dubh
Well-known member
This year I finally qualified to join the AARP, so I thought I would write some reflections on my experience as a road dawg and involved later in the anarchist scene. I know many people become road dawgs after reading anarchist zines, etc. I was already a road dawg when I encountered my first anarchists in DC in my late twenties, actually i met some anarcho-punks in Marseille when I was 18 in the Navy, but on a day to day experience it wasn't till i met some Christian Anarchists anti-nuke activists in DC that I ever knew anyone that said they were an anarchist. I had already been living on and off the streets by then, after leaving the military, when I joined at age 17 my father was incarcerated for armed bank robbery, but that isn't why I joined the military, I was a child of the Reagan years in a small rural Ohio community so joining was just part of life, so many high school classmates had already joined or were going to. I learned alot on special operations on submarines about actual US foreign policy, eventually I was kicked out of the military for refusing to fight.
I was lucky to discover Anarchism when I did, this was in the late 90s and early 2000s when there was a very large and growing anarchist movement, mainly because most on the left needed a new identity to rally around after the fall of the Soviets, kinda like today where leftists are gravitating toward the Democratic Socialists of America, which I joined when I was in the military and starting questioning the official line on our foriegn involvments. This was a time when the anti-Globalization movement was staging mass protests, with large mobilizations, like Seattle, Quebec City, several protests in DC, IMF-WB protests. Things were really alive and dynamic back then, it was also when people were optimistic about the internet and IT and the opportunities it could bring, but then eventually was taken over by the corporations and the new media and voice for independents was quickly placed under their control, so that now most radicals are contained in the databases of X and fB, easily tracked and studied. During these mobilizations we had our own media centers known as the Independent Mecia Centers (IMC). I was a reporter videographer with different IMCs, mainly in the SF Bay Area and DC. I was actually shot in the head while filming at protests in Quebec City. Things were cracking for anarchists back then. So what happened to it all?
9/11
When 9/11 happened I was working in DC at the IMC setting up for the major mobilization against the World Bank/IMF and neo-liberalism in general. It was anticipated to be a major protest along the lines of Seattle. But then some planes were flown into the symbol of neo-liberalism, the world trade towers, and all protests in an instant were shut down by organizers from mainstream groups and security protocols were brought in to make sure the neo-liberal order was maintained. Patriot Act, etc. Before then I had seen the precursors to the new state security apparatus that would be put in place, for instance when picking up a burner phone, several activist reported having to talk to the military to confirm their identity to get the phones. When covering animal rights activists I noticed that those policing the animal rights activists was mostly private security and it was private contractors that messed with them, not the actual government unless there was a violent crime. This was also a time when the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front were committing acts of violence as part of their campaigns. I also was active in Northern California's Earth First and met some rather famous members of the ELF, whose sincerity I will never question. I do believe it is important to seperate violence and military tactics from social movements and organizing, violence should never enter the social organizing sphere of resistance, they must always be seperate. I had scene how the state and private security had used again and again 'violence' as an excuse for 'repression' of not just those engaged in military organizing but also social organizing. Black bloc was fun in the day, from a reporters perspective, yet we really can't point at it achieving anything but breaking windows and making insurance claims to rebuild broken windows. I am from a Northern Irish background, indigenous Irish, you can look at the struggle of the Irish to see the difference between social-political organizing and military campaigns. It is easy to talk violent but another thing entirely to put together a military campaign that isn't just more symbolic violence.
It was after 9/11 that I also started noticing a new sinister form of surveillance and intoxication of activists to turn them against each other and divide the resistance to the neo-liberal order. I actually wrote a book about this technology that they use for COINTELPRO, it is called 'Battlespace of Mind' . I had watched collective after collective divide and factionalize after 9/11, there was definitely something different about this much personal conflict and lack of dialogue on issues as they came up in different groups. This was standard COINTELPRO stuff but with a new technical means to conduct divide and conquer. In my book I covered how they have dividing groups down to a science, divide, re-write the values of the group, make irrelevant. I also noticed that the world itself seemed to be participating in this surveillance which sounds crazy and luckily for me it is considered crazy so after years of squatting I was given SSDI payments for being crazy. Which has saved me many times, being considered disabled, actually I am autistic, has given me stable money while continuing to squat and resist on a personal level. My life became after 9/11 one of a struggle to survive through squattiing, dumpster diving and travelling around. One thing I learned thanks to my Earth First! experiences was how to survive in the forest, I discovered that in the city it was easy to be messed with by others, but in nature it was hard to be messed with because most people can't function in the forest.
One consequence of the increased surveillance and interference like in a COINTELPRO scenario it forced me out of work, I had worked as a graphic designer during the early mobilizations against the neo-liberal order, this allowed me to afford to go to various protests in North America. I later worked as a computer programmer. I have not worked in my profession since I noticed the increased surveillance against Anarchists, my last real job being alll the way back in 2005 as a software engineer.
One of my favorite groups that I participated in was SF Homes Not Jails, which was a collective of squatters, we would routinely go out and crack squats open for others to live in. this allowed us almost a total autonomy as we also did regular dumpster diving. It shows that you don't really need money to organize for what you need, but you do need a good process and dynamic among the collective members, which is one of the first things they will target, your cohesion. You might be surprised by how they will divide peopel, but one method I have seen again and again is that of sexual violence, whether provoking people to commit violence or by hypnotic suggestion of a victim, that reports things that never happened, or attackers that are blamed but they themselves have no real memories of the supposed events. I have seen this again and again, and usually a hard line is taken by one or more involved party, which usually limits others ability to understand if something has happened or not, as one stone walls the other party and vice versa, breaking down trust and communication, this is a very effective way to break up a collective. In my book I cover some of the physical technical ways they do this, for instance they can send out an Electromagnetic Wave at 6.6Hz which promotes violence in males, or they can just fake it all with hypnotic suggestion, where victims have no way of telling it's just a hypnotic suggestion, believing actual things had happened when they never did.
So if you can't tell what has happened to the Liberation Leftist struggle? Since 9/11 it has come under attack by technology and idealogues to destroy it, it is rather interesting that there was a major protest movement before 9/11 and since it has been systmatically destroyed. It has also been during these times that the rise in drugs among the unhoused also rose incredibly fast, so that now almost anyone that is unhoused is surrounded by tweekers offering a cheaper better high then safer drugs like THC, which also fights anxiety.
This is just a begining post, I hope to continue writing on my reflections and experiences that have seen me go from being a cog in the military and intelligence machine to one that has gone native and sees that resistance is our only hope.
I was lucky to discover Anarchism when I did, this was in the late 90s and early 2000s when there was a very large and growing anarchist movement, mainly because most on the left needed a new identity to rally around after the fall of the Soviets, kinda like today where leftists are gravitating toward the Democratic Socialists of America, which I joined when I was in the military and starting questioning the official line on our foriegn involvments. This was a time when the anti-Globalization movement was staging mass protests, with large mobilizations, like Seattle, Quebec City, several protests in DC, IMF-WB protests. Things were really alive and dynamic back then, it was also when people were optimistic about the internet and IT and the opportunities it could bring, but then eventually was taken over by the corporations and the new media and voice for independents was quickly placed under their control, so that now most radicals are contained in the databases of X and fB, easily tracked and studied. During these mobilizations we had our own media centers known as the Independent Mecia Centers (IMC). I was a reporter videographer with different IMCs, mainly in the SF Bay Area and DC. I was actually shot in the head while filming at protests in Quebec City. Things were cracking for anarchists back then. So what happened to it all?
9/11
When 9/11 happened I was working in DC at the IMC setting up for the major mobilization against the World Bank/IMF and neo-liberalism in general. It was anticipated to be a major protest along the lines of Seattle. But then some planes were flown into the symbol of neo-liberalism, the world trade towers, and all protests in an instant were shut down by organizers from mainstream groups and security protocols were brought in to make sure the neo-liberal order was maintained. Patriot Act, etc. Before then I had seen the precursors to the new state security apparatus that would be put in place, for instance when picking up a burner phone, several activist reported having to talk to the military to confirm their identity to get the phones. When covering animal rights activists I noticed that those policing the animal rights activists was mostly private security and it was private contractors that messed with them, not the actual government unless there was a violent crime. This was also a time when the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front were committing acts of violence as part of their campaigns. I also was active in Northern California's Earth First and met some rather famous members of the ELF, whose sincerity I will never question. I do believe it is important to seperate violence and military tactics from social movements and organizing, violence should never enter the social organizing sphere of resistance, they must always be seperate. I had scene how the state and private security had used again and again 'violence' as an excuse for 'repression' of not just those engaged in military organizing but also social organizing. Black bloc was fun in the day, from a reporters perspective, yet we really can't point at it achieving anything but breaking windows and making insurance claims to rebuild broken windows. I am from a Northern Irish background, indigenous Irish, you can look at the struggle of the Irish to see the difference between social-political organizing and military campaigns. It is easy to talk violent but another thing entirely to put together a military campaign that isn't just more symbolic violence.
It was after 9/11 that I also started noticing a new sinister form of surveillance and intoxication of activists to turn them against each other and divide the resistance to the neo-liberal order. I actually wrote a book about this technology that they use for COINTELPRO, it is called 'Battlespace of Mind' . I had watched collective after collective divide and factionalize after 9/11, there was definitely something different about this much personal conflict and lack of dialogue on issues as they came up in different groups. This was standard COINTELPRO stuff but with a new technical means to conduct divide and conquer. In my book I covered how they have dividing groups down to a science, divide, re-write the values of the group, make irrelevant. I also noticed that the world itself seemed to be participating in this surveillance which sounds crazy and luckily for me it is considered crazy so after years of squatting I was given SSDI payments for being crazy. Which has saved me many times, being considered disabled, actually I am autistic, has given me stable money while continuing to squat and resist on a personal level. My life became after 9/11 one of a struggle to survive through squattiing, dumpster diving and travelling around. One thing I learned thanks to my Earth First! experiences was how to survive in the forest, I discovered that in the city it was easy to be messed with by others, but in nature it was hard to be messed with because most people can't function in the forest.
One consequence of the increased surveillance and interference like in a COINTELPRO scenario it forced me out of work, I had worked as a graphic designer during the early mobilizations against the neo-liberal order, this allowed me to afford to go to various protests in North America. I later worked as a computer programmer. I have not worked in my profession since I noticed the increased surveillance against Anarchists, my last real job being alll the way back in 2005 as a software engineer.
One of my favorite groups that I participated in was SF Homes Not Jails, which was a collective of squatters, we would routinely go out and crack squats open for others to live in. this allowed us almost a total autonomy as we also did regular dumpster diving. It shows that you don't really need money to organize for what you need, but you do need a good process and dynamic among the collective members, which is one of the first things they will target, your cohesion. You might be surprised by how they will divide peopel, but one method I have seen again and again is that of sexual violence, whether provoking people to commit violence or by hypnotic suggestion of a victim, that reports things that never happened, or attackers that are blamed but they themselves have no real memories of the supposed events. I have seen this again and again, and usually a hard line is taken by one or more involved party, which usually limits others ability to understand if something has happened or not, as one stone walls the other party and vice versa, breaking down trust and communication, this is a very effective way to break up a collective. In my book I cover some of the physical technical ways they do this, for instance they can send out an Electromagnetic Wave at 6.6Hz which promotes violence in males, or they can just fake it all with hypnotic suggestion, where victims have no way of telling it's just a hypnotic suggestion, believing actual things had happened when they never did.
So if you can't tell what has happened to the Liberation Leftist struggle? Since 9/11 it has come under attack by technology and idealogues to destroy it, it is rather interesting that there was a major protest movement before 9/11 and since it has been systmatically destroyed. It has also been during these times that the rise in drugs among the unhoused also rose incredibly fast, so that now almost anyone that is unhoused is surrounded by tweekers offering a cheaper better high then safer drugs like THC, which also fights anxiety.
This is just a begining post, I hope to continue writing on my reflections and experiences that have seen me go from being a cog in the military and intelligence machine to one that has gone native and sees that resistance is our only hope.
