Author: Slingshot robot #1

By Jesse D. Palmer

There’s finally good news about the threat that the Long Haul radical community center will be torn down to build an 8 story apartment building.  Slingshot has had its offices at Long Haul for more than 30 years. After all the other tenants in the building moved out in January, the landlord announced that they’re now accepting applications to fill the vacant spaces — with no mention of tearing the building down. Won’t you be our neighbor? If you know of any non-profits looking for commercial space, it would help out us if they moved here. 

Despite looming demolition, Long Haul has been thriving the last couple of years with many energetic new volunteers. Consider visiting or planning an event here. Projects currently based in the building include the Reprographixxx print room, a weekly writers group, 2 study groups, music shows on the weekends, and a few Bay Area Anarchist Free School classes. Long Haul is the perfect place to make Slingshot. It’s cozy and homemade — a space not devoted to commerce, operated collectively by volunteers that welcomes all types of freaks. 

The landlord wrote: “Versatile spaces totaling 3,500 square feet are ideal for nonprofits, artists, or co-working groups looking for a dynamic location. Located across from La Peña Cultural Center and The Starry Plough, it offers an engaging environment for those whose mission aligns with … values of housing, climate, and racial justice. We are particularly interested in tenants who will complement the work of The Long Haul, our long-term tenant, and contribute to preserving this historically rich neighborhood.” Long Haul is 2 blocks from Ashby BART. 

Compiled by Jesse D. Palmer

Having off-the-grid physical spaces where we can plot, fabricate, carouse, perform, flirt, invent and congregate outside the constraints of capitalism and empire is essential. Not only while we’re throwing billionaires into the wood-chipper and creating a world worth living in — but also so we can have exciting, luscious, socially-connected lives. There’s thousands of radical spaces like this around the globe and people just like you are getting together to start new ones all the time — as well as maintaining and improving what’s already there. Are you bored, scared or lonely? Plug in! We’re waiting to meet you. 

Here’s some radical spaces Slingshot has heard about since the 2025 organizer was printed in June, 2024. Email us with your corrections and additions. Updates are at slingshotcollective.org/contacts.

Redbud Books – Bloomington, IN 

A non-profit, collectively operated community book shop and community space that hosts themed reading groups, a speaker series, international film screenings and other events. Open noon – 7. 408 W. Kirkwood, Bloomington, IN 47404 redbudbooks.org

Y.O.U. Center – Little Rock, AR

“Your Options, Understood” is an abortion and pregnancy resource center operated by Arkansas Abortion Support that offers judgement-free options counseling including help finding a clinic in a state other than Arkansas where abortion is still legal. They provide referrals for financial and travel assistance plus free Plan B, condoms, daily contraceptive (Opill) and pregnancy tests to anyone who needs them. 4 Office Park Dr., Little Rock, AR 72211 501-487-5244 arabortionsupport.org 

Beautywood Books – North Little Rock, AR

A queer community bookstore that hosts events. 1704 North Main Street, North Little Rock, AR 72114 501-487-4323 beautywoodbooks.com 

Central Arkansas Harm Reduction Project – Little Rock, AR

Grassroots drop-in center with safer drug use and safer sex resources and a hotline. 8619 Chicot Rd., Little Rock, AR 72209 501-438-9158 arkansasharmreduction.org

Pepe’s Bistro – Lincoln, NE

A vegan Mexican restaurant that hosts local musicians, artists, community fundraisers and activities. 1311 S 11th St., Lincoln NE 68502

Artfarm – Lexington, KY

Cooperative community commons and creative organizing space with artist studios, movement offices, a library, food pantry, tool library and meeting space that presents classes, music, films and events. 1123 Winchester Rd., Lexington, KY 40505 artfarm.coop (Opened/ opening 4/1/25)

Implacable books – Worcester, MA

Implacable Books is a cooperatively-owned radical bookstore, library, & community space. 189 Washington St., Worcester MA 01610. implacablebooks.org (Opened/opening 4/1/25)

The Shop at MATTER – Denver, CO

Independent, Black- and woman-owned bookstore that hosts events “serving the needs of all revolutionaries.” 2134 Market St, Denver, CO 80205 303-893-0330 shopatmatter.com

The Clay Pit – Minneapolis, MN

A community sliding scale ceramics studio. 4141 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 833-524-6569 theclaypitstudio.com

A.B.O Comix Collective – Oakland

DIY art gallery that sells original artwork and publications by incarcerated LGBTQ+ people, sending proceeds directly to them while organizing mutual aid and advocacy efforts to keep queer prisoners connected to supportive outside communities. 2520 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA 94612. abocomix.com 

Safe Space Bookstore – Prague, Czech Republic

A nonprofit community space, feminist activist bookstore and vegan cafe hosting events and offering safe space for everybody. U božích bojovníků 606/3 Praha 3 Žižkov, Czech Republic safespacebookstore.com

Intifada Rock Cafe Restaurante – Santa Ana, El Salvador 

Restaurant and bar that also hosts rad community and culture events. Due to the nature of the current presidency, there is a special doorbell and bouncer that screens people and keeps the place locked so only members of the community (and no military and police) can come in. XCFH+239, Ave Fray Felipe De Jesus Moraga Sur & Calle Santa Maria, Santa Ana, El Salvador. facebook.com/lacasadelrockon/

CSO Kike Mur – Zaragoza, Spain

A squatted, self-managed and anti-authoritarian social center in the former Torrero prison. Plaza de la Memoria Histórica

50007 Zaragoza, Spain.

Autonomní Centrum 254 – Prague, Czech Republic

Autonomous social center. Argentinská 783/18, Argentinská 18, Holesovice, Czech Republic

Mt. Cloud Bookshop – Benguet, Philippines

Independent bookshop. 1 Yangco Road, Corner Brent Rd, Baguio, 2600 Benguet, Philippines  +63 74 420 9154

Alfredo F. Tadiar Library – San Fernando, Philippines

An independent library that hosts events. 1 F. Ortega Hwy, Tanqui, San Fernando, 2500 La Union, Philippines +63 72 888 0795 tadiarlibrary.org

Vén Vakond Könyvtár – Budapest, Hungary

A new anarchist library. Auróra utca 34. 1085, Budapest, Hungary. 

Vasas Szakszervezeti Szövetség – Budapest, Hungary

Main building of a 140+ years old labor union that still operates and rents out office space to radical organizations. Magdolna utca 5. 1086, Budapest. 

Alliance of Alternative Communities – Debrecen, Hungary

An NGO and a co-op-run bar under the same roof that support local organizations with community/office space. They have an artist collective, a cycling advocate group, the city’s only queer community, and Food Not Bombs. Baross Gábor utca 16. 4029, Debrecen.

Three new spaces in Colombia 

• Cauce Libros, Calle 4d # 34a – 50, Santiago de Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia instagram.com/cauce.libros/

• Gastropunk Bar El Hormiguero, Distro el Sótano, Calle 51 Ave., La Playa #40-127, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia, facebook.com/ElHormigueroColectivoCultural

• Benach Galería de Arte y Café, Carrera 15 #18 -04, Barrio Centro, Sibundoy, Putumayo, Colombia, facebook.com/benachgaleriadearte

Corrections to the 2025 Organizer

• Muntiny Info Cafe is now at 3483 S Broadway, Englewood, CO 80113.

• Ethos Vegan Kitchen in Winter Park, FL has closed.

• The snail mail address for Common Root Mutual Aid Center in Lincoln, NE no longer includes a unit number – they used to have a cubicle but now they just have a desk.

• The address for is wrong for Kismet Creative Center – they are at 3302 Meramec St., St. Louis, MO, 63118.

• Lucie’s Place in Little Rock, AR seems inactive.

• Understory in Oakland has closed. 

• CSOA El Retal (Murcia, Spain) no longer exists.

• Infoladen Daneben (Berlin, Germany) no longer exsits. 

• Sabotage Bistro, Zdena and Prostor39 in czech Republic no longer exist. 

• Punktown and Pogo-Town in Japan have both closed.

• ISBN+ bookshop in Budapest has moved to Baross utca 42. 1085, Budapest 

ABC No Rio the long-lived activist cultural center in the Lower East Side of New York is celebrating 45 years of life and struggle with a timeline exhibition in April at the Emily Harvey Foundation, historic seat of the Fluxus movement. We invite our out-of-town community, past and present, to participate by sending in “mail art” for this show – in effect, a correspondence of remembrances of people, exhibits and performances, images of work seen in the long-demolished 156 Rivington building, texts of poetry or spoken word. Or what you like. Send us a letter!

We need physical materials by March 23, 2025 or as soon as possible — the show runs the month of April so at least before the end of April. Send to – ABC NO RIO 45, 123 Scribner Avenue, Staten Island, NY USA. Please include an email address to confirm receipt. Questions? abcnorio45@yahoo.com

Hunh? What? 

ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. It is an internationally known venue for oppositional culture. The center was founded in 1980 after an occupation by artists committed to political and social engagement, values we retain to the present.

We cross-pollinate between artists and activists. ABC is a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community. Our dream is cadres of actively aware artists and artfully aware activists.

Our community is committed to social justice, equality, anti-authoritarianism, autonomous action, collective processes, and nurturing alternative structures and institutions operating on such principles. Our community includes punks who embrace the DIY ethos, express positive outrage, and reject corporate commercialism. It includes nomads, squatters, fringe dwellers, and those among society’s disenfranchised who find at ABC No Rio a place to be heard and valued.

ABC’s new building is rising now, after decades of work by our beloved director, Steven Englander, RIP. We hope to be in it by Spring of ‘26. During the construction period ABC No Rio programs and operations continue “in exile” at other venues. Coordination is out of the office, archive and Zine Library temporarily housed at the Clemente Center down the block.

#ABCNoRio #ABCNoRio45Years @ABCNoRio.org collaborating: #MoRUSMuseum

By Baamaa-pii

We are Red Willow Collective, an Indigenous-led collective based in Minot, North Dakota. The punk scene here has been organizing DIY all-ages events and shows since the early ‘90s, keeping underground music alive in a state where it often goes unnoticed. For decades, Minot has been booking punk shows and sustaining this DIY ethos. Red Willow Collective builds on that legacy as a First Nations-led extension of the scene, honoring those who came before us while forging a new chapter centered on all-ages events, safer spaces, and community-driven music organizing.

We are dedicated to creating a music scene that reflects our roots, values, and the diverse artists who keep it thriving.

The Red Willow Collective is about more than just music and art, it’s about building spaces where people can connect, heal, and imagine something beyond survival. We organize community-driven events that highlight Indigenous and other marginalized voices, fostering a culture where creativity and resistance go hand in hand. Whether it’s hosting performances, workshops, or community gatherings, we’re creating platforms that break isolation and build relationships rooted in solidarity. Liberation starts with connection, and we’re committed to holding space for those often left out of mainstream conversations.

We envision a world where we are not just pushing back against oppression but building systems that make it irrelevant. A world where art isn’t a privilege but a necessity, where culture isn’t commodified but shared freely, and where community care replaces the individualism that keeps us fragmented. Instead of just resisting harm, we want to cultivate spaces of self-determination, where healing, storytelling, and expression are the foundations of our collective future. The more we create spaces on our own terms, the less power oppression has over us.

We stay engaged because our survival, both as individuals and as a people, has always depended on community. The Indigenous nations of North Dakota, all of Turtle Island, have endured relentless attempts to erase us, from forced removal and boarding schools to resource exploitation and cultural suppression. Yet, we are still here, not just surviving, but creating, resisting, and thriving. What has carried us through generations of hardship is our connection to one another. It’s the people, the conversations, the moments of understanding, the shared laughter in spaces we build together. Our ancestors survived through kinship, through care, through collective action. We continue that tradition every time we gather to make music, organize, and uplift each other. It’s how we honor our elders and spirit.

Even the smallest acts of showing up, creating art, speaking our truths are part of something much larger. We refuse to let silence be the default, because silence is complicity. Art, music, and community keep us grounded. They remind us that resistance is not just about reacting to oppression; it’s about carving out spaces where we can imagine and build something better.

We keep showing up because every time we do, we prove that another way of living, one rooted in care, creativity, and possibility is not only necessary but already happening.

By Benji and the Cat

For too long, working-class Americans have been on the losing end of a rigged system. The rules of the game have been written to benefit the few at the top, while the rest of us work harder and get less in return. Wages stay flat, prices go up, and decisions about our jobs are made by people who have never walked in our shoes. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if we could rewrite the rules — together?

There’s a better way, and it’s called a worker cooperative. A worker co-op is a business where the workers are the owners. It’s not some far-off idea or fancy trend. It’s a practical, time-tested way to give working people control over their livelihoods and a fair share of the profits they help to create.

What’s in It for You?

Imagine your workplace, but better. Instead of taking orders from a boss who only cares about the bottom line, decisions are made by the people who actually do the work. That means you have a say in how things are run. Instead of profits going straight to shareholders who’ve never set foot in the building — they’re shared among the workers. When the business succeeds, everyone benefits.

This isn’t theoretical — worker co-ops already exist, and they’re thriving. For example, Arizmendi Bakery, founded by a group of bakers in the San Francisco Bay Area, shares decision-making power and splits the profits equally. Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco has been operating their worker-owned co-op since 1975 (50 years in 2025). In New York, The Drivers Cooperative, an alternative to other ride-sharing apps, has over 2,000 members. And in Chicago, the New Era Windows Cooperative bought their window factory from the owner of the decades-old business, and it has been operating as a worker co-op ever since (“In 2008, the boss decided to close our windows factory on Goose Island and fire everyone. In 2012, we decided to buy the factory for ourselves and fire the boss. We now own the plant together and run it democratically.” from their website). These are real people proving that worker co-ops work.

The idea of worker ownership isn’t new. In fact, it’s deeply American. In the 19th century, worker cooperatives were common among carpenters, tailors, and other trades. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, co-ops helped communities survive when the system failed them. And today, thousands of co-ops across the country — from grocery stores to construction companies — continue to prove that this model works.

How Do We Start?

You don’t need an MBA or a million dollars to start a co-op. All it takes is a group of people who want to work together and a willingness to learn. You can start a new co-op from scratch or convert an existing business into a co-op. There are organizations across the country that offer free or low-cost support to help you get started, from legal advice to financial planning.

And if you’re wondering where to find the money, there are grants, loans, and even local government programs that support co-ops. This isn’t charity — it is an investment in working people like you. (See info, below.)

The Power Is in Your Hands

The system isn’t going to fix itself. Politicians might talk a good game, but they rarely deliver for working people. Corporations certainly aren’t going to give us a fair share. If we want change, we have to create it ourselves.

Worker co-ops give us the tools to do just that. They put the power where it belongs: in the hands of the workers. So let’s stop waiting for someone else to save us. Let’s roll up our sleeves, stand together, and build something better — because no one knows how to get the job done like we do.

Let’s take back what’s ours!

Some national resources for starting & funding co-ops

– CooperationWorks.coop

– DemocracyCollaborative.org

– SeedCommons.org

– cdf.coop

– capitalimpact.org/focus/co-ops/

– ICA’s Global Cooperative Impact Fund

– There are also lots of local and statewide organizations — a quick internet search will help you see if there’s a co-op development center in your area.

– Depending on the type of co-op you want to start, you might find funding resources just for that kind of business. 

Contact us by April 20 if you want to draw art for the 2026 Slingshot Organizer — you do not have to live in California to draw. 50 artists from all over contribute to each edition. 

Please send additions and corrections for the Radical Contact List by May 23. We’re especially looking for contacts in under-represented areas, states and countries (cities that are NOT college towns). We’re looking particularly for contacts in the South and Midwest — anywhere in Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming, Africa & the Middle East.

If you want to work on editing and adding to the Radical History dates, reach out between now and April 20. We want to add protests or notable events from 2024 / 2025, older stuff we’re missing, especially marginalized issues and movements, and we need help proofreading to try to locate and correct errors. 

If you are in the Bay Area, join Slingshot for two art party weekends to put the Organizer together by hand May 24/25 (times TBA) and May 31/June 1 (24/7, baby!) at Long Haul 3124 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. “It is like an art rave — but geeky and free.” Drop by for an hour or stay all day and all night. 

Selling the Organizer enables Slingshot to print and distribute this newspaper for free. If you know of a store in your area that could sell the 2026 Organizer, let us know. 

Sadly, we ran out of copies of the 2025 Organizer so we don’t have any extra copies to give out this year.

PRODUCT RECALL: The 2025 Organizer’s month-at-a-glance calendar for September is defective / off by 1 day. You can fix it with a pen. We’re very sorry about the error. Please tell your friends. 

By Average Joey

Capitalism is more than just an economic model: it is an all-encompassing socio-political system fueled by the exploitation of human labor and natural resources, and enforced by violence. The logic of capital is the prioritization of profit above all else, which dictates nearly every detail of our personal lives — our relationship to work, community, relationships, even our perception of ourselves. If we start to unveil this logic, we can see how insidious it is to our mental and emotional health. 

What is considered “rational” according to the logic of capitalism is often ethically indefensible. Ecological devastation, unspeakable human exploitation, and the violence of war are all permissible under this logic, so long as the profits rise in the upcoming fiscal quarter. A society that worships opulence while it normalizes millions of people sleeping in the streets is deeply sick. What does it do to a person to be entrapped in this framework?

Stuck in a cycle of meaningless labor, vapid consumption, hyper-individualized social alienation and with social bonds captured by profiteering algorithms, we are certain to interpret the world as hostile, competitive, unfulfilling, and isolating, which in turn affects our mental/emotional state for the worse. Diagnoses such as depression or anxiety, are biomedical labels for the natural, healthy and inevitable reaction of people to hostile social conditions. 

Modern capitalist society is abnormal, in the grand scheme of our species’ history. For 95% of humanity’s time on earth, we lived in classless communities of mutual obligation. Meeting the needs of fellow members of the tribe was a core necessity for one’s own survival. Under these forms of social organization, the ways in which our basic biological needs were met — that is, communally and in close relationship to the natural world — formed our social needs for group cohesion, trustworthy community, and connection to the environment. Meeting our physiological needs through a collective process of egalitarian social relationships is what shaped our psycho-emotional needs for social belonging within an interdependent community of mutual care. 

It is not that prehistoric people were more ethical or virtuous, but that this mutual aid was necessary for survival. The material conditions shaped social relationships, biological evolutionary expectations, and psycho-emotional needs. The same applies to today — in order to survive under material conditions of modern capitalism, people are forced into particular social relationships. However, this social arrangement can be said to be “unnatural” — meaning it is antagonistic to the evolutionary expectations of our species. Capitalism is not conducive to individual and social wellbeing; psycho-emotional distress is all but inevitable.

Propaganda that attempts to frame “human nature” as inherently greedy or selfish comes from a place of either bad faith or ignorance; this narrative is a misdirection, diverting attention away from structures of inequality and the powerful people who benefit from them. Human nature is not fixed. Rather, people act according to the incentive structure of their social environments. It is not some fundamental flaw that makes people behave selfishly or violently, but rather the dysfunctional social conditions which incentivize anti-social behavior — and sets up the personal experiences that result from those conditions. Indoctrinated by the ideologies of capitalism our entire lives, behaviors which maintain the status quo appear to us as fundamental to our nature, but they are historically contingent. 

Dialogue around “mental health” tends to individuate and pathologize the experiences people have under these antagonistic conditions, focusing on diagnosing and treating symptoms rather than considering the systemic causes of psycho-emotional distress. A mental health diagnosis can be flattening: “Why do I think/feel/behave this way? Because I have a ‘mental illness’” — end of story. This reductionism reinforces the falsehood that mental or emotional discomfort is the result of individual malfunction and can be fully resolved through medication or “lifestyle changes.” 

It is true that many people find great value — personal relief, social validation, and genuine healing — through biomedical diagnosis, medical treatment, and therapeutic management. The alleviation of debilitating distress provided by medication, the support of peer groups, and the tools one acquires through therapy cannot be disregarded outright. However, these are ultimately inadequate if they are understood as the exclusive path to resolution or healing, while the social and political causes of distress go unaddressed. There is nothing disempowering about diagnosis so long as that diagnosis leads to a deeper inquiry into all the factors that contribute to psycho-emotional health — including the social and structural ones. Without a wider analysis, a mental health diagnosis can lead a person struggling with their psycho-emotional health down a path of defeated passivity.

Capitalist social structures are certain to cause stress, loneliness, anxiety, and existential sadness. Our inability to conform to or abide by the demands of the logic of capital is not a flaw — not an indication of a personal malfunction — but a sign that we have not yet relinquished our humanity. You are not wrong to feel depressed or anxious. Given the reality, it would be weird not to be anxious and depressed. Our body/mind/soul’s rejection of these conditions and ideological confines serves as proof of capitalism’s fundamental antagonism to all it means to be human — biologically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Our spirits are crying out for something better. If such a large percentage of the population experience “illnesses” such as depression and anxiety, these arefundamentally social problems. Depoliticizing mental health takes capitalism for granted as inevitable, which it is not. Stepping over dying people on a daily commute or passively scrolling past images of genocidal violence should be psychologically disturbing. It does something to the human spirit, or psyche, or soul to live in a culture where such brutality appears to us as mundane. 

What is “healthy” or “crazy” depends on the ideologies of a given society or culture. Who is more violent and dangerous: the houseless person experiencing a manic episode in the town square, or the executives of the weapons manufacturers who build, disseminate, and profit from 2,000 pound bombs? Historically, and in the present day, it has been adherence to the status quo which has perpetuated the most egregious violence the world has ever known. In a capitalist world, it is the “normal” people who establish, perpetuate and maintain structures and logics that are inherently violent — that are antithetical to the health and wellbeing of human and non-human life the world over. Those who insist on something better are labeled “crazy.” If alienation is normal, let us embrace abnormality. If insisting on a radically different social reality is irrational, it is time to be irrational. If turning away from capitalist ideology in favor of a radically different world means being labeled as crazy, let us embrace a liberating madness. 

After watching for over a year as the leaders of the University of California (UC) failed to condemn genocide or reckon with the implications of the university’s investments, research, and donor complicity in the destruction and devastation of the Palestinian people, a systemwide collective of faculty, students, staff, and community members launched the UC People’s Tribunal for Palestine on November 11, 2024. UC leaders normalized the Israeli state and defended Zionism while restricting speech and employing militarized police power against those who spoke out against the genocide. 

Our first session focused on the inaction of UCSF, the sole UC campus dedicated to healthcare, to condemn the targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers, as well as Zionist donor pressure and influence. We are holding a second session in southern California on May 9-10. This session will focus on (1) UC investments in and research collusion with war industries, (2) racialized and militarized police repression of Palestinian solidarity, and (3) Zionist policing of forms of knowledge with the complicity of the university.

In addition to our live sessions, the UC People’s Tribunal serves as a repository for independent research about complicity of the UC in aiding and abetting Zionist aggression. 

We’ve begun to build a broad-based popular curriculum based on the archive.

Though 2024’s Palestine solidarity camps were crushed or disbanded, the tribunal continues their demands for divestment and anti-imperialist education. Campus-based struggle for divestment from apartheid South Africa lasted for years. We are in it for the long haul. For more info: ucpeoplestribunal.org

By Little Yew

Right now, a lot of Americans are hurting as the cost of being alive is falling out of reach. People on TV keep telling us to blame minorities and women for what’s going on. They tell us that if we disempower these groups, our economic woes will go away. This is a pernicious myth, designed to distract everyone from the real reasons life is so expensive right now: union-busting, privatization, and monopolies.

Union-busting hurts us all. In the 1950s, union membership in the U.S. was at an all-time high. This had a huge impact, boosting quality of life for many Americans. Then came the era of union-busting firms, in which bosses began hiring companies to spread lies and sow derision among workers. Thanks to union-busting tactics, workplace union contracts got derailed, and vital collations dissolved. This has led workers to constantly get a bum deal — or not even get a seat at the bargaining table. Union-busting is the one of the biggest reasons we’re in this current mess. To learn more about union-busting, check out A Collective Bargain by Jane McAlevey.

Privatization is another reason everything is so expensive. There’s this awful pattern that started in California in the late 1960s, and that spread to the whole country by the 1980s. This pattern is called “privatization,” and it’s the trend of eliminating public services and instead giving taxpayer money to for-profit companies to handle the services instead. These companies prioritize their investors above all else, and this leads to a degradation of services. It also means we often must pay for things twice. For example, our tax dollars might be used to hire a private contractor to build a road, and then they charge us a toll to use it. This awful logic is now everywhere in the U.S. — including in education, healthcare, and even military weapons. Privatization has led many of us to become straddled by debt or even go bankrupt over things that are free in other countries — such as attending university or access to healthcare. This entire system makes no sense, and it’s created hundreds of paywalls in our everyday lives through which we are constantly bleeding cash. To learn more about privatization, check out the 5-minute video “The Truth about Privatization” by Robert Reich.

Monopolies have gotten out of hand—and lay the foundations for price gauging. You might have heard that only 10 companies control almost the entire world’s food supply, only 6 companies control 90% of U.S. news media, and local rental markets have been flooded with Wall Street companies buying up all the housing stock. This is all part of a larger pattern in the formation of monopolies, in which fewer and fewer companies control the supply of something. This pattern lays the foundation for a myriad of awful things, including price gouging, thanks to lack of competition.

The bosses and Wall Street want you to blame minorities and women. Don’t fall for it. Disempowering those groups never fixes anything. The way to fix the economy and make life affordable again is to build up worker power, break up monopolies, and put a stop to privatization.

By anonymous

When I advise mutual aid groups and activists on their cybersecurity, their first question is often “What messaging app should we use?”

The answer is Signal. But, while encrypted messaging is important, just “using the right app” really isn’t enough. If a right wing activist can log into your accounts, or a police officer unlocks the phone of the person you’re messaging after a protest, it doesn’t really matter how well encrypted your messages were in transit. The messages of your entire group are now going to be in the hands of someone who can use them to harm all of you.

Our cyber security isn’t individual — it’s built with and through the actions of our community. As our cybersecurity risks increase in the coming years, we need to stop thinking of it as a personal concern, and start thinking of it as a community endeavor. We live in a cyber risk ecosystem, and if you haven’t taken the necessary steps to understand those risks or protect your devices, accounts, and communications, it makes your entire community more vulnerable to those risks as well. 

What are these risks? There are basically three broad categories we should consider: We all face a very heavy ‘background noise’ of financially motivated attacks from scammers and extortionists. For those of us politically involved on the left, we will also face similar attacks from right wing hacktivists. And finally, we should limit our exposure to government surveillance. 

There are many, many forms each of these attacks can take, but it’s important to understand the most common. For political hacktivists and financial extortionists, the methods will be similar. First, trying to log into your accounts with username/password pairs that were leaked from other hacked websites. Second, “phishing” emails and “smishing” texts that try to get you to download files or enter your password into a mimicry of an actual login page. Finally, exploiting technical vulnerabilities in your operating system or browser if it hasn’t been kept up-to-date.

Clandestine government agencies may engage in these attacks as well, but the vast majority of government surveillance is much more simple. Law enforcement will just ask relevant corporations to hand over all relevant information about you. Google, Meta, and many other corporations have specific web portals to actively facilitate these requests. And if you’re stopped at a protest or on the street, cops can and will forcibly unlock your phone using thumbprint or facial recognition if no password lock is enabled.

I believe that the likelihood and magnitude of all three of these risks (financial extortion, political hacktivism, and government surveillance) will increase a lot in the coming years for leftists, anarchists, activists, and noncomformists in the US. With Trump’s far-right politics and talk about fighting “the enemy within”, it doesn’t take a huge amount of historical analysis to see that there will likely be an increase in surveillance and prosecution based on political ideology. But I believe that financial extortion and political hacktivism against the left will drastically increase as well, once it becomes clear that the administration now lacks the will to prosecute such attacks.

The impact of these can be serious. Law enforcement investigations could lead to prosecution or incarceration. Not just for you, but for those you have messaged. We wouldn’t talk to cops about our friend’s activities, but many of us continue to communicate via unencrypted mediums (email, text) over corporate servers (gmail, meta), on insecure devices (no password or not up to date). If cops can find something incriminating in a conversation, imagine what they can find across all of your collected emails or texts with a person. 

In addition, as our government-run social safety nets are pillaged, it will become much more difficult to recover from financial fraud and extortion. While the background noise of financially motivate attacks can affect anyone, this will be particularly true for individuals and organizations that become politically targeted. It’s hard to be an effective activist if your elderly relative has just had their financial accounts drained, or your partner’s intimate pictures have been posted publicly online for ransome. Brown shirts have always been the first, cutting blade of fascist violence, and it’s hard to imagine far right groups desisting from these attacks once they feel a carte blanche to pursue those of us on the left without repercussions.

So, how will we face these threats? The anarchist answer is predictable — solidarity, mutual aid, community care. Masking in a pandemic. Providing food for your neighbors. Once again, in yet another domain, we need to help each other to our feet in the still-crumbling ruins, to build a safer world for ourselves, together.

Below, I’ve provided a basic checklist to help you secure your devices to keep yourself and your community safe. I encourage you to share this list (or even a single bullet point!) with someone else in your community as well.

There’s not space to fully explain all of these protections, and even this checklist should be mostly considered a healthy starting place! For more in depth information you can visit privacyguides.org or infosecforactivists.org.

Checklist:

For all of your Devices (phones, tablets, computers)

• Password (not face/thumb!) required to unlock lock screen
• Full Disk Encryption enabled (automatic for newer phones)
• All ‘sharing’ set to ‘off’ (airdrop, fileshare, screenshare, etc)
• Updated operating system (and auto-update turned on)
• Do all internet access through an updated web browser. 
• Install antivirus (usually not needed for phones/tablets)

For Important Accounts (Anything with bank details or used to impersonate you)

• Two-Factor Authentication enabled. (Preferably via app like 2FAS, not text)
• Password not used on any other of your accounts (Password managers like bitwarden help with this). 
• In particular, Email and Phone provider passwords MUST be unique — they can be used to unlock all other accounts
• Password not easily guessed (Random is best – use a password manager!)
• Audit privacy settings and disallow public visibility where possible

Communication

• Use Signal for sensitive topics and wherever else possible
• Assume text/email are unencrypted and not private
• Understand metadata and configuration risks for other apps like whatsapp, messenger, or telegram

• Use a trusted VPN on untrusted networks, or TOR to avoid surveillance
• set an admin password and wifi password for any routers you own
• Only use up-to-date browsers to access internet
• Avoid “smart home” devices where possible — lightbulbs, fridges, printers etc are easily hacked, consider any network with these devices “untrusted”.

Networks