Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Everyone is undercover. It's just a matter of degree. Look around?just about everybody you see is in disguise, terrified of being unmasked as the complex human beings they are. Wall Street's corporate murderers, after all, don't wear their murder suits when they take a vacation, nor do they wear their vacation suits when they're certain they're alone, like shopHfters, stockbrokers wear certain things and act certain ways so they can move through a repressive social environment without arousing suspicion. Even in anarchist circles, many adopt certain conformist postures, though we'll save everyone the embarrassment of listing them here.

So everyone is an expert on acting; the distinction is that most are acting unconsciously, while the one who goes undercover does so deliberately to undermine the systems of control that necessitate acting and xinconsciousness. If shoplifting a gallon of olive oil from a supermarket for your local Food Not Bombs has become old hat, you may be ready for more involved undercover work. Do you find yourself wishing that a passerby would take advantage of his squeaky-clean look to do some truly dastardly revolutionary deed? It's time to become that squeaky-clean passerby yourself.

A demonstration of thousands outside an evil institution can be given teeth by one undercover agent who asks an embarrassing question at the news conference, two agents who drop a banner from atop the building, three who switch off the lights during the meeting, or four who mash pies in the faces of the directors whenever they get up to speak. There are all sorts of places and groups to infiltrate, and a wide variety of reasons to do so: to gather intelligence, to spread disinformation, to create disruption.

There are also different degrees of infiltration, and different extents to which it can be taken. Long-term infiltrators, sometimes called "moles/' must be extra cautious, while short-term infiltrators can essentially bum their bridges after their job is done.

Before attempting to infiltrate a group physically, learn as much as you can about it by means of the internet and libraries and asking around, being careful not to attract any attention to yourself in the process. It's amazing how much background a few internet searches can provide.

All the same, there are cultural details the internet won't provide. Just as we identify people from our own communities through minute details in their behavior and dress, every other social group from Nazis to business executives has Its own codes of behavior and dress by which they recognize and assess each other. These details tend to be subtle: skinheads hint at their political views with the colors of their shoelaces, salesmen communicate their status through the brand names of their watches. It's generally wiser not to attempt to camouflage yourself as a member of a social group whose intricate iconography you don't thoroughly understand; If you don't know which color sheet to wear to the Klan rally, present yourself as a sympathetic journalist who wants to learn more. Best-case scenario, you or a friend once legitimately belonged to the demographic you are trying to infiltrate; for example, if you are trying to infiltrate a organization of right-wing politicians, the best person for the job would be someone who was brought up In a family with right-wing viewpoints and became an anarchist only later in life. In that case, many key words and signifiers would already be familiar to the infiltrator. Similarly, if you were trying to infiltrate a biotechnology conference, a dreadlocked punk rocker would probably suffer immediate expulsion, but a young college student with a background in biology could speak the lingo and pass as someone seeking a job with a blotech company.

Getting In

Infiltration 307

You can swipe letterhead from

employers, government agencies, and

similar institutions upon which to

compose letters of recommendation,

vituperation, or surrealist poetry for

other such agencies.

Infiltration 308