Submission
We want to claim responsibility for the following actions:
-Slashing 16 tires on 8 Comcast trucks.
-Sabotaging 6 card readers of Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, and Bank of America.
-Slashing 2 tires on a prison guard’s personal car.
These actions were done over the course of about a week in solidarity with the national prison strike and international week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners.
We chose these targets because they profit off of people being locked up and we wanted to strike those who directly or indirectly hold the prisons together.
-Comcast has a contract with ICE.
-Wells Fargo has a contract with ICE and also invests in prisons.
-Bank of America profits off of prison labor.
-We don’t know what’s up with Citizens Bank but fuck them too.
-Attacking a prison guard’s car needs no explanation.
A few notes on our methods:
-For the ATMs we used the tried and true method of super glue and half sized ATM cards or their cardboard equivalent.
-For the tires at first we tried using ball bearings in the valves but found it to be too loud, too slow, and too difficult to do with gloves on. Luckily we had a awl on hand that we had been meaning to try and were ecstatic to discover how quiet, discreet, and easy it was to puncture tires with. After we realized this we couldn’t stop noticing the vehicles of our enemies and went on a modest rampage with the awl. (An awl is like an oversized needle attached to a wooden handle used to pierce thick tough surfaces and they can be found at most arts and craft stores.)
We were able to make these actions happen by honing our observational skills, paying attention to our surroundings, and spontaneously making moves quickly when the opportunities arose.
We feel strongly that having confidence makes an attack easier but dressing like criminals made us feel insecure in that we were drawing too much attention to ourselves. Because of this we decided to get creative with our disguises. As much as we love the uniform* we felt too hot and too suspicious looking to justify wearing it for these types of actions, so we tried out some different styles.
Some of the ways we did this were by simply wearing more color, experimenting with alternatives to long sleeves and pants, and dressing to fit unassuming roles, for example: sporty, going out, stumbling to the store in pajamas etc etc.
Besides that we made sure that gloves and masks were still easy to take on and off. We think different disguises can be interesting and fun, and we want to continue to experiment and expand on theses tactics.
Reflections
Just as much as anyone else, we’re tired, our bodies hurt, and we sometimes find ourselves slipping into the abyss of self care and prioritizing survival over life. But for this prison strike we wanted to challenge ourselves, to ensure that the prisoners were not alone in their struggle, in their fear and in their discomfort. Despite challenging circumstances we felt it was important to deal with them and not back away because of them. Although we are in no rush to die or find ourselves in a cell we do feel the need to prioritize struggle over comfort. This priority is not from a place of duty or sacrifice but stems from our personal desires. It has been interesting to see how much we can push ourselves. Acting in solidarity and struggle is a constant choice we must make in every moment of everyday. Solidarity is more than something we save for a day on our calendars. It needs to be more than empty words. To us it is a personal choice to not shrink away from discomfort and to make the struggles of others a part of our own path, to face the challenge and upon recognizing how steep and heavy it is, deciding to walk toward it anyway.
Opportunities surround us at all times. Why is there always the need to wait for the next demo? We really appreciate all the different styles of action surrounding the strike, however, we still want to push against the trend that demos are the be-all-end-all, and that they are enough. For us the quality of an action is not dependent on the number of participants or the attention it gets from the media. Plus autonomous attack forces us to face our own individual creativity and initiative. If no one were around to organize with what would you find yourself doing? Would you engage in struggle?
Solidarity with Philly rebels recently brutalized and arrested by cowards
Solidarity with prisoners on lockdown and all those on strike
Fuck money
Fuck technology
Fuck 12
Fuck prisons
For the spread of revolt and sabotage
Toward the destruction of all restrictive realities
*Black gloves, black pants, black hoodie, black mask, black shoes.
