This episode offers an audio version of “Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace,” arguing that neither courts nor laws will halt the descent into autocracy. Massive numbers of people will have to take it upon themselves to organize concrete acts of resistance, to take direct action on a horizontal and participatory basis—in other words, to become anarchists.

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents
  • Introduction {0:36}
  • Tyranny Is the Opposite of Anarchism {1:12}
  • A Three-Sided Conflict {3:45}
  • No Law Will Give You Freedom {8:32}
  • Remember How We Got Here {12:02}
  • Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace {15:50}

• This episode offers an audio version of “Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace,” published by CrimethInc. on February 21, 2025. The article version includes a variety of hyperlinks offering documentation confirming the claims therein.

• If you’re interested in learning more about anarchist ideas, you could start with To Change Everything, our introduction to anarchism, or with “The Secret Is to Begin,” which offers further points of departure. To learn about direct action, start with this guide.

• You can read our argument that it was naïve for Democrats to invest so much hope in Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump here. We published it well before that investigation ended in a complete washout. Along similar lines, our text “Take Your Pick: Law or Freedom” has proved prescient, accurately predicting some of the quandaries that fetishizing legality has created for Democrats as Donald Trump and his cronies gain control of more and more aspects of the government and judicial system.

• You can read our critical analysis of democracy in full in our book From Democracy to Freedom. We offer it in print or as a free PDF.

• For more background on the neoliberal nightmare that has unfolded in Argentina since the victory of Javier Milei, read this.

• For background on the damage that the Trump regime is doing to public health, consult this text. For background on the damage that the Trump regime is doing to medical research, consult this one. You can learn about how the cuts to USAID have impacted people around the world here. Elon Musk is even trying to make it impossible to keep up with the weather. Whatever you’re imagining, what’s happening is worse.

• For further discussion of how to resist rising authoritarianism, you could start with “The Case for Resistance: What We’re Up Against—and What It Could Look Like to Fight,” also available in audio form here. You could also listen to the previous episode of this podcast, “It’s Safer in the Front,” which picks up some of the same themes.

This episode offers an audio version of “It’s Safer in the Front,” making the case that seeking safety by avoiding confrontation is not likely to be an effective strategy in a time of escalating political conflict. {February 25, 2025}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents
  • Introduction {0:30}
  • My Friend’s Grandfather {1:11}
  • “Summit of the Americas,” Québec City, April 20, 2001 {3:41}
  • George W. Bush’s Second Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2005 {5:10}
  • Democratic National Convention, Denver, August 25, 2008 {6:34}
  • Donald Trump’s First Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2017 {8:59}
  • Block Cop City, Atlanta, November 13, 2023 {13:11}
  • Conclusion {18:33}

• This episode offers an audio version of “It’s Safer in the Front,” published by CrimethInc. on January 28, 2025. The article version includes a variety of hyperlinks offering more documentation about the events referred.

• To learn more about the mobilization against the “Summit of the Americas” in Québec City in 2001, read this. To learn more about the movement against capitalist globalization, of which it was a part, you could start here. You could also read David Graeber’s reflections on the movement.

• To learn more about the demonstrations against George W. Bush’s second inauguration, read this. For more background on the history of anarchist protest activity against presidential inaugurations across the decades, you could start here.

• To learn more about the mobilization against the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 2008, read this.

• To learn more about the anarchist demonstration against Donald Trump’s first inauguration, read this. To learn about how the arrestees used solidarity to win a historic victory over the charges brought against them, start here. You could also read this text about what to do when kettled. And to get a sense of what it was like on the streets that day, don’t miss the J20 protest simulator!

• For background on the movement to stop Cop City in Atlanta, start here; to learn about the Block Cop City mobilization, read this. Finally, this article explores the trumped up charges brought against arrestees in the movement.

• For background on the anti-fascist resistance to the “Unite the Right” rally, read these reflections. To learn about the Kronstadt revolt, you could start here.

• Finally, for further reading in this category, try “We Fight because We Like It: Maintaining Our Morale against Seemingly Insurmountable Odds.”

This episode offers an audio version of “Sacrificial Violence and Retribution,” exploring the responses to two different extrajudicial killings as a way to understand the different forms of violence that are contending in our society today. {November 22, 2024}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents
  • Introduction {0:30}
  • Sacrificial Violence {3:18}
  • Retribution? {8:35}
  • Beyond Martyrdom {14:11}

• This episode offers an audio version of “Sacrificial Violence and Retribution,” published by CrimethInc. on December 23, 2024. The article version includes a variety of hyperlinks providing citations for the claims made herein.

• To get deeper into René Girard’s analysis of sacrificial violence, you can read the first chapter of his book Violence and the Sacred here.

• You can read an incomplete roundup of various responses to the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, here. In this news clip, you can see a representative speaking on CNN on behalf of a fundraising campaign in support of Luigi Mangione’s legal defense. You can read a discussion of the causes of the anger directed at insurance executives here. You can read some statistics about gun violence in the United States in general here.

• For information about how much damage mass deportations are likely to inflict on the United States economy—not to mention the lives of millions of families—start here. To learn more about why people travel to the United States without documents and what role they play in the United States economy, read our book, No Wall They Can Build.

• Finally, for a further discussion of revenge and political violence, you could read an earlier article of ours, “Against the Logic of the Guillotine.”

This episode offers an audio version of “The Case for Resistance,” laying out an analysis of what we can expect from Donald Trump’s second term and how we can prepare to confront it. “This is a pivotal moment, and everyone who isn’t cynically detached is sounding the alarm. Those of us who recognize the necessity of fighting had better find each other, identify the strengths and weaknesses of all the parties involved, recall the lessons of the past eight years, and strategize.” {November 22, 2024}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents
  • Introduction {0:30}
  • The Balance of Forces {2:44}
  • How Popular Is Trump? {5:36}
  • Billionaire Supervillains {8:47}
  • Know Your Enemy {10:29}
  • Breaking the Spell {12:57}
  • Exerting Leverage {15:10}
  • Refine Our Strategies {17:51}
  • Fight Smart {19:17}
  • How Can We Resist? {20:27}
  • Strategizing to Stop Mass Deportations {33:08}

• This episode offers an audio version of “The Case for Resistance,” published by CrimethInc. on November 20, 2024. The article version includes a variety of hyperlinks providing citations for the claims made herein.

• For background, you could start by listening to episode #106 of the Ex-Worker, which explores the various ways that the Democratic Party is responsible for creating the situation in which Donald Trump can return to power. It is also available as the article “History Repeats Itself: First as Farce, Then as Tragedy.” Unfortunately, we predicted this dire turn of events in “Why Stop at Removing Biden?”, published by CrimethInc. in July 2024.

• For information about how to organize an assembly, you could read the article “How to Organize an Assembly,” which details the steps in organizing a successful assembly and presents some sample discussion questions you could use to discuss how to prepare for the second Donald Trump administration.

• For access to a wide array of materials about security culture, digital security, phone safety, protective gear, direct action strategy, street tactics, jail support, and first aid, you could consult “EVERYBODY OUT!,” the resource list we published ahead of the 2020 elections. To get some historical context and refine your sense of strategy ahead of the second Trump era, read The Trump Years,” a chronology of resistance and direct action under the first Trump administration.

At a time when misinformation, rising authoritarianism, and disasters exacerbated by industrially-produced climate change are creating a feedback loop of escalating crisis, it’s crucial to understand disaster response as an integral part of community defense and strategize about how this can play a part in movements for liberation. In this reflection, a local anarchist involved in longstanding disaster response efforts in Appalachia recounts the lessons that they have learned in the course of dealing with the consequences of Hurricane Helene over the past six weeks and offers advice about how to prepare for the disasters to come. {November 18, 2024}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • Start Preparing Now {3:59}
  • Communications {5:35}
  • Supply Chain Logistics {7:23}
  • Heavy Machinery {9:06}
  • Breaking the Spell {10:29}
  • Rumors and Misinformation {12:04}
  • Vultures {14:19}
  • Engaging with the State {16:28}
  • Finances {18:42}
  • Getting Organized {20:35}

• This episode offers an audio version of The Eye of Every Storm: Anarchist Response to Hurricane Helene, published by CrimethInc. on November 13. We present this in collaboration with Audible Anarchist, another collective producing audio content.

• For related content, you can listen to an interview with an anarchist involved in Mutual Aid Disaster Relief organizing in the wake of Hurricane Irma in 2017 in the fourth episode of The Hotwire. You can also read these accounts of anarchist relief efforts in North Carolina following Hurricane Florence in 2018. Finally, this analysis written in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida explores the colonial roots of the disasters that a series of hurricanes has inflicted upon New Orleans.

• You can read about how people responded to the impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico here. Anarchists in Brasil have made the case that capitalism is one of the chief causes of the suffering inflicted by the floods of May 2024. In episode 95 of the Ex-Worker Podcast, you can hear two perspectives on the responsibility of the Turkish and Syrian governments for the suffering caused by the earthquakes of February 6, 2023.

• For more information about how capitalism is implicated in the sort of industrially produced climate change that is exacerbating hurricanes and other “natural” disasters around the world, you could consult this short text by Peter Gelderloos.

• Finally, if you are looking to get connected to anarchist disaster relief efforts, you could start by learning more about Mutual Aid Disaster Relief.

Donald Trump has won the 2024 election. In order to understand what we’re up against, let’s look at how we got here. In many ways, the Democrats are responsible for Donald Trump’s return to power. Over the past four years, the Democrats have beefed up the institutions through which the fascists will enact their policies, normalized violence against the people that the fascists intend to target, turned over the communications platforms via which people share information, and discouraged people from the kind of tactics one needs to fight against a fascist regime is complicity. {November 6, 2024}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • The Hot Potato Changes Hands Again {1:12}
  • The Party of Complicity {3:03}
  • The Road to Fascism {5:07}
  • The Police {5:15}
  • The Law {6:17}
  • The Media {8:05}
  • Emptying the Streets {9:28}
  • The Political Rachet {11:56}
  • Desensitizing the Public {14:04}
  • The Road Ahead {15:10}

• This episode offers an audio version of History Repeats Itself: First as Farce, Then as Tragedy in Argentina, published by CrimethInc. on November 6th. The article makes the case that, in many ways, the policies of the Democratic Party are responsible for Donald Trump’s return to power.

• For background on the events described in this article, consult The Billionaire and the Anarchists, which traces Twitter from its roots as a protest tool to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform; Take Your Pick: Law or Freedom, which explores how the slogan “Nobody Is Above the Law” actually paved the way for tyranny; The Trump Years, a chronology of grassroots resistance from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021; and Why Stop at Removing Biden, an analysis of why it took the Democratic Party so long to remove Joe Biden and what the consequences were bound to be—a forecast borne out by the results of the 2024 election.

• Regarding the argument that state power has become a “hot potato” that burns whatever party holds it, consult this article and Chile and this earlier article about Ukraine.

• For a point of departure regarding how people can organize ahead of a second Trump administration, consult Don’t Doom Scroll, Organize: How to Get Active in the Current Terrain.

This episode offers an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published on December 12th. It traces the activities of the movement to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest from June through December 2023, including accounts of the campaign for an Atlanta voter’s referendum on Cop City, the Sixth Week of Action, the relationship between clandestine direct action and public organizing, local Black organizing against the project, the Block Cop City march in November, and potential strategic pathways forward. Tune in for an in-depth evaluation of the latest phase in one of the most critical social struggles of our time. {February 4, 2023}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • The Hour Is Drawing Late {2:37}
  • They Don’t Care About You {6:38}
  • The Referendum {8:24}
  • What Mass Organizing Makes Possible {11:19}
  • The Sixth Week of Action {17:58}
  • The New Balance of Forces {22:03}
  • Escalating Tactics {25:20}
  • Atlas Technical Consultants Drops Out {27:45}
  • Scooping the Mid-Range: Repressing Public Resistance {30:16}
  • The Storm Before the Storm {33:26}
  • Escalating Repression: RICO and the Furtherance of the Conspiracy {36:26}
  • RICO in Georgia {39:54}
  • You Can’t Break Us {41:12}
  • The Scope of Repression Broadens {43:30}
  • This is Not a Local Repression Strategy {45:37}
  • Attrition and Conflict {47:51}
  • From Atlanta to Gaza, No Cop City Anywhere {52:22}
  • Black Self-Organization {54:51}
  • Block Cop City {58:05}
  • Building a Common Understanding {1:01:10}
  • Anatomy of a March {1:03:26}
  • Forward, Arm in Arm {1:06:52}
  • Re-Grouping {1:14:16}
  • A Supporter of the Police? {1:15:45}
  • Gauging Success and Failure {1:17:40}
  • Victory and Defeat: A Chimera {1:27:13}
  • Fighting without Assurances {1:29:38}
  • Continuing Forward {1:31:14}
  • Winning by Attrition {1:35:03}
  • Outro/PSA {1:38:54}

• This episode offers an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published by CrimethInc. on December 12th. It includes excerpts from “Don’t Panic, Stay Tight: Frontline Reflections on Block Cop City,” an account of the November 13th march in Atlanta.

• For background on the first two and a half years of the movement, see the following articles and podcast episodes:
  • “The City in the Forest,” (audio version) – chronicles the first year of the movement.
  • “The Forest in the City” (audio version) – chronicles the second year of the movement.
  • “Beneath the Concrete, the Forest” (audio version) – collects first-person accounts from the occupation of Weelaunee forest through the first half of 2022.
  • “Balance Sheet” – explores and evaluates the strategies that different currents in the movement have employed.
  • “Defending Abundance Everywhere” – essays on the webs of relationship linking all creatures and underlying the struggle to defend the forest.
  • “The Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol Are Guilty of Murder” – analysis of the assassination of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán.
  • “Living in an Earthquake” (audio version) – chronicles February through June of 2023, including the fifth week of action, the repression that followed, and the City Hall mobilizations.
  • “Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta” (audio version) – analysis of the new wave of legal repression launched in September 2023.

• Stay up to date on developments with news from the Atlanta Community Press Collective

• The Uncover Cop City campaign is targeting the insurers whose coverage makes Cop City possible, including Nationwide Insurance and Accident Fund - follow the links to find office locations and contact information to show your opposition to the project.

At first, it appeared to be an ordinary forest defense campaign aimed at discouraging Atlanta city government from pouring money into an unpopular police training facility. But over the past two years, the fight against Cop City has escalated into one of the fiercest struggles of the Biden era, pitting a wide range of courageous people against a united front of politicians, prosecutors, and police. In their desperate efforts to deflect popular resistance and force through the project, police and prosecutors have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against almost every defendant arrested since last December; they have killed one forest defender; they have charged those engaged in legal support for the arrestees. In the following account and analysis, published on June 21st as “Living in an Earthquake: The Fight against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression,” participants in the movement in Atlanta trace its trajectory from the fifth Week of Action that began on March 4, 2023 through the City Council vote of June 5. {December 28, 2023}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • Preface {2:21}
  • Living in an Earthquake {3:28}
  • February 2023 {5:59}
  • The Fifth Week of Action {8:33}
  • Retaking Weelaunee People’s Park {9:19}
  • The South River Music Festival: A Flower Between Two Abysses {11:49}
  • The March on the Cop City Construction {16:01}
  • Role Reversal {20:15}
  • The Raid on the South River Music Festival {22:12}
  • The Defense of the Music Festival {26:19}
  • A Pyrrhic Victory? {32:31}
  • Jumping to Conclusions {33:20}
  • Defense {36:25}
  • Urban Encampments {38:54}
  • The Limits of Deterrence {43:51}
  • Time and Space {46:14}
  • Controlling Risk {48:21}
  • The Aftermath {52:45}
  • The Week of Action Continues {55:09}
  • Without a Shadow of Doubt {57:07}
  • The Conclusion of the Fifth Week of Action {1:03:14}
  • Clearing Out {1:08:10}
  • Deforestation and Its Consequences {1:14:20}
  • Earth Day Weekend of Resilience {1:15:59}
  • Campus Actions {1:16:50}
  • War by Other Means {1:19:03}
  • The Attack on the Solidarity Fund {1:25:21}
  • The Centrists versus Everyone {1:27:43}
  • However They Vote, We Must Be Ungovernable {1:30:39}
  • The Theory of Failure and Disappointment {1:40:07}
  • Making a Virtue of Necessity {1:42:50}

• This episode offers an audio version of “Living in an Earthquake: The Fight against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression,” published by CrimethInc. on June 21st.

• For background on the first two and a half years of the movement, see the following articles and podcast episodes: “The City in the Forest,” (audio version) – chronicles the first year of the movement “The Forest in the City” (audio version) – chronicles the second year of the movement “Beneath the Concrete, the Forest” (audio version) – collects first-person accounts from the occupation of Weelaunee forest through the first half of 2022 “Balance Sheet” – explores and evaluates the strategies that different currents in the movement have employed “Defending Abundance Everywhere” – essays on the webs of relationships linking all creatures and underlying the struggle to defend the forest “The Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol Are Guilty of Murder” – analysis of the assassination of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán “Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta” (audio version) – analysis of the new wave of legal repression launched in September 2023

• For our most recent coverage, see “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published by CrimethInc. on December 12th; stay tuned for the audio version, soon to be released as Ex-Worker Episode #105.

• You can find texts, posters, graphics, and more materials about the movement online through Defend the Atlanta Forest: Library. Check out the Atlanta Community Press Collective for ongoing coverage.

A so-called “anarcho-capitalist” has just been elected president in Argentina. What does this mean for anarchists and the prospects for revolutionary change in South America? Spoiler alert: it’s not looking good. In this episode, we share an account from an Argentinian anarchist analyzing the recent rise to power of Javier Milei, an extreme neoliberal economist, in the context of the global turn towards fascist and reactionary populist leaders like Trump and Bolsonaro. You’ll get an in-depth look at the history of center-left rule, military dictatorship, and neoliberal austerity that resulting in the powerful popular uprising of 2001, along with an detailed assessment of the economic challenges, disillusionment with the political class, and failures of the left and radical social movements that facilitated Milei’s rise. This is a disturbing but essential exploration of one of the year’s most important political developments, with critical implications for those of us fighting the culture and politics and fascism around the world. {December 10, 2023}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • Back to the Future {1:30}
  • “Viva la Libertad!”—Freedom to Work or Starve, to Submit or be Shot {5:53}
  • History Repeats Itself Again {17:30}
  • Ultraliberals, the Military, and Repression: A Love Story {27:18}
  • The “Forces of Heaven” against the Orcs {35:04}
  • Outro/PSA {42:31}

• This episode offers an audio version of Back to the Future: The Return of the Ultraliberal Right in Argentina, published by CrimethInc. on November 26th. The article quotes from a post-election statement by a coalition of “especifist” anarchist organizations in Argentina.

• For coverage of recent popular mobilization in Argentina, see our coverage of the 2018 G20 protests in Buenos Aires: Setting the Stage: Background Materials and Logbook November 14–16, Logbook November 17–19: Peronism, Counter-Summit Creativity, and the Schedule of Resistance, and Logbook November 20–22: Security Zones and Shantytowns.

• This episode discusses in depth the 2001 uprising that succeeded in driving the neoliberal regime from power. The classic zine account is Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Uprising.

• Argentina featured one of the world’s largest and most powerful anarchist movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including some of the earliest anarcha-feminist projects. To learn more about this history, you could start with some of these resources: “Anarchism in Latin America” by Ángel Cappelletti, “The Anarchist Expropriators: Buenaventura Durruti and Argentina’s Working-Class Robin Hood” by Osvaldo Bayer, “Anarchism in Argentina” and “Resistencia Libertaria: Anarchist Opposition to the Last Argentine Dictatorship” by Chuck Morse, and “No God, No Boss, No Husband: The world’s first Anarcha-Feminist group.”

• In case you were confused on this point, “anarcho-capitalist” is an oxymoron. We explore this in more depth in Episode 18 of the Ex-Worker, “What Anarchism Isn’t, Pt 1: Libertarianism and Anarcho-Capitalism.”

On November 13, 2023, demonstrators in southern California blockaded a facility of Raytheon, a defense contractor, in solidarity with the Palestinians on the receiving end of the bombs that it produces. They managed to block the facility for more than seven hours, supported by waves of hundreds of activists joining the action, and succeeded in shutting down operations for the day. This episode offers an audio version of How They Stopped Work at the Raytheon Facility: Report on a Day of Blockading, published on November 15th. Participants summarize how the action was organized and unfolded, police responses, the background of direct actions against the war machine and mobilization in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and reflections for future resistance. {November 25, 2023}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • The Action {3:25}
  • Background {8:39}
  • Going Forward {11:56}
  • Outro/PSA {12:38}

• This episode offers an audio version of How They Stopped Work at the Raytheon Facility: Report on a Day of Blockading, published on November 15th.

• For evaluations of direct action strategies towards Palestinian solidarity, see our previous articles and episodes “Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea,” also available as Episode 101 of the Ex-Worker; and “Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity: Expanding the Toolkit From Demands to Direct Action,” also available as Episode 99.

• Our coverage of the war in Palestine so far includes “From the Galilee to Gaza—A Voice From Palestine” – also available as Episode 98 – and ““A Nuclear Superpower and a Dispossessed People”: An Anarchist from Jaffa on the Escalation in Palestine and Israeli Repression”. For further background, see “A Coup d’État in Israel? The Bitter Harvest of Colonialism” (March 27, 2023) – also available as Episode 92 of the Ex-Worker - “The Revolt in Haifa: An Eyewitness Report” (2021), and “Contemporary Israeli Anarchism: A History” (2013).

• For classic strategic analysis, you can also read more about why we don’t make demands and what we mean by direct action.