by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
If enough people are ready for war, you could skip the subterfuges and mount a full frontal offensive. Have everyone dress as unremarkably as possible, and filter into the store one by one. When everyone is inside with their baskets full, someone sets off"the fire alarm or creates some similar distraction, giving the signal for everyone to charge the gates. Such an aggressive tact is bound to provoke the most aggressive response the corporation can muster, but it does put the issue of access to material goods on the
table, and it may inspire others or even enable them to get away without paying, too. As long as you were careful not to give away your plan in advance, you could combine this tactic with an advertising campaign on their behalf: "Thursday May ist is free shopping day at Commodity Consumption Incorporated! Come take advantage of our lowest prices ever, and enjoy this show of appreciation to all our customers. Offer limited to one hand basket per shopper, between the hours of one and five p.m.?ioo% off, everything must go!"
For an epic combination of the paralyzing-the-store action and the taking-advantage-of-the-return-policy action, you can go to a superstore that offers a money-back guarantee and buy all of their stock of a given product that is in special demand?then return it all the next day, repeating as desired.
You can keep a video account of a cross-country trip without buying a video camera; just go each day to a store selling video camera equipment, and put your tape in the display model to record that day's installment.
You can get a [ob working for a company you don't respect that has a resource you need?photocopies, film developing, food, information, art supplies?and hold it as long as it takes to smuggle out what you want; a circle of friends could do this together, each supplying a different resource.
Shoplijiing 487
Smoke Bombs
Ingredients
You can buy professionally made smoke bombs from fireworks vendors; they might even work better than homemade ones. But making them yourself is cheaper, can leave less of a trail, and involves you in the process, so you can manufacture them according to your needs.
Saltpeter*
Sugar
Old cooking pot
Spoon
Stove
Bowls or ice cube tray
Cigarette lighter
Instructions
*This can be difficult to find in person,
but you can obtain it from mailorder
services that do business over the
internet. Make sure not to leave a paper
trail to yourself, if security is an issue.
488
Mix two parts sugar to three parts saltpeter in the cooking pot. Heat this over a low flame, stirring constantly until it melts; this will take several minutes. Pour the mixture into an ice cube tray, or into bowls, depending on the size you want to make the smoke bombs. Allow them to cool and harden, and remove them from your molds. Once dried, they may get sticky in warm, humid weather?they're partly sugar, afi:er all?but they will still work. To apply one, light it with a cigarette lighter; this may take up to fifteen seconds. We don't recommend using matches to light them, as it is difficult to keep matches burning this long unless there is no wind. These smoke bombs bum like sparklers, rather than exploding suddenly. Once lit, they can be thrown without going out. A smoke bomb the size of an ice cube will bum for perhaps twenty seconds. We made one the size of a fist, and when we tested it outside we were sure the fire department was going to come. One source recommends embedding matchsticks in them before they have dried, to aid in the lighting process; there are bound to be ways to arrange a delayed ignition, as well.
Solidarity
The heart of anarchy is solidarity: people helping each other. While lonely capitalists Instructions
view their fellow creatures as potential enemies, anarchists see others as potential friends and allies?and these different visions are self-fulfilling prophecies (see Spell Casting, pg. 501). Solidarity actions are a means of ushering potential friendships into existence, and making the world a friendlier place in the process. After all, you can never have too many friends, especially not if you live under the threat of state repression. If you want to break out of the system of competition, in which people only thrive to the extent that they make others suffer, your life v^dll depend on networks of friendship and mutual aid?and nothing makes friends faster than helping others. Every one of us has some kind of resource that can be shared?what do you have that other people need?
