Disruption

Disrupt (v) : to interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem; to drastically alter or destroy the structure of (something)

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Sabotage/Ecotage

BUT WE HAVE TO, SO WE DO IT REAL SLOW – Noche (2016)

This collection of texts primarily features an essay titled “BUT WE HAVE TO, SO WE DO IT REAL SLOW” by Noche, which explores the concept of anti-work within the context of Mexican and Mexican-America…

Be Gay Do Crime – Mary Nardini Gang (2019)

This excerpt, from the introduction of a book titled “Be Gay Do Crime” by Mary Nardini Gang, reflects on ten years of queer, anarchist, criminal, and mystical resistance. It details the origins of t…

The Billboard Liberation Front Manifesto (1992)

This manifesto argues that in contemporary society, advertising has become the dominant force shaping our understanding of the world and ourselves, displacing older forms of culture like art, science…

Interview with Jack Napier from the Billboard Liberation Front – Brian Gonnella (2009)

This piece presents an interview with Jack Napier, a representative of the Billboard Liberation Front (BLF), a group that modifies outdoor advertisements. The author, Brian Gonnella, explores the c…

The Art and Science of Billboard Improvement: A Comprehensive Guide to the Alteration of Outdoor Advertising – Billboard Liberation Front (2008)

This guide, published by the Billboard Liberation Front, offers a comprehensive, step-by-step manual for altering outdoor advertising. It details the various types of billboards, methods for choo…

Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto (n.d.)

The source presents a powerful critique of the colonial and capitalist systems, arguing they represent an ongoing, destructive “apocalypse” built on violence, exploitation, and the suppression of Ind…

De-Arrest Primer – Anonymous (2024)

This is a draft of a primer on de-arresting, which is defined as the act of freeing someone seized by law enforcement officers (LEOs), also known as un-arresting. It presents different tactics tha…

Prisoners in Revolution –  Roger Boberg, Jaan Laaman, John Yancey, and Richard Williams (1975)

This statement, written by revolutionary prisoners at New Hampshire State Prison in 1975, serves as a response and further discussion of the Weather Underground’s “Prairie Fire”, aiming to provide a…

Black Politics: A Journal of Liberation (1968)

This collection of excerpts from Black Politics: A Journal of Liberation (Vol. 1, 1968) offers insights into the Black Power movement during a pivotal year. The document covers a variety of topics…

A Conversation with Chandi Prasad Bhatt (2011)

This interview explores Bhatt’s journey from a poverty-stricken childhood to his leadership in the Chipko Movement

Vimla Bahuguna on The Chipko Movement (2023)

This interview with Vimla Bahuguna touches on the Chipko Movement in India and how ecofeminism came to be today

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Lockdowns and Blockades – CrimethInc. (2025)

This guide from CrimethInc. describes a range of resistance and disruption tactics, from using lockboxes to physically block spaces and movement to constructing barricades with materials like junk car…

The Siege of the Third Precinct in Minneapolis (2020)

This anonymous account analyzes the tactics and composition of the crowd that besieged the Third Precinct in Minneapolis during the May 2020 uprising in response to the George Floyd murder. Some tac…

Communique Following Attack on Colomiers (FR) Data-Processing Centre – Comité Liquidant Ou Détournant Les Ordinateurs (C.L.O.D.O.) (1983)

This communique was written by the Comité Liquidant Ou Détournant Les Ordinateurs (C.L.O.D.O.) on February 7, 1983, just ten days after the group’s bombing of the data-processing centre of Colomiers…

Ned Lud’s Proclamation (1811)

This is a proclamation by Ned Lud, the legendary leader of the Luddites—an early 19th-century movement of English textile workers who protested against the introduction of mechanized looms and knitt…

No More Miss America (1968)

On September 7, 1968, a coalition of women’s liberation groups planned various demonstrations against the annual Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City. These demonstrations aimed to challenge the page…

The Written Resistance #5 – National Students for Justice in Palestine (2024)

This is the fifth edition of the newsletter written by a compilation of individual authors and published by the National Students for Justice in Palestine. The edition offers perspectives and reflecti…

The Proper Way to Harvest Wheat? Direct Action for the 90’s (1989)

This document highlights various forms of direct action and resistance employed by groups such as Plowshares, known for disarmament actions, and Earth First!, associated with environmental sabotage. T…

Outlaws of Amerika – Vietnam War

The Weather Underground group discusses the bombing at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs in October 1970 in this communique

W.A.S.P Manifesto – Women Armed for Self-Protection (1974)

Founded in 1974 in Dallas, Texas, Women Armed for Self-Protection (W.A.S.P.) was created in response to the increasing incidents of rape and the societal attitudes that enabled such violence. In their…

Herstory Monologues – Women Against Imperialism (1990)

This 1990 performance piece, “herstory,” amplifies the voices of diverse women confronting oppression while celebrating resistance. Personal anecdotes are intertwined with political demands, highlig…

Political Prisoners and Lesbian Resistance – Jennie McKnight (1989)

This 1989 interview from Gay Community News features political activists Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, and Susan Rosenberg, who were imprisoned for conspiracy. In the interview, they share their exp…

Women Deface the Presidio Army Base – Women Against Imperialism (n.d.)

On International Women’s Day, between 150 and 200 women occupied the exterior of the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco. The event, coordinated by Women Against Imperialism, sought to criticize U.S.…

The Red Army Faction – Vietnam

This reference aid about the Red Army Faction discusses the leftist extremist group as an ongoing threat during the Vietnam War.

The Occupied Museum – Noah Fischer (2014)

In this piece, Noah Fischer, a founding member of the Occupy Museums movement, examines the group’s efforts to address economic inequality in the art world and promote alternative models of economic e…

How to Fire Your Boss: A Workers’ Guide to Direct Action – Industrial Workers of the World (1968)

This pamphlet, first released by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1968 and revised in 2022, promotes direct action as a powerful tool for workers to secure better conditions at work. It ou…

How to Sack Your Boss: A Workers’ Guide to Direct Action (n.d.)

This document is an excerpt from a worker’s guide that promotes direct action against employers. It critiques traditional resistance methods like strikes as ineffective, instead advocating for alterna…

Homestead Strike (1892)

The Homestead Strike of 1892, centered at Carnegie’s steel plant in Pennsylvania, marked a pivotal moment in American labor history. It erupted over wage cuts and benefit reductions, leading to a viol…

Luddites Protest (1812)

During the Industrial Revolution in England, textile workers protested against the rise of machinery that took their jobs and reduced their wages. The factory heads and upper class started to push wor…

How to Wheatpaste

Wheatpasting is a low-effort and low-risk direct action technique used in social struggle to spread new ideas across large spaces. This is a step-by-step guide that includes ingredients and directions…

Blockade, Occupy, Strike Back (2012)

This is a guide that was distributed by anarchists during the 2012 student strikes and social conflicts in Montreal. The document provides step-by-step instructions on how to form crews, how to create…

May-Day Strike by French Postal Employees (1924)

This is a screenshot of an excerpt from a 1924 newspaper on the proposed May-Day strike by French postal workers. In an effort to obtain a raise in wages, these postal workers sought to disrupt the op…

Lafchenke Machupe Resistance Sabotage

In Chile, the Machupe people are an indigenous group that have been fighting off outsider invaders to their land and livelihood for years. The Lafchenke Machupe groups are a resistance group that use…

May First Movement Technology

May First Movement Technology is an organization that supports a variety of movements whose overarching goal is to “engage in building movements by advancing the strategic use and collective control o…

In Time of Crisis – Dave Foreman (1991)

This piece is an excerpt from the book, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior, written in 1991 by Dave Foreman, a co-founder of Earth First!. In this excerpt, Foreman details the principles, practices, and go…

Yomango

Yomango literally means to steal, or to shoplift. This cultural jamming movement emerged from the Mango brand, a popular clothing company. They were vehemently anti – consumerism, utilizing a tactic o…

We Won This Round: The Cancún WTO Ministerial Summit – Lesley Adams (2003)

This piece was written by an activist at the 2003 ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in Cancún. Over 10,000 protesters from around the world took action throughout the summit, occ…

Maine Earth First! Disrupts State’s Approval of Plum Creek Development Plan – Maine EF! (2010)

This article, published by Maine Earth First! details the occupation of the Land Use Regulatory Commission’s meeting in Bangor, Maine in opposition to the agency’s approval of Plum Creek’s proposa…

Five Centuries of Resistance in Argentina – Kendra Fehrer and Brad Will (2004)

This piece describes the direct action tactics used by the Ava Guaraní indigenous peoples of Argentina and their allies against Tabacal Sugar, a subsidiary of the Seaboard Corporation. Tabacal Sugar…

Ecodefenders Sabotage Bighorn Hunt – Rod Coronado (1987)

This piece, written by Rod Coronado, an active member of the Sea Shepherd Society, the Hunt Saboteurs Association, the Animal Liberation Front, and Earth First! describes the direct actions taken over…

How to Sink Whalers, Driftnetters, and Other Environmentally Destructive Ships – Earth First! (n.d.)

This is an in-depth guide provided by Earth First! on how to sink whalers, drift netters, and other environmentally-destructive ships. Necessary tool lists and chronological steps to undertake with di…

Return to Bald Mountain: The Second Battle of the North Kalmiopsis – Chant Thomas (1987)

A story from Vol. VII, No. IV of the Earth First! Journal that describes the direct actions taken by Oregon Earth First!ers in response to the Siskiyou National Forest’s reneging on an agreement to…

What is ALEC? – Project Baldwin (2011)

This is a call to action from Project Baldwin against the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) November meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. Project Baldwin argues that ALEC is an organization…

For the Kimberley: A Glimpse of Recent Resistance (2011)

This article provides dated updates of the tactics of resistance used by activists against the construction of a gas plant and port at James Price Point in the Kimberley region of West Australia. The…

AIDS Activism- “By Any Means Necessary”

Kirk Mason urges his AIDS negative and positive community members to refuse the governments death sentence to LGBTQ+ folks living with AIDS.

Monkeywrenching Principles Excerpt from Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching – David Foreman (1985)

In an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, David Foreman lists and describes 11 principles that monkeywrenching must follow in order to succeed as a campaign of resi…

Running Feet and Roaring Chainsaws in the Mattole – Doctor Zaus (2001)

A member of the Mattole Forest Defenders described the group’s actions against logging plans to cut down the remaining Northern California coastal old-growth Douglas fir trees. Blockade structures…

Declaration of Rebellion – Extinction Rebellion UK (n.d.)

Extinction Rebellion UK published a statement detailing their rebellion against the government, and declaring the nullification of the bonds of the social contract as a result of the government’s fa…

FLARE UP! Niger Delta Women Take on Oil Companies – (2002)

This article, written by an American journalist under a pseudonym, details the actions taken by indigenous intertribal women of Nigeria against US oil companies ChevronTexaco and Shell. These oil comp…

Katuah Earth First! Cashes in Willamette’s Chips – John Johnson and Rich Spencer (1999)

This article describes the tactics used by activists of Katuah Earth First! And EarthCulture to stop the continued chipping of native forests in the Southeast. Activists targeted the Willamette Indust…

401 Animals from the University of Iowa Liberated – Communiqué from ALF Activists (2004)

A communiqué from ALF activists describes the raid they conducted on the laboratories of the University of Iowa Psychology Department. All equipment and documents pertaining to the work of the vivise…

Update from the Treetops – (2009)

The article, written by an unnamed farmer participating in the occupation, describes the “tree-village” that has formed in a Humboldt County, California forest. The logging company Green Diamond h…

Direct Action! 101: A Primer – El Lobo Solo (n.d.)

This undated, pseudonymous piece describes how Earth First! employs direct action methods such as civil disobedience and social arrest against those harming the earth. The article teaches how to effec…

One Big Union – Industrial Workers of the World (2000)

This document, written in 2000 by the Industrial Workers of the World, outlines the organization of workers and the working class. It includes a brief historical discussion, advantages of one union an…

Manifesto of the Industrial Workers of the World (1905)

The Industrial Workers of the World is a worker-led union advocating for and working towards direct action, democracy in the workplace, and unionism. This manifesto explains the power of collective me…

Guidelines and Press Statement by Earth Liberation Front (2007)

the initial press statement and guidelines for ELF

Introduction to Earth Liberation Front by Leslie James Pickering

Pickering’s own thoughts and opinions pertaining to this compilation

FAQ by ELF

This excerpt is a series of answers released by the ELF pertaining to the aim of their organization.

Resistance #4 by ELF

The publication Resistance featured the ELF three times. This second feature tells the arrest of Josh Harper, among other stories and statements by the ELF.

Resistance #3 by ELF (2000)

The publication Resistance featured the ELF three times. This first feature tells the story of Craig Rosebraugh at his Grand Jury hearing in Spring of 2000.

Guerilla News Network Interview of ELF (Spring 2002)

an interview by the Guerilla News Network, a privately owned network that tried to expose important global issues

Resignation Statement by Leslie James Pickering (June/July 2002)

Pickering’s own thoughts and opinions pertaining to his resignation as the spokesperson for the ELF

Earth First! Direct Action Manual (2015)

Tree-sits, ground blockades, scouting, tunneling, evading, and monkey-wrenching: the most up to date and complete Earth First! manual on defending the planet.

Communique 4 From The Weather Underground(1970)

This communication from the Weather Underground was published on Sept 15, 1970 and explains how they helped political prisoner Dr. Timothy Leary escape.

Communique 2 From The Weather Underground (1970)

This communication from the Weather Underground was published on June 9, 1970 and takes responsibility for the bombing of a police headquarters.

Communique 1 From The Weather Underground (1970)

This communication from the Weather Underground was published on May 21,1970 and declares war on the United States of America.

Weatherman edited by Harold Jacobs (1970)

This book details the founding of the Weather Underground, as well as strategies for accomplishing their goals.

You Do Need A Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows by Shin’ya Ono (1969)

“What I would like to go into here is how the Chicago action, and the Weatherman logic behind it, made, and still makes, compelling sense…”

Temporary Autonomous Zone – Hakim Bey (1985)

Anarchist text by Hakim Bey about creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control. From Pirate Utopias to Nomadic Bands, Poetic Terrorism to Ontological Anarchy, Hakim Bey draws on h…

Communiques from the Earth Liberation Front (1997-2002)

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is the collective name for a group of individual cells that use ecotage to try to stop the destruction of the environemnt. This list of commniqes is compiled by former…

Complete Guide To Ending The Fur Industry (2020)

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an animal rights group that was form in 1975, with the intention to end animal cruelty and exploitation. ALF is a nonviolent group, operating primarly underground…

If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front by Marshall Curry (2011)

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is the collective name for a group of individual cells that use ecotage to stop the destruction of the environemnt. This documentary tells the story of one of the acti…

Choke Points: Mapping an Anticapitalist Counter-Logistics – Degenerate Communism (2014)

Essay arguing for the material and theoretical logic behind the disruption of the circulation of capital. A mapping of the logistical infrastructure of California with assessment of its major choke po…

The Coming Insurrection – The Invisible Committee (2009)

Now classic text by French collective – The Invisible Committee describing the present impasse through seven circles of hell and the way out through the insurrectionary commune

A Recipe for Nocturnal Direct Actions! – MTL Counter-Info (2017)

Step-by-Step guide for covering your tracks including scouting, prep, CCTV evasion, DNA Forensics, and arrest.

Anatomy of an Industrial Struggle (1976-1978)

This article was written by Garry Hill who worked at the Tonsley Park Chrysler plant in Australia in 1976 during the workers’ struggles – that he actively participated in.

How To (Safely) Stop A Train – Bure Polit-Art Collective (2019)

“The interruption of electricity, goods or data streams with the aim of disturbing the functioning of capitalist logic or the infrastructure of the ruling order has always been a form of resistance.…

A Terrorist Call for “Building a Red Army” (1970)

Between 1970 and 1998, the Anti-Fascist, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Imperialism, Communist leftist militia The Red Army Faction was labeled as a terrorist organization in first West Germany, and then unifi…

Scouting Manual For Activists – The Ruckus Society (2016)

A basic overview of scouting techniques including cover stories, useful equipment, and what to look out for when planning everything from a blockade to a banner drop.

How to Destroy a Cell Phone Tower – Warrior Up (2020)

Ingredients: 2-3 comrades, Entry tools (Boltcroppers, Wiresnips, etc) Gloves, Mask, Clean Clothes, Hat, Cap or Hood (for DNA traces) Fuel (500ml, White Spirit or Kerosene), Fuel (100ml of Benzine/Pet…

POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English (2006)

“Bombarded by relentless advertising in a growing culture of junk, one man-activist/artist Ron English-dares to hijack corporate advertising, challenging us to change the sham of reality…Ron takes t…

BUGA-UP: Billboard Utilizising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (1979-early/mid 1980s)

BUGA-UP is a organization formed in Australia to protest cigarette and other unhealthy advertisments, through cultutal jamming, specifically by vandalizing billboards.

Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare by Umberto Eco (1986)

Eco argues that controlling the message is less important than controlling the possible interpretations of the message. To disrupt the mainstream mass media, Eco suggests using guerilla tactics, such…

Sabotage – I.W.W. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1911)

In which the rebel girl describes various forms of sabotage including limiting the over-supply of workers through contraception.

Sabotage – Emile Pouget (1908)

A pestiferous epidemic, becoming to the body social of capitalism more dangerous and incurable than cancer and syphilis are to the human body

Tactics Post

Weather Underground – Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism (1970)

The accidental explosion of a Greenwich Village townhouse during a bomb-making session in 1970 left the Weather Underground– a radical left organization formed in 1969– distraught. In an attempt to…
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New Book on Disruption - Click to Expand !!
Challenging our understanding of social struggles as movements, Mehmet Döşemeci traces a 300-year counter-history of struggle predicated on disruption. Click for details.