Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Recently, she read an article about my being arrested for protesting and asked what I was doing. 1 told her that I fight violence and hierarchy on all levels and she muttered, "Oh." But yesterday she left a message saying she was reading a lot and did I have any favorite authors? I'm thinking Emma Goldman or a little Naomi Wolfe.

Supporting Suwivors of Domestic Violence 531

Surviving a Felony Trial

Instructions

Know What You're Cetting Into

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This piece is for anyone who is facing prison time as a result of involvement in the struggle for a socially and ecologically sustainable future for the planet we live on and the beings that inhabit it. It may also be relevant to anyone engaged in that struggle whose activity is likely to lead to a collision at some point with the massive edifice of inertia that is the legal system. I speak from experience, but I am not a lawyer or any sort of legal expert. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. My thoughts are with you, whoever you are.

Uh-oh. Somehow something went wrong, and you are in deep shit. All signs are pointing to the inescapable conclusion that this is going to go badly. You are absolutely terrified. You sure didn't expect this to happen today. Who's going to feed your cat.^ You've got to pay rent next Friday. You can't go to jail right now What the hell is going to happen to you? OK. Stay calm. Let's take a few deep breaths, and a few steps backward, before we address the situation at hand.

First off, understand one thing. Repression, both legal and extralegal, is an inevitable result of revolutionary activity. The only way you can hope to avoid it entirely is if you hang up your spurs and cease your efforts to contest this insane world order. You know you couldn't look yourself in the mirror in the morning if you did that. Besides, for

some people?maybe you?of some backgrounds and histories and skin colors, even total acquiescence with the status quo is not enough to ensure immunity from its wrath. The rationale behind all of this, from the perspective of the people in power, is extremely straightforward. They want to make an example of somebody They want to parade someone around and say, "See? See what happens when you step out of line? You don't want this to happen to you, do you? Do you?" Inconveniently, that someone is you.

This sort of negative reinforcement is a sensible and effective strategy. It has been perfected since the dawn of time, and it works well in a limited way. Sometimes people do give up and yield to the crushing embrace of defeatism and bitterness. Under certain circumstances people wiU crack under pressure and turn on each other. Some spirits are broken. When subjected to torture almost anyone vrill say or do almost anything. I know a little bit about that. But the corollary here is that repression drives us together out of necessity, and I truly believe that its net effect is generally to create more resistance than it destroys.

All of that said, common sense dictates that there are some basic guidelines that it will behoove you to understand when making your plans. The more active you are, the more hkely it is that you will eventually encounter the legal apparatus. The more effective, aggressive, inspiring, or illegal your efforts are, the more likely it is that this encounter will be particularly unpleasant. A serious criminal trial is no fun. It is terrifying, time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. Being arrested and tried in a court of law is a potential consequence of whatever it is that you are doing, but one to be avoided when possible, not any sort of desirable end in and of itself It pays to plan actions that maximize effect while minimizing lawbreaking. 1 am absolutely not saying that you should not break the law. I am saying that a deed's worth is measured by its effectiveness, not its illegality. Don't conflate the two.

If and when you do decide to do something illegal, sit down beforehand at a library survhing a Felorjy Trial and figure out exactly what statutes you are likely to be violating. Figure out what the 533

maximum penalty for violating those statutes is likely to be. You can also research past news stories and see the outcomes of those cases. Ask yourself dispassionately if you can deal with what it will mean to you if everything goes as badly as it possibly can. If the answer is no, please, save yourself a hell of a lot of trouble and don't get in over your head. Do something else. There is no shame in that whatsoever. I hate to use such a trite aphorism, but don't do the crime if you can't do the time.