be strengthening to a mutual aid society that, as it grows in resources and size, begins to resemble anarchist economics more than any isolated, self-managed business could. More advanced iterations of this concept could even begin to eliminate more and more capital relations as the network develops, as I will discuss later.

Additionally, goods such as food or toiletry items not currently produced by the production cooperatives could be purchased in bulk according to the tastes of the network members, like a normal food co-op, drastically reducing the cost of living even as the local production cooperatives grow in sophistication.

Service Cooperatives and Skillshares

The second type of cooperative I envision is the service cooperative, which much as one might expect, exists to provide a service to members of the network. The simplest of these cooperatives I can imagine is a skill share mechanism, through which people with trades can offer their skills at cost as a benefit to members of the the network. So a person could get a flier made for free, or some basic carpentry done by virtue of having access to the Networks Service Cooperative. This would also be an ideal place to pull for potential Free Skool teachers. Such projects have existed on the Internet, but would be more successful when linked with a broader project such as the mutual aid network. In more sophisticated networks, service cooperatives could also cover what are generally service industries. For instance in Riverside part of our Infoshop will be a hacklab, and there will be computer scientists setting up servers and other technology. There will be weekly computer clinics where people can learn about computer issues, and bring their machines in for diagnosis and help fixing them. This will amount essentially to an Anti-Capitalist geek squad. The Free Skool will also have classes on hardware and software that will train new volunteers to help in these computer clinics, and the events overall will help drive more Linux adoption.

The distinction between production and service cooperatives is not meant to be a rigid one, for instance a permaculture collective could have multiple community gardens which provide food to network members, host seed and mycelium exchanges and provide compost, all essentially production co-op capacities, but could also help people to start home gardens and give permaculture trainings which could be considered more service based. They're not rigid definitions, but just rough outlines of the different types of cooperatives I imagine. Now that the basic idea is explained, let me move onto a few more issues I have expressed myself or have seen raised by others, and then move onto a simple model of a possible start to a Mutual Aid Network.

Appropriation and compromise

It has troubled me for some time that Anarchists seem capable of setting up sophisticated organizational processes and support structures for short periods of time during street protests or in disaster zones such as New Orleans and Haiti but seemed so incapable of creating similarly sophisticated arrangements outside of those situations. But on reflection, it really should come as no surprise. There are certainly benefits to the larger concentrations of anarchists that such events bring about, but I think our success in those circumstances has more to do with the fact that anarchists are able to take space with which to organize. Such space is not often available to the same degree or for a consistent enough period of time in daily life, where much more of a struggle is necessary to find and maintain a place to organize. Much of these ideas assume that the organizers are familiar enough with their community to find space for the various parts of the network that need it, or that space can be appropriated or seized temporarily. In any case, space is a serious consideration for the continued growth of such networks and cooperatives, but on its smaller scales, it should be capable of operating out of a few homes or in as much space as can be appropriated for short times when necessary. The necessity of space and how to get it brings me to the idea of appropriation versus compromise. Of course, as people seeking to eliminate hierarchy, we are most effective when we are capable of attacking at the root of the state and capital, and are not forced to compromise in any way with its logic or demands, but this is not always feasible. To provide for ourselves and each other completely outside of capitalism, even neglecting the glaring issue of the state and capital remaining intact besides, would require such an immense amount of resources to implement for any significant amount of people that it is simply not possible in even the wildest scenario while capitalism survives. As such, a certain level of compromise is necessary to build these networks and cooperatives, but appropriation should always be a key concern and should be enacted whenever possible. For instance, equipment for a workers cooperative may need to be purchased but if the equipment can be obtained through other means, seized from a state or capitalist enterprise by means of social force or chicanery, then it is preferable to any compromise. That aside, it must be understood that until we destroy capitalism and the state, it will be necessary to purchase things, and that perhaps it is possible to implement projects that promote our vision of the world, and are corrosive to capital while still being compromised by virtue (or vice?) of existence within it.

Infrastructure growing into intervention

The point of all of this of course is not just to save some money and have fun making beer for our friends, but is intended as a project that grows and engages people who are not already anarchists. It should demonstrate anarchist ideas in a way that is meaningful to the needs of working people, but this is not enough. The content of the project should engage the public but should always be organized so as to provide the greatest threat to the state and capital, and as such it is highly beneficial to use the network as a means of intervening in local conflicts and struggles, and using the resources of the network to attack our class enemies. This is a topic that must be tailored to an individual region so too much postulating is not very useful, but the possibilities should be readily available with a little consideration. Members of the network could constitute a sort of unemployee union providing material aid to people who have been laid off, or engaging in foreclosure strikes where members of the network “strike” or occupy a foreclosed property demanding the bank renegotiate the mortgage for the property. Sufficiently sophisticated and large networks could lobby a lawyer or finance professional to provide pro-bono services to members in need, or else put one on retainer so they would be available to address the arrests of local radicals or aid those suffering from foreclosure. The possibilities are endless, and while living cheaply is nice, it should always be our goal to use such a network to engage in social war with the state and capital or else any such project will become liberalized and co-opted.

EXAMPLE MODEL- MUTUAL AID NETWORK

So what follows is one example of a relatively small configuration such a network could assume, lightly researched, and involving people in my local community with the necessary skills and interest that I can think of off the top of my head.

The initial network would be comprised of 10 Members with each taking part in one to two cooperatives. Acting in good faith to contribute an appropriate amount of labor to the project (or if deemed necessary, donating an equal amount of volunteer hours to cooperatives; the number of hours being decided upon collectively by the network members). Dues would be paid twice a month as show below and products from the cooperatives would be collected twice a month.

$20 dues twice a month for cooperative members

$30 dues twice a month for non-contributing members

Fruit Cooperative- (2-3 members)

Each members receives- 1 jar jam, 1 jar marmalade, bag of gleaned fruit, bulk fruit

Member Value- Approximately $10

Total Value- $100

Dues cost- $30

Brewing Cooperative- (2 members)

Each member receives- 2 forty ounce bottles of home brew, 1 bottle mead or wine.

Member Value- Approximately $12

Total Value- $100

Dues Cost- $40

Bakery Cooperative- (3 members)

Each member receives- 2 loaves of bread, assorted pastries

Member Value- $7

Total Value- $70

Dues Cost- $20

Bulk Foods- (2 members)

Each member receives- Rice, Beans, Veggies, a jug of juice, toiletries and optionally a carton of eggs

Member Value- $20

Total Value- $200

Dues Cost- $65

Gardening Cooperative- 10 bags of compost, seeds for exchange, services, veggies (4 members)

Member Value- $15

Total Value- $150

Dues Cost- $10

Service Cooperative- 5 different potential services, available at cost (5 members)

For Example: Graphic Design, Carpentry, Web Design, Plumbing, Sewing

Member Value- Incalculable

Total Value- “ “

Dues cost- $0

Market Cost- N/A

Member Value- $64 every session (more than three times dues) plus access to service cooperative. $128 monthly

Total Value- $640, $1,280 monthly

Dues set aside for expansion per month- $70

The dues set aside each month for expansion could be used to purchase new equipment for different cooperatives, and as a cooperative gets proper equipment, the number of people needed to provide those goods curtails (as it does with any production apparatus). So as time went on and more people joined the network, new cooperatives could come into being. This is all pretty rough and I intend for this model to be beaten into a little cleaner shape, but it's meant to serve as a relatively decent idea of how a relatively small group of people could begin such a project, benefit themselves, and potentially sprout a community that can foster resistance to hierarchy. I won't cover consensus and organization because I think that's up to the individual networks and there are way better texts. See the zine Collective Power available from zinelibrary.info, Consensus by Peter Genderloos and Come Hell or High Water avaialable from AK Press.

Pie in the Sky

This is where it all gets to be a bit of a wander through my head, but the following section is just to elaborate on some more ambitious turns a network like this could take if it were able to expand and draw in more members. One very obvious, and I think necessary part of such a network would be for the various cooperatives that comprise it to become interconnected in their production. So for instance a gardeners cooperative might grow the hops the brewing cooperative uses to make several batches of beer, or the fruit that jam-makers use to make their jams and marmalades. The possibilities for this are endless and point to yet another way that mutual aid and workers cooperatives can be highly competitive with capitalist enterprise.

A big function of such networks I think would be to set aside a portion of the dues to expand the project. But as the network grows larger, that could come to actually be a lot of money. Consider the example I gave above. Imagine, if you will that such a network came to include 200 people instead of just 10; a very ambitious proposition but hardly outside of the realm of possibility. And say distribution occurred and dues were collected twice a month. Twenty dollars collected from two hundred people twice a month amounts to 4,000 dollars every two weeks, or 8,000 monthly, if a quarter of dues were set aside for expansion, that still amounts to 6,000 dollars to operate the cooperatives, and 2,000 every month to purchase equipment and build the network. That's a fairly large amount of money to be funneled into workers cooperatives and anarchist projects considering how much we're used to working with. And considering the members will be receiving so much more value than the dues they are paying, it's hardly controversial to expect members to accept such an arrangement.

One project that always intrigued me and fits directly into the mutual aid network concept is the idea of Anarchist Scholarships and Grants. Purely in the sense of the network described above, half the money set aside from one month of dues is enough to pay for all the classes and most of the materials to train a member in welding (which amounts to 832 dollars for all the classes, not counting supplies), or an Automotive Technology – Mechanical certificate ($728), or could train three to four Bakers Cooperative members in more advanced baking skills at the local culinary academy. Receipt of such scholarships to study trades would hinge upon the scholars intent to use their newfound skills to benefit members of the network through mutual aid.

So what are the upper limits of such a project if it was properly organized and federated as it grew larger? Doesn't it stand to reason that as we grew the network, resources could be used to create a medical cooperative for members or even the general public? Workers cooperatives could grow into full blown manufacturing collectives. Tech collectives and hack labs with proper resources, training new computer techs through Free Skool classes, could create Mesh topology wireless networks and darknets in areas with housing cooperatives allowing Internet access very cheaply. Community workshops could be opened to allow people access to tools and equipment for projects of all sorts from darkrooms to carpentry tools to recording studios. Community gyms could be opened, with exercise bikes generating electricity. Laundromats with anarchist literature uniting students and the working class, the two primary users of laundromats. Why not permaculture farms or communal living through the purchase or seizure of an apartment building? The possibilities are yet to be explored, but if we really want to live in anarchy, it's time to start small and local but get ambitious. Hopefully this proposal, if it can function in any capacity, will be one tactic that will help us bring it about.

First Post

"Read no more odes my son, read timetables..."

This blog will be a collection of my thoughts, articles and zines I have written or am in the process of writing, and a repository for my publishing plans and news about them. I have recently been writing furiously on a number of topics and it is becoming cumbersome to email everyone copies. So I think a quiet little blog is the perfect level of public exposure for these kernels and rough drafts. I hope people enjoy, and I hope having this online focus for my writings will encourage me to see through my renewed vigour for publishing projects.

"...Anger and persistence will be required to blow into the lungs of power the dust, choking, insidious, ground out by those who, storing experience stay scrupulous: by you."