Workers, Students! – Paris (May 1968)

1946-1989, Capitalism, Date, Defining the Enemy, Occupation, Students, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Workers

This document, written during the events in Paris during May 1968, calls for students and workers to continue the resistance, continue the occupations, and keep their power.

“We must continue to the very end!

We occupy the faculties, the offices, the factories!

We will stay there!

Occupy Melbourne Leaflet (2011)

2011-Present, Capitalism, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Tactics of Disruption, Urban Spaces

This leaflet from Occupy Melbourne describes the ways in which the Occupy movement has freed its participants from the reigns of capitalism.

All sorts of people from all sorts of different backgrounds are coming together and becoming open to new perspectives, questioning old assumptions, putting time and energy into things they find useful, actively communicating with each other and relating to each other as humans, without the filter of money.
We’re getting a taste of a new kind of life, of how life could be if we weren’t stuck with such an absurd and obscene social system.

Don’t Move, Occupy! (2013)

2011-Present, Date, Disruptive Spaces, History/Theory, Occupation, Tactics of Disruption, Urban Spaces

Mehmet Döşemeci analyzes global uprisings of 2011 and the occupation of public space in order to outline a theory of social arrest.

“A logic of collection and dispersal has more and more come to define how we practice social movements… What happened in the locations of the Arab spring was not movement but arrest, not dispersal but permanent occupation.”

Occupy Wall Street – Students (2011)

2011-Present, Capitalism, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Students, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Urban Spaces

This document declares the occupation of student, university spaces during Occupy Wall Street.

“We join a long tradition of student activism and struggle. We the indebted and the future unemployed and underemployed stand committed to this movement for our collective lives.”

Third Statement on Uprisings in Turkey (2013)

2011-Present, Capitalism, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Tactics of Disruption, The Police, Urban Spaces

This statement, written by Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF – Revolutionary Anarchist Action), discusses the ongoing occupations in Gezi Park and Taksim Square, particularly the police violence against them.

“Despite the harsh attack, the people on Taksim Square and in Gezi Park are resisting. The fascist state, oppression and police terror can not discourage us, our struggle is going on, our rage is growing so does our struggle.”

Fourth Statement on Uprisings in Turkey (2013)

2011-Present, Capitalism, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Tactics of Disruption, The Police, Urban Spaces

This statement, issued by Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF – Revolutionary Anarchist Action), describes the uprisings that spread across Turkey in 2013. It includes details of violence that protestors and occupations have faced and emphasizes the need for solidarity and support nationally and internationally.

“Join your voice to the revolt of the people whom the state had been ignoring, oppressing and exploiting for years. Let the fire of revolt against the Turkish State that we started with a spark and that is increasingly growing, grow further… Everywhere is Istanbul and everywhere is resistance against state terrorism, police violence and capitalist exploitation.”

Sixth Statement on Uprisings in Turkey (2013)

2011-Present, Capitalism, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Tactics of Disruption, The Police, Urban Spaces

This statement, made by the Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF – Revolutionary Anarchist Action) describes occupations and uprisings in Turkey, including Gezi Park. It is an account of actions, motivations, and violence faced, and future hopes.

“It is time to raise the curtain before the eyes. This is a revolt. It is the reaction of people against state terrorism, police violence, and capitalist exploitation. This is the end of legitimacy of the new state power that had gained the love of other states, international institutions and global corporations…

Forty hours became forty years, the square became the world for us. This was the freedom of revolt.”

Proclamation to the Great White Father and All His People – Alcatraz Proclamation (1969)

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, Indigenous, Occupation, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, White Supremacy

Between November 20, 1969 and June 11, 1971, a group of Indigenous people – led by the group Indians of All Tribes (IAT) – occupied Alcatraz Island. The last of the occupiers were removed by the United States government. This proclamation announced the reclamation of the land and included a “treaty” to deal with “the Caucasian inhabitants of this land.”

We, the native Americans, re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery… We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more than suitable for an Indian Reservation, as determined by the white man’s own standards.

Alcatraz proclamation