#distroing

Against Capitalist Wars, Against Capitalist Peace

"In Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the UK, Italy, Syria, France etc… All over the world there is a voice against capitalist wars and also against capitalist peace. Only class war can end this terror and that is what we mean when we say No War but the Class War!

The new pamphlet contains 14 texts by various groups and individuals. The aim is to explain and affirm the meaning of antimilitarism, internationalism and revolutionary defeatism."

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Animal Bodies, Colonial Subjects: (Re)Locating Animality in Decolonial Thought

"Similar to the ways in which Indigenous peoples can undergo a violent process through which we rid our colonial mentalities, I argue that animals can be liberated from their colonized subjecthood through an aided 'process of desubjectification'. That is, thinking through animality as an infrastructure of decolonization re-positions animal bodies as agents of anti-colonial resurgence.They can consequently engender 'forms of energy that are capable of engaging the forces that keep [Indigenous people and animals] tied to [a] colonial mentality and reality'. Settler colonialism has therefore required the normalization of speciesism within Indigenous communities to obfuscate the radicality of Indigenous-animal relations. In that sense, recalling the representation of animals in Indigenous cosmologies/oral traditions and unsettling speciesism as a 'colonial mentality' must be prioritized in decolonial thought..."

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Black Flag Vol. 3, No. 2

This issue features a lenghty essay titled "Anarchy in the USA: The International Working People's Association (IWPA)". The IWPA is famous for its association with the Haymarket anarchists. Alongside this, there are several writings published by members including Albert Parsons and Lizzie Swank. It also includes a selection of writings by Marie Goldsmith, Rudolf Rocker, and Max Baginski. Most of the material here covers the historical anarchist space, with the exception of a review of a more recent book.

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Breaking Ranks: Subverting the Hierarchy and Manipulation Behind Earth Uprisings

This zine contains three critiques from anti-authoritarians in France critical of the Tiqqunists and their actions in post-ZAD struggles. These texts focus on manipulative and vanguardist practices, the spectacularization of the struggle, and the use of radicals as shock-troops. The goal of these texts, and our translation effort, is to increase familiarity with these deceptive practices and strategies, an essential first step towards sabotaging the influence and control of any similar attempts in our own neck of the woods.

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Dissent From Within: The Hidden Story of the Anti-Whaling Members of the Makah Tribe

This zine was put together not only to honor the memory of Mahak whale protector Alberta Nora Thomspson, but also to commemorate the story of resistance surrounding the Makah anti-whaling warriors whose very existence has been (intentionally) hidden from the world. Their dissenting voices silenced by the powers of intimidation, patriarchy, and a capitalist pursuit disguised as "traditional hunting". For many outside of the situation, the narrative most widely accepted is one that reduces the situation to mere identity politics; White animal rights activists vs Indigenous people. Indigenous writer Linda Hogan and Seattle writer Brenda Peterson journeyed to Neah Bay to interview Makah elders who were breaking the silence about this narrative and speaking out against their tribe’s return to whaling.

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How to Set Up a Burner Phone

This zine is a step-by-step guide to setting up a burner phone, from purchasing the phone to installing recommended apps -- all without a Google account! If you are interested in using a temporary phone to avoid surveillance or hinder a police investigation, this zine will give you some best practices to consider.

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Kaimangatanga: Māori Perspectives on Veganism and Plant-based Kai

"To adopt a form of veganism -- a plant-based lifestyle and ethics -- that acknowledges, is based upon, and celebrates Te Ao Maori, is a break from the dominant and from the status quo and but also an act of decolonialism. It is a way to reclaim sovereignty and exercise individual choice.

And finally, it is a means by which collective power and community may be built; this is evident in the existence of online forums and comment threads on Maori-based vegan and plant- based social media accounts."

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Living in an Earthquake: The Fight Against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression

"In the following account and analysis, 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.

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 setting out to stop the militarization of police, activists have discovered that they are challenging the state on a point that all of its representatives consider non-negotiable. 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."

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Of Diets and Morality: A Vegan Egoist Perspective

The title summarizes this well. It's a vegan egoist text that argues for seeing animals as having inherent value. A quote:

"Animals can offer me many things that other "humans" can not; new ways of communicating, of perceiving the world around me; the unique, aesthetic pleasure of their appearance, especially the details that one only notices with familiarity, and the mystery, intrigue and exciting unexpectedness of beings so morphologically and genetically different from myself! Just as a plate with greater variety is far more delicious, relationships with a greater diversity of beings is far more delectable for me and I will not limit myself to consuming only relations with Man!"

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Security Culture: Building Relationships of Trust and Care

These zine provides an accessible introduction to security culture and its place in social movements. Beyond the basics, it explores how security culture can be informed by kinship, an Indigenous value system based on responsibility, vulnerability, trust, and reciprocity. The zine also offers tips and examples on how to apply critical thinking, relationship building, communication, and feedback to security culture. It uses elephants as a motif (complete with illustrations) to reinforce the concepts presented.

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The People and the Library

"An oral history of the coalition that united Philadelphia to challenge the logic of austerity, protect public goods and save eleven branch libraries, as well as a series of reflections on the importance of the commons, the enduring legacy of movement victories and the ongoing struggles to protect and expand access to non-commercialized public space, accompanied by a series of freely reproducible cut paper graphics by Erik Ruin.

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The War in Front of Us: An anonymous, afro-pessimist militant’s challenge to the Stop Cop City movement

"There is a tension stewing right now, not simply between differing tactics but with the outright acceptance of the position we are currently in, that of a social war. The third day-long descent on the Atlanta City Council has again hammered home that legalistic attacks and appeals to the political machine are going to keep failing. Despite that being so overwhelmingly evident, the more progressive-inclined elements of the struggle continue to insist upon a peaceful endurance, one that refuses escalation and actual conflict for their safe, faux-rad- ical abolitionism. We have been locked in this social war since the rebellion and the terrain needs to be read as such."

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Veganism and Mi'kmaw Legends

"This text proposes a postcolonial ecofeminist reading of Mi'kmaw legends as the basis for a vegan diet rooted in Indigenous culture. I refer primarily to veganism throughout this work because unlike vegetarianism, it is not only a diet but a lifestyle that, for ethical reasons, eschews the use of animal products. Constructing an Indigenous veganism faces two significant barriers--the first being the association of veganism with whiteness... ...A second barrier to Indigenous veganism is the portrayal of veganism as a product of class privilege."

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Veganism as Anti-Colonial-Praxis: A Collection of Indigenous Vegan Perspectives

"Despite the absorption of veganism by the capitalist market – a process that admittingly reinforces pre-existing divisions across class and racial lines -- a vegan lifestyle taken to its logical conclusion is fundamentally anti-capitalist and anti-colonial. By (re)acknowledging sentience and personalities within the bodies of colonized (animal) subjects, a vegan lifestyle rejects authoritarian relationships based on disrespect for the bodily autonomy of those whose lives have been re-purposed for human supremacist consumption."

Why?

This zine – produced by the Trans-Metropolitan Review -- collects writings by a relatively unknown anarchist, Frankie Moore, who published the anarchist journal Why? In the mid-1910s. Alongside the collection of her writings, there is a well-written biographical sketch that highlights her contributions to the anarchist cause.

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CLODO: Communiques from the War on Computers

This is a collection of writings by the Committee on the Liquidation of Computers (CLODO). CLODO was a left-wing group from France in the 1980s that destroyed computers. This zine -- published by Detritus Books -- collects their two communiques alongside an essay on the group from the magazine Green Anarchy.

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Jānis Žāklis: Peter the Painter

From the zine:

This is simply a cliff notes reading of the life of Jānis Žāklis, Peter the Painter, and some of the Latvian anarchists directly taken from Philip Ruff’s A Towering Flame. None of this biographical work would have been possible to glean if not for the truly phenomenal historical work of Philip Ruff who uncovered the true identity of one of Latvia’s most infamous anarchists from the world of myth, secrecy, and falsehood in what is itself, a compelling story.

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The Case Against Coddling Anti-Maskers

This zine – published by the Eugenics Enders Squad -- argues against the assumption that “anti-maskers” are acting out of ignorance. Rather, it argues that they are upholding a eugenics-based ableist worldview.

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Threat Library

This is a guide compiled by the Counter-Surveillance Resource Center (https://csrc.link) that gives an overview of threat modeling, surveillance techniques, and mitigation measures for anarchists. There is a lot here and it should be considered essential reading. It is designed to be regularly updated, so the link below links to their website.

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Notes on Mutual Aid, Volume 1

From the zine:

This zine is the first in a series that will explore and critique the budding movement of mutual aid groups around the Pacific Northwest. Our own experiences, observations, and research are synthesized with accounts gained from networking with other groups near and far.

After examining the ideas behind mutual aid, this first volume explores the history and local context of survival and struggle on the streets. From potlatch to panther survival programs, needle exchanges to city-hall campouts, today’s mutual aid projects have a wealth of inspiration and warning from which to draw.

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Cop City Will Never Be Built: Statements and Accounts From the 5th Week of Action to Defend Weelaunee Forest and Stop Cop City March 4th–11th 2023

From the zine:

All of these statements and accounts were previously available online; we present them here not as an attempt at a comprehensive “narrative” on this week of action, but to provide an imperfect snapshot to those inside who have been eagerly seeking more information on this struggle. This is not a statue, but rather anger and joy in motion.

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Heart of a Warrior

From the zine:

“As he describes here in his own words, Joseph “ShineWhite” is a long time NC prison rebel organizer, writer, and theorist on the inside of North Carolina’s razorwire plantations. The first text is a transcription of an interview he did several months ago with one of his supporters. The second concerns the false premises and toxic deadend of white supremacist thinking, especially as it poisons relations behind bars, which we corresponded with him over and print here for the first time.”

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How to Start Your Own Study Group in Prison

Sub-titled “Personal Reflections and a Step-by-Step Guide on Using Reading Groups to Build Prisoner Unity and Power”, this zine offers suggestion on how to start a study group within a prison. From the editor’s note:

The following are some suggestions on how one can start a study group on the inside, put together by one NC prisoner who has had some long-term success and experience with such a project, along with some of his personal reflections on how to facilitate such a group once it exists. Some of these specifics probably vary from facility to facility, from state to state, or whether you’re in state or federal custody. There are also many other ways people on the inside have started such groups—some- times it can be a formal approach with permission from the administration, as these steps suggest, and sometimes it is more clandestine, illicit, or informal.

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This is a call for anyone and everyone to participate in the 2nd Biannual Weekend of Distroing Shit, taking place anywhere and everywhere you can get away with setting up a table, a blanket, a bench, or any other surface to put things on. If you’ve always been interested in tabling but haven’t gotten around to it, this is as good a time as any to give it a shot, knowing that others from all over the place are doing so with you. Maybe you’ll table zines, posters, and stickers at a park. Maybe you’ll table clothing, medical supplies, and food downtown. Maybe some combination of all the aforementioned items in the aforementioned places. As always, bonus points for the boldest offerings in the boldest locations.

If you’ve never tabled before, take this as an opportunity to engage with your surroundings in a different way than usual. Tabling gives you an opportunity to meet people in your community you might otherwise never interact with. It gives you time to reflect on what locations in your town or city are meaningful, how people relate to different locations, and how those relations could be different. Tabling is an opportunity to connect with others who might be on the same tip as you but haven’t found a way to plug in and begin taking action towards the worlds they’d like to see.

If you have tabled before, or even if you table regularly, take this as an opportunity to get a new friend involved. Help someone get their set up together. Offer to help print and fold zines. Help scout out a good spot. Help make a good poster or banner to drape over their table. Share the knowledge you’ve accrued through your experiences with those who are interested in getting involved. Tabling is a great way to cut through some of the insularity (and cynicism) of anarchist spaces.

Help make this event as accessible as possible. We’re incredibly excited to see mass convergences and bookfairs returning in numbers, but for a variety of reasons not everyone who’d like to attend those events are able. Travel is expensive and often prohibitive, large gatherings (especially indoors/when people aren’t masking) still pose considerable risk for many disabled and immunocompromised comrades, and sometimes you just don’t have the energy. By its nature, this event can take whatever form each participant decides works best for them. Even if you aren’t interested in tabling yourself, reach out to others and see if they could use some help.

So get your friends together, get some zines, have fun, and talk to your fucking neighbors!

Some Tips:

Walmart has cheap, decent, folding tables if you can get to one. If not a blanket on the ground and a milk crate to sit on works just as well.

For Finding Zines: Fugitive Distro, Sprout Distro, Indigenous Action all have websites with tons of great zines formatted to be printed and folded. There’s other great distro sites as well, ask around.