Remembering Aaron Bushnell

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** Dear comrades,
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It’s been two months since our last message to you. Some really beautiful and really heartbreaking things have happened since the beginning of 2024. In our efforts to publish reports from various movements and dreamers around the world, we hope to do our part to spread awareness of different struggles, but also to help with the collective grieving and imagining processes that are essential to enduring and transforming this destructive society.

Thank you for being part of this with us.


** The Catastrophe in Gaza
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Four and a half months into the assault on Gaza, the Israeli military has forced over a million refugees to the edge of the Egyptian border is now bombing them while threatening to mount a ground assault against them.
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On February 25, we received an email from a person who signed himself Aaron Bushnell, announcing that he was going to engage in an act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people. Shortly afterwards, Aaron set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.


All that afternoon, while other journalist were breaking the news, we discussed how we should speak about this. In “This Is What Our Ruling Class Has Decided Will Be Normal ([link removed]) ,” we share some of our thoughts about Aaron’s action, and about urgency and sacrifice. In this collection ([link removed]) , we share Aaron’s own summary of his politics, followed by testimony from three of Aaron’s close friends.


In “Human Rights Discourse Has Failed to Stop the Genocide in Gaza ([link removed]) ,” Jonathan Pollak, a long time participate in Anarchists Against the Wall and other anti-colonial solidarity efforts, explains why we should not look to international institutions or protest movements within Israeli society to put a stop to the genocide in Gaza and calls on ordinary people to take action.


Finally, in “Gaza Solidarity Actions Continue from Durham to Seattle ([link removed]) ,” we report on a march in Durham, North Carolina and the blockade of I-5 north in Seattle.


** The 2024 Zapatista Encuentro
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The Zapatistas burst onto the world stage on New Year's Day 1994 with an anti-capitalist uprising that established an autonomous zone in Chiapas. Thirty years later, they hosted a gathering to commemorate those events and look to the future.
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In “Getting There: The Road to the Zapatista Encuentro ([link removed]) ,” our correspondent describes a series of adventures the road to this gathering. In “The 2024 Zapatista Encuentro ([link removed]) ,” participants describe their experiences at the gathering.


We also share footage of the play they performed at the gathering in memory of Tortuguita, who was murdered in the course of the fight to stop Cop City, a police militarization project in Atlanta, Georgia.


** And More
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** Stop Cop City
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In “Stopping the Cop Cities Countrywide ([link removed]) ,” we present a report from a protest that interrupted the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a police facility in Lacey, Washington, and review some of the other struggles against police militarization facilities around the United States.


** History
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In “The Maidan Diary of Dmitry Petrov ([link removed]) ,” we offer an unflinching eyewitness account from within the demonstrations that toppled the Ukrainian government in 2014.


The author, an anarchist named Dmitry Petrov, traveled to Kyiv to support Ukrainians as they resisted a government that was aligned with the same autocracy that he was fighting in Russia. In his reports, Dmitry documents how militarism, nationalism, and hierarchical organization channeled the movement in Kyiv away from the kinds of profound social change that he sought. At the same time, even in the face of fascist threats, he did his best to open space for anarchist proposals in the Maidan protests.


We have translated Dmitry’s reports from February 2014 because they offer insight into historic events, but also because the questions that Dmitry faced there continue to confront us today.


** Love
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On Valentine’s Day, as an antidote to consumerism and shallow romanticism, we published “Notes on Love ([link removed]) ,” a manifesto exploring love as a foundation for resistance and redemption.


** Fun
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In “How to Host a Haunted House ([link removed]) ,” a participant describes how an anarchist social center set up a haunted house last October as a fundraiser to support defendants facing RICO charges as a consequence of repression targeting the movement to stop Cop City. This is an excellent example of how creative efforts can add a joyous element to political outreach and legal support.


** Poetic Justice
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On February 6, 2024, the billionaire Sebastián Piñera died in a helicopter crash. His policies while president of Chile contributed to the desperation that ultimately provoked the uprising of 2019. In “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Helicopter Ride ([link removed]) ,” our Chilean comrades offer a statement on this historic occasion.


** The Ex-Worker Podcast
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Our newest episode of the Ex-Worker is an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City ([link removed]) ”, our most recent article chronicling the ongoing movement in Atlanta.


This report traces the activities the of the movement to defend the Weelaunee Forest from June to December 2023, discussing the relationship between clandestine direct action and public organizing, evaluating the Block Cop City march in November, and exploring the movement’s strategic prospects from here.


** Zines
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We’ve released two new zines, “Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity ([link removed]) ” and “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight against Cop City ([link removed]) .”


** Languages
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Our comrades in Brazil have done new print runs ([link removed]) of three of our books in Portuguese: Recipes for Disaster, Expect Resistance, and Days of War, Nights of Love. You can order them here ([link removed]) . We’ve also released a French version ([link removed]) of our zine “The Fight for Gender Self-Determination.”


Thanks to the tireless efforts of our comrades, some of the articles we’ve published in 2024 are already available in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Finnish, Hungarian, and Basque.


You can find an overview of our non-English content here ([link removed]) . If you can help us translate anything we have published into any language, please contact us (mailto:[email protected]?subject=&body=) !


** Thank You!
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As always, everything we do is copyright free, produced and distributed by volunteer labor. If you wish to support us financially, you can do so here ([link removed]) —but we would be just as happy if you put those resources towards similar projects of your own.
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