These suggestions from the National Lawyers Guild “Know Your Rights” guide summarize the rules to which the police are theoretically subject. However be careful: the police, the courts, and the government can and do ignore these rules when they feel like it. Sometimes, police retaliate against people for exercising their rights. These tips may help you later on in court, and sometimes they won’t. But even though the state can’t be counted on to follow its own laws, it still may be helpful to know what these laws are so you can shame particular state agents or deal with particular situations. Always use your best judgment — if you aren’t doing anything wrong, there may be no reason to be excessively paranoid or escalate a potentially innocent and brief encounter with a police officer who is just saying “hi” into an ugly situation by acting suspicious and refusing to say “hi” back. The point is to avoid giving information. 

Providing this information isn’t intended to scare you into inactivity or make you paranoid. Even in the current context, the vast majority of radical projects proceed with no interference from the police. The police hassle and arrest people because they hope that such repression will frighten the population into submission. We can take reasonable precautions while continuing the fight for liberation. 

Never Talk to the Police

Anything you say to an FBI agent or cop may be used against you and other people — even if the questions seem routine or harmless. You don’t have to talk to FBI agents, police or investigators on the street, if you’ve been arrested, or if you’re in jail. (Exceptions: Your name, date of birth and address are known as “Booking questions” which are not included in your right to remain silent. Also, in some states you can get an additional minor charge for refusing to identify yourself after a police stop based on reasonable suspicion). Only a judge has the authority to order you to answer questions. Many activists have refused to answer questions, even when ordered by a judge or grand jury, and subsequently served jail time to avoid implicating others. It is common for the FBI to threaten to serve you with a grand jury subpoena unless you talk to them. Don’t be intimidated. This is frequently an empty threat, and if they are going to subpoena you, they will do so anyway. If you do receive a subpoena, call a lawyer right away.

Once you’ve been stopped or arrested, don’t try to engage cops in a dialogue or respond to accusations. If you are nervous about simply refusing to talk, you may find it easier to tell them to contact your lawyer. Once a lawyer is involved, the police sometimes back off. Even if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other questions until you have a lawyer. Don’t lie to the police or give a false name— lying to the police is a crime. However, the police are allowed to lie to you — don’t believe what they say. If you’ve been arrested, don’t talk about anything sensitive in police cars, jail cells or to other inmates — you are probably being recorded.

What To Do About Police Harassment On The Street

If the police stop you on the street, ask, “Am I free to go?” If yes, walk away. If not, you are being detained but this does not necessarily mean you will be arrested. Ask, “Can you explain why you are detaining me?” To stop you, cops must have specific reasons to suspect you of involvement in a specific crime. Police are entitled to pat you down during a detention. If the police try to further search you, your car, or your home, say repeatedly that you do not consent to the search, but do not physically resist. 

What To Do If Police Visit Your Home

You do not have to let the FBI or police into your home or office unless they have a search warrant. If they have an arrest warrant you may limit entry if the person surrenders outside. In either case, ask to inspect the warrant. It must specifically describe the place to be searched and the things to be seized. You do not have to tell them anything other than your name and address. Tell the police that you can not consent to the search unless it is also inspected by a lawyer. If the officers ask you to give them documents, your computer, do not consent to them taking it. However physically trying to block them from searching or seizing items may escalate the situation. You have a right to observe what they do. You should take written notes of their names and what they do. Have friends act as witnesses. 

What To Do If Police Stop You In Your Car

If you are driving a car, you must show police your license, registration and proof of insurance, but you do not have to consent to a search or answer questions. Keep your hands where the police can see them and refuse to consent (agree) to a search. Police may separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one has to answer any questions. 

What To Do If You Are Arrested

Repeatedly tell the police “I am going to remain silent, I would like to see my lawyer.” If you suffer police abuse while detained or arrested, try to remember the officer’s badge number and/or name. You have the right to ask the officer to identify himself. Write down everything as soon as you can and try to find witnesses. If you are injured, see a doctor and take pictures of the injuries as soon as possible.

Searches at International Borders

Your property (including data on laptops) can be searched and seized at border crossings without a warrant. Do not take any data you would like to keep private across the border. If you have to travel with electronic data encrypt it before crossing and make an encrypted back up of any data before crossing in case your computer or phone is seized. 

Police Hassles: What If You Are Not A Citizen?

In most cases, you have the right to a hearing with an immigration judge before you can be deported. If you voluntarily give up this right or take voluntary departure, you could be deported without a hearing and you may never be able to enter the US legally again or ever get legal immigration status. Do not talk to the ICE, even on the phone, or sign any papers before talking to an immigration lawyer. Unless you are seeking entry into the country, you do not have to reveal your immigration status to any government official. If you are arrested in the US, you have the right to call your consulate or have the police inform the consulate of your arrest. Your consul may help you find a lawyer. You also have the right to refuse help from your consulate.

Police Hassles: What If You Are Under 18 Years Old?

Don’t talk to the police — minors also have the right to remain silent. You don’t have to talk to cops or school officials. Public school students have the right to politically organize at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings and publishing independent newspapers as long as these activities do not disrupt classes. You have the right to a hearing with your parents and an attorney present before you are suspended or expelled. Students can have their backpacks and lockers searched by school officials without a warrant. Do not consent to any search, but do not physically resist. 

Common Sense Activist Security Measures

Don’t speculate on or circulate rumors about protest actions or potentially illegal acts. Assume you are under surveillance if you are organizing mass direct action, anything illegal, or even legal stuff. Resist police disruption tactics by checking out the authenticity of any potentially disturbing letter, rumor, phone call, or other form of communication before acting on it. Ask the supposed source if she or he is responsible. Deal openly and honestly with the differences in our movements (race, gender, class, age religion, sexual orientation, etc.) before the police can exploit them. Don’t try to expose a suspected agent or informer without solid proof. Purges based on mere suspicion only help the police create distrust and paranoia. It generally works better to criticize what a disruptive person says and does without speculating as to why.

People who brag about, recklessly propose, or ask for unnecessary information about underground groups or illegal activities may be undercover police but even if they are not, they are a severe danger to the movement. The police may send infiltrators/provocateurs posing as activists to entrap people on conspiracy charges of planning illegal acts. You can be guilty of conspiracy just for agreeing with one other person to commit a crime even if you never go through with it — all that is required is an agreement to do something illegal and a single “overt act” in furtherance of the agreement, which can be a legal act like going to a store. It is reasonable to be suspicious of people in the scene who pressure us, manipulate us, offer to give us money or weapons, or make us feel like we aren’t cool if we don’t feel comfortable with a particular tactic, no matter why they do these things. Responsible activists considering risky actions will want to respect other people’s boundaries and limits and won’t want to pressure you into doing things you’re not ready for. Doing so is coercive and disrespectful — hardly a good basis on which to build a new society or an effective action.

Keep in mind that activists who spend all their time worrying about security measures and police surveillance will end up totally isolated and ineffective because they won’t be able to welcome new folks who want to join the struggle. We have to be aware of the possibility of police surveillance while maintaining our commitment to acting openly and publicly. Smashing the system is going to require mass action as well as secretive covert actions by a tiny clique of your trusted friends.

More info contact the National Lawyers Guild: 415 285-5067 or 212 679-5100; read The War at Home by Brian Glick or Agents of Repression by Ward Churchill

Sometimes it can be hard to know if you’re crazy, or is it the world that’s crazy. Watching while our society destroys itself triggers despair and anxiety. Yet it is possible to summon the courage to stay engaged with the world, survive and fight back. When you’re suffering is often the hardest time to ask for help from others around you — and paradoxically when you need help the most. Feelings exist for reasons — if you repress them too hard, you can miss important lessons they may have for you. While it is impossible to have a list that will apply to everyone’s situation and often situations have to do with class/race/gender, here are some tips you can use when you’re in crisis or to help to care for others: 

• Our brains are connected to our bodies so concentrating on physical health can help treat mental distress. Eating healthy food on a regular schedule and getting enough sleep are key. Exercise, dance, biking and physical movement can help. So can fresh air and having a stable, calming place to stay. 

• It can help to focus off the crisis and onto what you find joyful until you can gather more resources. 

• It is okay to ask for help and it may help to discuss disturbing mental states with others who you trust. 

• An important component of mental health is the ability to know ourselves, understand our needs, and be able to talk about them to the other people in our lives. This can be really challenging and can often take guidance from others who have learned how to do it with one another. One tool for creating written documents for communication is called a T-MAP which stands for Transformative Mental Health Practices.

• It can help to have language for mental crisis that feels comfortable and makes more sense than the dominant medical language. Transmission of language often happens in groups. 

• Joining a mutual support group of peers listening to and helping peers as equals can be validating, while not necessarily endorsing your feelings. You can form one yourself or join an ongoing group. 

• Find a counselor who supports your self-determination. Ask about confidentiality if someone else — such as your parents, boss, or governmental program — is paying for your therapy.

• Drugs and alcohol often make mental health problems worse. 

• Psychiatric drugs such as those for depression or bipolar disorder can help some people reduce distress and maintain stability. Other people experience distress and harm from psych drugs and even have trouble withdrawing from them. Figuring out what works for you can be a process because people differ. Check out “Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs.”

• Keep in mind that some current emotional crises may be caused by traumas from the past, which may need to be emotionally and consciously processed in order not to keep recurring. 

• When you’re depressed, it may help to realize that the depressed feeling will eventually pass and your life will begin to seem meaningful again later. Depression inhibits your ability to perceive and understand the world correctly. Depression is often a lack of feelings and a lack of connection to feeling. Your perceptions of loneliness, un-lovability, and hopelessness are not accurate when you are depressed. Avoid making drastic decisions such as hurting yourself when you are unable to correctly perceive reality. 

• Distracting yourself from depressed or anxious thoughts can help: listening to music, making art, washing dishes, or doing a project alone or with others. 

• Many communities have 24 hour a day crisis hotlines or crisis centers. Call 800-SUICIDE if you’re thinking about killing yourself or 800 646-HOPE to reach a rape crisis line for survivors of sexual violence. Warning: if you call and say you want to kill yourself police may arrive at your door. 

• For anxiety, try to remember to breathe. Practicing meditation may also help you relax.

• Acupuncture or massage can be ways for others to give your whole self some gentle attention. 

• Ecopsychology is realizing nature and wilderness are our greatest healers. Spend some time outside the city to get centered and get away from pollution which is in itself mind-altering.

• If you have a loved one in crisis, the most helpful thing is to make it clear that you care and be there to listen. They may not be able to call or ask for help — it can be very helpful to keep calling them every day or two to check-in, even if they don’t answer the phone or seem to want help. Sometimes it is okay to want to be alone so don’t be too pushy. Just make it clear that you care. It’s also import to get support and advice for yourself. Caring about someone who is in crisis is in itself a big challenge. 

• Social change: Actually address the stressful factors in your environment. Revolution can heal. 

• If someone is having delusional thinking or expressing violence related to mental issues, these suggestions may not be enough and it is okay to reach out for professional help. 

The idea behind prefigurative politics is that we begin to practice, here and now, the better world we want to bring into existence. Prefigurative politics describes an orientation to social change that rejects the notion that “the ends justify the means” – revolutionary prefiguration is an acknowledgement that the means themselves shape (and constrain, and infect) the ends that are possible. The means are actually all we’ve got.

So, the best way to cultivate the sexy, just, liberated world we desire is to experiment with and develop the skills and social relationships it will require — right now. As we begin to reject colonial-capitalist lifeways and enact better practices of relating to each other, other beings, and the earth, we are – truly – bringing a better reality into being in real time.

‘Practice’ is the key word here: how might we reject the ways oppressive systems want us to act, and act differently? This is not only a matter of ideology, but also a practical matter of growing our capacity for things like self-governance, interpersonal accountability, and healing. Current systems intentionally siphon away our power; they do not develop the skills in us that we need for revolution or, importantly, what comes afterwards. We are conditioned by the dominant patriarchal, ableist, white-supremacist, colonial society to be alienated from one another, to value certain people’s voices over others, to compete, to distrust and be dishonest. These harmful ways of being, if left unaddressed, severely limit our ability to meaningfully transform existing systems, and will replicate themselves in any new society we try to build. Through the deliberate implementation of better relational systems in our communities and movement spaces, however, we may unlearn these patterns and begin to live and organize in potently revolutionary ways. It is important to note that this approach to political action is not meant to replace other strategies. Rather, it is a component that successful political strategy requires.

Every present emerges from the past, and all futures grow from the present. Prefigurative politics asks: how can we shape the present to enable the future we want?

Resources:

• Book – Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

• Podcast – Srsly Wrong ep. 243 “Revolutionary Prefiguration (w/ Anark)”

• Video – “What is Prefigurative Politics?” by Red Plateaus on YouTube

• Pamphlet – “What is Prefigurative Politics: How large scale social change happens” by Paul Raekstad and Eivind Dahl, available on anarchistlibraries.net

Non-fiction:

Joyful Militancy  by Carla Bergmann and Nick Montgomery

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Night Vision by Butch Lee and Red Rover
Killing Rage by bell hooks
I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests and the Pursuit of Freedom-Derecka Purnell 

We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice By Mariame Kaba (2021)

 City of Quartz by Mike Davis

Learning Good Consent ed. Cindy Crabb

Class Power on Zero Hours by AngryWorkers

Palestine by Joe Sacco (comic book)

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber

A Punk House in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309 by Aaron Cometbus & Scott Satterwhite

Fine: A Comic About Gender By Rhea Ewing (2022)

Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk By Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (2022)

 Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis Edited By Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (2021)

Sticking It to the Man: Revolution & Counterculture in Pulp & Popular Fiction,1950-1980-Nette & McIntyre

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) By Dean Spade (2020)

The Nation on No Map (2021) – William C. Anderson

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice By Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018)

Deterring Democracy-Noam Chomsky (1991)

Fiction:

 The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin 

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto 

The Lesbian Body-Monique Wittig

The Ministry of Unhappiness-Arundhati Roy

Grievers (Black Dawn Series) By adrienne marre brown (Sci-fi, 2021)

There There- Tommy Orange

The Fifth Season By N.K. Jemisin (sci-fi, 2015)

100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell

Poetry

Citizen Illegal-Jose Olivarez

Welcome — we’re so glad we have found each other. We’ve been looking forward to collaborating with you. This little book is our collective collage that seeks to inspire and empower communities. It functions on multiple levels. A calendar, an information center, an organizing tool and an open space to nourish free thinking. The emphasis here is on movement — not just a particular cause or issue or ideology — but physical motion, action and a coming together that’s in direct defiance to today’s manufactured death culture. Face-to-face interaction fosters ways to transcend the supply chains, faceless corporations and subservience to crumbling hierarchical structures that enslave everyone to unsustainable systems that make life miserable.

Can we create cooperatives that thrive over several generations? Lots of people feel what’s going on isn’t OK but don’t do anything about it. People are not born radical nor perfect. Let’s take the little steps now. A perception of helplessness and doom is being sold to us. It’s a marketing strategy to replace actual control over our lives with tiny choices over consumption. Why not stay grounded in the gifts of the nature? Why not build strong foundations to put people over products and production? Why not celebrate how struggle and resistance are integral to our time here? When our attention and energy is invested with sufficient care in those around us and the earth — solidarity, resilience and joyful, thriving networks of mutual aid will emerge.

This is the 28th time we amused ourself by publishing the Slingshot Organizer. Its sale raises funds to print the quarterly, radical, independent Slingshot Newspaper. We distribute the newspaper for free everywhere in the US, often at the places listed in the Radical Contact List. Let us know if you can be a local newspaper distributor in your area. You’re also invited to send content for the paper. It often looks better with input from outside our circle. Thanks to the volunteers who created this year’s organizer: Albert, Alex, Alexis, Amy, Ana, Andrew, Anka, Ash, Beck, Blair, Cave, Christy, Demon, Elke, Emil, Ending, Fern, Gina, Giz, Helia, Henry, Isabella, Jacquelynn, Jasmine, Jess, jesse, Jessie, Jhesù, Jonathon, Justin, K, Kaino, Karly, Katie, Kei, Kermit, Kristi, Lew, Lily, Lisa, Lola, Luca, Marie, Maya, Mimi, Molly, Nat, Rachelle, Ren, Robert, Sam, Sarah, Sirkka, Skye, Sunny X 2, Sylvia, Taylor, Tracey & those we forgot.

We dedicate this edition with love to one of our ancestors in the activist scene. Michael Delacour has spent over 50 years making radical change and acting in defense of the oppressed. Also to People’s Park which fed and gathered us together. The Park has provided a vision of a different world since the very first days of making Slingshot.

Slingshot Collective

A project of Long Haul

Physical office: 3124 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94705

Mail: PO box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703

510-540-0751 • slingshotcollective.org 

slingshotcollective@protonmail.com

@slingshotnews • @slingshotcollective

Printed in Berkeley, CA on recycled paper

Anti-copyright.

All volunteer collective – no bosses, no workers, no pay.

We won’t feel the full impact of today’s excesses until decades from now. Even if all of humanity were to immediately adopt a “zero impact” lifestyle (or better yet, to spontaneously go extinct), the planet is projected to warm for the next century. No matter what we do (and keep in mind that what we as a species will probably do is carry on as usual), the oceans will warm and rise, deserts will spread, and untold numbers of species will go extinct. For those of us who are young today, the human suffering we witness and experience will only amplify. We are on a trend towards wars, famines, epidemics, and natural disasters, with the deaths and displacement of millions of people. 

To face the future realistically, we can’t pretend that our compact fluorescent bulbs and low-flow showerheads will somehow redeem us from the global ecocide we are committing. So what does it mean to be a human being who deeply wants to create something better? What does it mean to be an anarchist?

We are not going to save the world as a whole, and it doesn’t make sense to delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. At the same time though, embracing pessimism doesn’t mean we need to fall into cycles of paralysis, depression, or asocial curmudgeonliness. 

The one place we can seriously dismantle hierarchy is in our relationships to the people immediately around us. Transforming the way we interact with each other, building sustainable long-term relationships, and engaging in projects that bring us joy and meaning are not the same as instigating a global revolution, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable and important and more worth fighting for than trying to change everything. 

Many of us grew up without healthy models for relationships, or without enough love and social connection to feel secure as adults. Although we wish to create something better in the ways we treat our friends, lovers, partners, and comrades, when we try to build new ways of being and relating, we may feel that we’re making things up as we go along, or find ourselves replicating the fucked up dynamics we were socialized with. Often, changing our relationships to other people means changing our relationships to ourselves and understanding where our habits, reactions, and emotions are coming from. This isn’t easy to do, especially when there is stigma attached to our feelings and experiences – we need to treat ourselves as well as others with compassion.

With respect to projects and finding meaning, it’s important to remember that abandoning hope for total change doesn’t remove value from doing things that feel important or bring us joy. Some people may believe that attempts at change are worthless and prefer to retreat into their own snarky, intellectual worlds. But when an action disrupts the tedium of everyday life or improves someone’s access to healthcare or prolongs the existence of an ecosystem, it is not worthless, even if boredom, death, and ecocide continue elsewhere. Even when we fail to make the changes we want, there is value in action that brings us new human connections and gives us reason to keep living.

As human beings, some of our greatest strengths are our adaptability and our social nature. If our futures are grim, that gives us good reason to enjoy our lives as much as we can now, to cultivate a sense of joy in ourselves and those around us while bracing for what may happen later on. Now more than ever, we need to find each other and form connections, to have a community where we not only enact our values but can share skills and knowledge and look out for one another in the decades to come. 

Clean people dominate the world. Much too much of the housing, good paying jobs and nite life spots have been set aside for this ilk (who incidently are white or white-minded) This undoubtedly limits resources a natural smelling person can access. Which includes bootycall opportunities.

Some of us look at this as a result of the corporatization of public life. There is a false standard for people to hasten death via cancer causing bleaches, overpriced soaps infused with chemicals and other constructed standards of beauty enhancers. It’s too bad people have to purchase a product for acceptance and fail to realize it’s more important to shape one’s own mind.

The system starts in early on us. School is preparation for a life of work by ensuring we learn to follow directions and properly obey* Work is a drain of creative energy in service to sustain the machine. The machine perpetuates death onto us and our planet. The need to have people conform to its ways comes at a cost. Our access to water is threatened, spurred on by our compulsive need to maintain an unnecessary high standard of cleanliness. And it goes without saying that the POINT OF SWEAT(and smells) IS A RESULT OF DIRECT PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE.

Therefore we affirm that no one should go through life without smelling like:

-garlic

-curry

-hashish

-Food Not BOmbs belch

-permanent marker

-old dog/Mad Dog

-pussy/cock face

-crowded punk show

-3 day greyhound bus ride

-haymarket uprising

-cemetery

-dumpster

-abandoned house

-beached whale

-toe jam

*children were once forced to have their mouth “washed” with soap after offending sensitive people with “dirty words”. 

These suggestions from the National Lawyers Guild “Know Your Rights” guide summarize the rules to which the police are theoretically subject. However be careful: the police, the courts, and the government can and do ignore these rules when they feel like it. Sometimes, police retaliate against people for exercising their rights. These tips may help you later on in court, and sometimes they won’t. But even though the state can’t be counted on to follow its own laws, it still may be helpful to know what these laws are so you can shame particular state agents or deal with particular situations. Always use your best judgment — if you aren’t doing anything wrong, there may be no reason to be excessively paranoid or escalate a potentially innocent and brief encounter with a police officer who is just saying “hi” into an ugly situation by acting suspicious and refusing to say “hi” back. The point is to avoid giving information. 

Providing this information isn’t intended to scare you into inactivity or make you paranoid. Even in the current context, the vast majority of radical projects proceed with no interference from the police. The police hassle and arrest people because they hope that such repression will frighten the population into submission. We can take reasonable precautions while continuing the fight for liberation. 

Never Talk to the Police

Anything you say to an FBI agent or cop may be used against you and other people — even if the questions seem routine or harmless. You don’t have to talk to FBI agents, police or investigators on the street, if you’ve been arrested, or if you’re in jail. (Exceptions: Your name, date of birth and address are known as “Booking questions” which are not included in your right to remain silent. Also, in some states you can get an additional minor charge for refusing to identify yourself after a police stop based on reasonable suspicion). Only a judge has the authority to order you to answer questions. Many activists have refused to answer questions, even when ordered by a judge or grand jury, and subsequently served jail time to avoid implicating others. It is common for the FBI to threaten to serve you with a grand jury subpoena unless you talk to them. Don’t be intimidated. This is frequently an empty threat, and if they are going to subpoena you, they will do so anyway. If you do receive a subpoena, call a lawyer right away.

Once you’ve been stopped or arrested, don’t try to engage cops in a dialogue or respond to accusations. If you are nervous about simply refusing to talk, you may find it easier to tell them to contact your lawyer. Once a lawyer is involved, the police sometimes back off. Even if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other questions until you have a lawyer. Don’t lie to the police or give a false name— lying to the police is a crime. However, the police are allowed to lie to you — don’t believe what they say. If you’ve been arrested, don’t talk about anything sensitive in police cars, jail cells or to other inmates — you are probably being recorded.

What To Do About Police Harassment On The Street

If the police stop you on the street, ask, “Am I free to go?” If yes, walk away. If not, you are being detained but this does not necessarily mean you will be arrested. Ask, “Can you explain why you are detaining me?” To stop you, cops must have specific reasons to suspect you of involvement in a specific crime. Police are entitled to pat you down during a detention. If the police try to further search you, your car, or your home, say repeatedly that you do not consent to the search, but do not physically resist. 

What To Do If Police Visit Your Home

You do not have to let the FBI or police into your home or office unless they have a search warrant. If they have an arrest warrant you may limit entry if the person surrenders outside. In either case, ask to inspect the warrant. It must specifically describe the place to be searched and the things to be seized. You do not have to tell them anything other than your name and address. Tell the police that you can not consent to the search unless it is also inspected by a lawyer. If the officers ask you to give them documents, your computer, do not consent to them taking it. However physically trying to block them from searching or seizing items may escalate the situation. You have a right to observe what they do. You should take written notes of their names and what they do. Have friends act as witnesses. 

What To Do If Police Stop You In Your Car

If you are driving a car, you must show police your license, registration and proof of insurance, but you do not have to consent to a search or answer questions. Keep your hands where the police can see them and refuse to consent (agree) to a search. Police may separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one has to answer any questions. 

What To Do If You Are Arrested

Repeatedly tell the police “I am going to remain silent, I would like to see my lawyer.” If you suffer police abuse while detained or arrested, try to remember the officer’s badge number and/or name. You have the right to ask the officer to identify himself. Write down everything as soon as you can and try to find witnesses. If you are injured, see a doctor and take pictures of the injuries as soon as possible.

Searches at International Borders

Your property (including data on laptops) can be searched and seized at border crossings without a warrant. Do not take any data you would like to keep private across the border. If you have to travel with electronic data encrypt it before crossing and make an encrypted back up of any data before crossing in case your computer or phone is seized. 

Police Hassles: What If You Are Not A Citizen?

In most cases, you have the right to a hearing with an immigration judge before you can be deported. If you voluntarily give up this right or take voluntary departure, you could be deported without a hearing and you may never be able to enter the US legally again or ever get legal immigration status. Do not talk to the ICE, even on the phone, or sign any papers before talking to an immigration lawyer. Unless you are seeking entry into the country, you do not have to reveal your immigration status to any government official. If you are arrested in the US, you have the right to call your consulate or have the police inform the consulate of your arrest. Your consul may help you find a lawyer. You also have the right to refuse help from your consulate.

Police Hassles: What If You Are Under 18 Years Old?

Don’t talk to the police — minors also have the right to remain silent. You don’t have to talk to cops or school officials. Public school students have the right to politically organize at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings and publishing independent newspapers as long as these activities do not disrupt classes. You have the right to a hearing with your parents and an attorney present before you are suspended or expelled. Students can have their backpacks and lockers searched by school officials without a warrant. Do not consent to any search, but do not physically resist. 

Common Sense Activist Security Measures

Don’t speculate on or circulate rumors about protest actions or potentially illegal acts. Assume you are under surveillance if you are organizing mass direct action, anything illegal, or even legal stuff. Resist police disruption tactics by checking out the authenticity of any potentially disturbing letter, rumor, phone call, or other form of communication before acting on it. Ask the supposed source if she or he is responsible. Deal openly and honestly with the differences in our movements (race, gender, class, age religion, sexual orientation, etc.) before the police can exploit them. Don’t try to expose a suspected agent or informer without solid proof. Purges based on mere suspicion only help the police create distrust and paranoia. It generally works better to criticize what a disruptive person says and does without speculating as to why.

People who brag about, recklessly propose, or ask for unnecessary information about underground groups or illegal activities may be undercover police but even if they are not, they are a severe danger to the movement. The police may send infiltrators/provocateurs posing as activists to entrap people on conspiracy charges of planning illegal acts. You can be guilty of conspiracy just for agreeing with one other person to commit a crime even if you never go through with it — all that is required is an agreement to do something illegal and a single “overt act” in furtherance of the agreement, which can be a legal act like going to a store. It is reasonable to be suspicious of people in the scene who pressure us, manipulate us, offer to give us money or weapons, or make us feel like we aren’t cool if we don’t feel comfortable with a particular tactic, no matter why they do these things. Responsible activists considering risky actions will want to respect other people’s boundaries and limits and won’t want to pressure you into doing things you’re not ready for. Doing so is coercive and disrespectful — hardly a good basis on which to build a new society or an effective action.

Keep in mind that activists who spend all their time worrying about security measures and police surveillance will end up totally isolated and ineffective because they won’t be able to welcome new folks who want to join the struggle. We have to be aware of the possibility of police surveillance while maintaining our commitment to acting openly and publicly. Smashing the system is going to require mass action as well as secretive covert actions by a tiny clique of your trusted friends.

More info contact the National Lawyers Guild: 415 285-5067 or 212 679-5100; read The War at Home by Brian Glick or Agents of Repression by Ward Churchill

Building a new world based on freedom, cooperation and environmental sustainability in the face of corporations and governments bent on maintaining domination is tricky. The system won’t topple on its own because a few of us refuse to participate or retreat to our gardens or coops — it needs our help. A wide variety of tactics and strategies — from strikes, protests, direct action, riots, street theater, community building and educational campaigns — may move us forward. Here’s tips unleashing disorder. 

General Theory

Order is when those in charge know where a crowd is and can manage the situation by re-routing traffic so business as usual can proceed everywhere else. From a police perspective, a bank occupation isn’t such a bad thing. There are a lot of banks so having one shut down for a couple of hours is tolerable. 

Disorder is the rare, exciting, spontaneous moment when internal and external systems of repression lose their grip. Suddenly anything can happen and no one knows what is going to happen next. Those in charge fear disorder because they’ve lost control.

When promoting disorder, the main goal isn’t to look tough confronting a line of riot cops. When you confront the police, it usually results in order, not disorder, because the police know precisely where you are and its only a matter of time before they can amass enough forces to surround and bust your ass if they so choose. 

For disorder, you want to avoid ever seeing the police but rather keep them guessing and confused while you’re free to cause chaos everywhere the police aren’t. Big protests often concentrate police forces and leave the rest of the city unguarded. The police are organized centrally so multiple mobile groups can scramble their hierarchical structures. 

Disruption and disorder can take many forms. The system loves a conventional war within traditional categories. Like guerrilla fighters, it’s our job to figure out forms of struggle where we have an advantage. Creating beautiful expressions of the world we seek to build — music, art, gardens, public sex, bicycle swarms, etc. — avoids the system’s us vs. them paradigm. 

What to Bring

To be mobile and maximize the area that gets disrupted, you want to travel light and avoid bulky signs, props or costumes that slow you down. Wear good running shoes. The black bloc uniform (black hoodie etc.) has become like wearing a huge target on your ass and serves the forces of order so consider less predictable options. If weather permits, water repellent clothes may help protect skin from pepper spray. Layers are good because they provide padding and can be used for disguise/escape. But in hot weather avoiding heatstroke and dehydration so you can run is way more important than protection from chemical weapons or a disguise. You can carrying water in a squirt bottle for drinking and to treat chemical weapons exposure. Use a fanny pack or bag that doesn’t get in the way in case you have to run. Don’t wear contact lenses, jewelry, long hair or anything the cops can grab. Think carefully about bringing drugs, weapons, burglary tools, sensitive information or anything that would get you in extra trouble if arrested. If you bring a cell phone, you may expose your personal information and your movements can be tracked — but on the other hand you can communicate with others and photograph stuff, so it depends what you’re up to. Gas masks, shields, goggles and helmets promote the types of confrontations the system can digest and manage and the protection they offer is often outweighed by the extent they make you a target and slow you down. Be fearless — being tear gassed isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

Affinity Groups & Action Decision Making

Affinity groups are small direct action cells — usually 4-8 people — who share attitudes about tactics and who organize themselves for effectiveness and protection during protests, riots or for middle of the night action missions. The best affinity groups are people with pre-existing relationships who know and trust each other intimately. Decisions can be made as collectively and quickly as possible depending on the circumstances. In a chaotic protest situation, affinity groups enable decision making (as opposed to just reacting to the police) while watching each others’ backs. Affinity groups with experience and a vision within a bigger crowd can take the initiative and start something when the crowd is standing around wondering what to do next. 

Some affinity groups use a code word which any member can yell if they have an idea for what the group should do next. Upon hearing the word, others in the group yell it too until the whole group gathers up and the person who called the huddle makes a quick proposal. The group can then agree to the proposal, or briefly discuss alternatives, and then move. A code word can also allow regrouping when the group gets separated in a chaotic situation. It is a good idea for everyone in the group to discuss their limits before an action. It can be helpful to scout locations and learn the area beforehand. During the action, taking time to check in about how everyone is feeling will keep the group unified. Don’t forget to eat and take pee breaks, which will be a lot easier when someone can act as lookout while you duck behind a dumpster. 

Some affinity groups have division of labor in which some member say away from the action to support members who might be arrested. An affinity group can send scouts on a bike to check out action opportunities. Affinity groups can be ongoing groups that last for years, or they can form just before a particular action. Before or after actions, socializing and celebrating with your group builds cohesion. 

Sometimes multiple affinity groups cooperate before or during an action using a spokes council. A spokes council is a meeting for making decisions involving large numbers of people more quickly in which each affinity group is represented by a single member. Often the rest of the affinity group sits behind the member who is the speaker so the group can let the speaker know the group’s views. 

Don’t let fear interfere with the free and independent life that you’ve got planned out in your organizer. You don’t have to be afraid to go out at night. Violence can limit both physical movement and the scope of our minds. Let’s get on with our lives, and learn how to defend ourselves. Women’s self-defense projects grew out of feminist consciousness-raising groups and incorporate personal experience with martial arts. Learning self-defense is empowering and liberating. Practice self-defense with friends, in classes, and in collectives. Support self-defense/domestic violence prisoners and learn about their cases. Share these brief tips and stories about what has worked for you.

1. Start by developing the habit of paying attention to your surroundings. Try to be alert and ready, without panic or paranoia. Examine your surroundings as if you were crossing the street. Be careful about being preoccupied while on a cellphone or headphones.

2. Check out what the people around you are up to. Are they disturbed or angry? Where are their hands? Are they reaching for a weapon? Are they following you? Do not allow your stereotypes and ignorance about a neighborhood / community to assess a situation poorly. Become familiar with the places where you live and travel. Consider possible escape routes, whether the area is inhabited or desolate.

3. Be aware of your own condition: are you upset, intoxicated, or sick? Take a deep breath and ground yourself before engaging in a situation. Relax your shoulders, bend your knees and truly exhale.

4. Be aware of your environment in public or unfamiliar territory, as well as in your home or on your stomping grounds. Most attacks occur at home, and most attackers are intimate with survivors.

5. When inappropriate or aggressive behavior surfaces, confront it before the situation escalates. Trust your feelings — examine your discomfort closely. Is someone crowding your comfort zone? A common barometer is whether they are close enough to kick or punch you. Start by setting boundaries with words and gestures.

6. Adopt a fighting stance — bend your knees and stand with one foot forward and your legs hip-width apart. Keep moving so you don’t freeze up.

7. Don’t be afraid to assert yourself, speak loudly, and yell. Learn how to say “No, get away from me, stop following me, leave me alone.” Practice role-playing situations. Practice yelling, if it doesn’t come easily. If you are on a short fuse, learn to manage your anger — don’t get baited into dangerous situations.

8. Avoid turning your back on an assailant.

9. Don’t carry weapons you don’t know how to use, and that an attacker could turn against you. Many items in your possession will be sufficient: keys, a lighter, a pencil, a bag of groceries or a comb.

10. If necessary, strike to disable: poke at the eyes, punch at the throat, kick at the knees or groin. Remember that you are not trying to win a fight, only do enough damage to get away. A difference in size and strength won’t keep you from escaping: consider how small a feral animal such as a fox can easily escape from a person’s grasp.

For women and trans self-defense in the Bay Area contact Suigetsukan, 103 International Boulevard, Oakland CA 510-452-3941 suigetsukan.org