As the forces of oppression and exploitation grow stronger, so must the resistance.
The following communiqué is written for those within the activist community who see that the tactics we have been using are no longer an effective means of change. The following statement is an accurate description of the ineptitude of the current movement, but more importantly it is a call to arms, and a call for revolution among revolutionaries.
2004 - The Movement As It Is Today
It is painfully obvious, after the FTAA protests in Miami and the G8 Summit protests in Northeast Georgia, that the system of oppression has adapted to the conventional means of expressing dissent. If we are to survive as a movement, we too must adapt, and change our tactics.
The revolutionary and activist culture in the U.S. is strong. It has fire in its heart and is well intentioned, but it is outdated. The protest tactics that we use today are the same tactics that have been used since the middle of the 20th century, starting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. The government has had time to study how we march, how we protest, and how to nullify what we are trying to say. They have not yet succeeded, but judging by the results of the biggest protests of the last few years, they are close to silencing our dissent.
The main outlet for our cries for justice currently comes in the form of a peaceful, permitted march. Small groups of activists organize large groups of activists and petition the government for a permit. We ask the same government that we are protesting for permission to protest against it. If we are granted this permission, we are sectioned off far away from where we can be heard, then we are watched over by riot police and most of us march peacefully, shout slogans, carry signs, dress in costume. Some of us even do yoga for our cause. Our protests have turned into carnivals. I will not go into a discussion about Seattle in ’99 or the government’s solution to Seattle in Miami in 2003. I will say that the only way our voices get to the masses is through the commercial media, and that media will not report our voices unless there is violence and arrests. Even then, we are marginalized, made to look like extremist fools, our numbers are dramatically underestimated and the corporate media flat out lies about the events that take place. It is time to accept that the way we protest is not going to illicit change. We are being ignored and thereby silenced.
The activist community is faced with this fact, and a rift is forming among us that separates those who are willing to protest within the limits of the laws and those who are no longer willing to be limited by the laws that are designed to discourage and silence our outrage. Some of us still stay true to what we’ve been taught and continue to organize our carnivals, but after the G8 in 2004, it is undeniable that carnivals are pointless. Our own people are not even wasting their time to attend. So we can either organize carnivals, as we are doing now, or we can directly confront the oppressors by organizing huge Blocs to try to face this giant head on. I will say that I support, undyingly, anyone who takes part in a Bloc. I will also say that fighting in a Bloc is fighting on the government’s terms. We are drastically out-numbered and out-armed.
A new way is emerging.
2004 - The Solution
If we petition the government for a permit to march, it knows where we will be and what we will be doing. It plans on how to deal with us. It estimates numbers, trains its troops, and plans its actions. It studies how to make the protest ineffectual; remember, if the government were willing to allow change, there would be no need to protest.
Our goal, as activists, is to have an effect. The only way that is left for us to achieve our goal is to stop protesting when, where, and how the government wants us to.
Much can be learned from the brave souls who take part in the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. They are achieving change. It is time to use those ideals in the struggle for social and governmental revolution. The tactics of the ALF and ELF are also being used by the UGLF, the Urban Guerilla Liberation Front.
The UGLF is anyone. It can be all of us. Its guidelines are basically the same as those of the ELF and ALF:
1. To inflict economic damage on those profiting from the enslavement of any living being, including private businesses and the federal, local, and state governments.
2. To use any available media to expose and educate about the system that is designed to silence and pacify the public, on their own land, by a government that was meant to protect and serve them.
3. To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human.
The time has come to look away from a centralized activist community and look inward to what you are willing to do for the cause of liberty and justice, independently. This fall there will be two significant events, the DNC and the RNC. We can show the strength of the masses by UGLF action across the country. While the world is watching the staged marches in Boston and NYC, we call on you to show affinity by attacking the forces of oppression in your own backyards. As will we.
Activists unite in solidarity with those who go to the cities of these events. Organize into cells for direct action where you are. Take direct action alone. We will no longer jump through their hoops, protest in their pens, or be beaten and arrested by their goons. Operate in stealth and leave your mark.
The UGLF and How You Can Take UGLF Action.
The UGLF operates in independent cells. There is no central UGLF authority or leader. A cell can consist of any number of people, even one person. There is no organization to join, no memberships, no one to answer to but your own conscience. Any action that follows the three UGLF guidelines listed above is UGLF action, whether or not those who have carried it out choose to use the name UGLF.
By operating independently, we disable the government’s ability to disband the UGLF, thereby neutralizing the possibility that the struggle will end with assassination or arrest; or by an inept leader. By operating in cells, the UGLF also relies on the individual talents of those taking UGLF action. It is the true meaning of direct action.
The following communiqué is written for those within the activist community who see that the tactics we have been using are no longer an effective means of change. The following statement is an accurate description of the ineptitude of the current movement, but more importantly it is a call to arms, and a call for revolution among revolutionaries.
2004 - The Movement As It Is Today
It is painfully obvious, after the FTAA protests in Miami and the G8 Summit protests in Northeast Georgia, that the system of oppression has adapted to the conventional means of expressing dissent. If we are to survive as a movement, we too must adapt, and change our tactics.
The revolutionary and activist culture in the U.S. is strong. It has fire in its heart and is well intentioned, but it is outdated. The protest tactics that we use today are the same tactics that have been used since the middle of the 20th century, starting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. The government has had time to study how we march, how we protest, and how to nullify what we are trying to say. They have not yet succeeded, but judging by the results of the biggest protests of the last few years, they are close to silencing our dissent.
The main outlet for our cries for justice currently comes in the form of a peaceful, permitted march. Small groups of activists organize large groups of activists and petition the government for a permit. We ask the same government that we are protesting for permission to protest against it. If we are granted this permission, we are sectioned off far away from where we can be heard, then we are watched over by riot police and most of us march peacefully, shout slogans, carry signs, dress in costume. Some of us even do yoga for our cause. Our protests have turned into carnivals. I will not go into a discussion about Seattle in ’99 or the government’s solution to Seattle in Miami in 2003. I will say that the only way our voices get to the masses is through the commercial media, and that media will not report our voices unless there is violence and arrests. Even then, we are marginalized, made to look like extremist fools, our numbers are dramatically underestimated and the corporate media flat out lies about the events that take place. It is time to accept that the way we protest is not going to illicit change. We are being ignored and thereby silenced.
The activist community is faced with this fact, and a rift is forming among us that separates those who are willing to protest within the limits of the laws and those who are no longer willing to be limited by the laws that are designed to discourage and silence our outrage. Some of us still stay true to what we’ve been taught and continue to organize our carnivals, but after the G8 in 2004, it is undeniable that carnivals are pointless. Our own people are not even wasting their time to attend. So we can either organize carnivals, as we are doing now, or we can directly confront the oppressors by organizing huge Blocs to try to face this giant head on. I will say that I support, undyingly, anyone who takes part in a Bloc. I will also say that fighting in a Bloc is fighting on the government’s terms. We are drastically out-numbered and out-armed.
A new way is emerging.
2004 - The Solution
If we petition the government for a permit to march, it knows where we will be and what we will be doing. It plans on how to deal with us. It estimates numbers, trains its troops, and plans its actions. It studies how to make the protest ineffectual; remember, if the government were willing to allow change, there would be no need to protest.
Our goal, as activists, is to have an effect. The only way that is left for us to achieve our goal is to stop protesting when, where, and how the government wants us to.
Much can be learned from the brave souls who take part in the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. They are achieving change. It is time to use those ideals in the struggle for social and governmental revolution. The tactics of the ALF and ELF are also being used by the UGLF, the Urban Guerilla Liberation Front.
The UGLF is anyone. It can be all of us. Its guidelines are basically the same as those of the ELF and ALF:
1. To inflict economic damage on those profiting from the enslavement of any living being, including private businesses and the federal, local, and state governments.
2. To use any available media to expose and educate about the system that is designed to silence and pacify the public, on their own land, by a government that was meant to protect and serve them.
3. To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human.
The time has come to look away from a centralized activist community and look inward to what you are willing to do for the cause of liberty and justice, independently. This fall there will be two significant events, the DNC and the RNC. We can show the strength of the masses by UGLF action across the country. While the world is watching the staged marches in Boston and NYC, we call on you to show affinity by attacking the forces of oppression in your own backyards. As will we.
Activists unite in solidarity with those who go to the cities of these events. Organize into cells for direct action where you are. Take direct action alone. We will no longer jump through their hoops, protest in their pens, or be beaten and arrested by their goons. Operate in stealth and leave your mark.
The UGLF and How You Can Take UGLF Action.
The UGLF operates in independent cells. There is no central UGLF authority or leader. A cell can consist of any number of people, even one person. There is no organization to join, no memberships, no one to answer to but your own conscience. Any action that follows the three UGLF guidelines listed above is UGLF action, whether or not those who have carried it out choose to use the name UGLF.
By operating independently, we disable the government’s ability to disband the UGLF, thereby neutralizing the possibility that the struggle will end with assassination or arrest; or by an inept leader. By operating in cells, the UGLF also relies on the individual talents of those taking UGLF action. It is the true meaning of direct action.
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