[this text is jacked up, we need it sorted out. sorry.]

top
secret
communique?
for
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!
? ? An imperious need
to destroy . . . and
to simultaneously
laugh and cry over
that which has
been destroyed.?
The most
important
question for the
revolutionary is
how to escape
disciples? and
enable equals.
-Confound expectations. Eschew cliche? s of all kinds. Introduce foreign
elements to stable environments to create volatile situations. When talking
politics, use poetry? new poetry, not the poetry already seized by and subordi-
nated to politics when making poetry, make poetry that demands more from
the political, not poetry that answers to it. When you strike, strike to reveal
potentialities to everyone that were invisible before only strike when this can
be accomplished, so people will watch closely when you do. By inventing new
languages for music, relationships, social change, reinvent the possibilities of
music, relationships, social change themselves. Break with the past incessantly.
Create each morning the first dawn the world has ever seen.
Don? t put on an act for other activists and artists? address yourself to the ones who
will not construe your actions in the museum-categories of activism or art. Avoid politics-as-
usual (that is, all politics, as we know them today), don? t stick around to argue, don? t be
sentimental be ruthless, take risks, vandalize what your heart insists must be defaced, do
something children will remember all their lives, be spontaneous, let the muse possess you
(and study how to live in a life that keeps you vulnerable to her). Dress up. Leave a false name.
Be legendary. Act against the law, live against the law (for aren? t you? against the law?), but
don? t get caught? that? s too predictable. Remember, the best crimes aren? t illegal yet!
Build your castles on the rims of volcanoes. Throw caution? and everything else? to the winds.
Live dangerously. Think dangerously. CrimethInc.Live dangerously. Think dangerously. CrimethInc.Live dangerously. Think dangerously. CrimethInc.Live dangerously. Think dangerously. CrimethInc.Live dangerously. Think dangerously. CrimethInc.
2695 Rangewood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30345, U.S.A.2695 Rangewood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30345, U.S.A.2695 Rangewood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30345, U.S.A.2695 Rangewood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30345, U.S.A.2695 Rangewood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30345, U.S.A.
P.O. Box 1963, Olympia, WA 98507, U.S.A.P.O. Box 1963, Olympia, WA 98507, U.S.A.P.O. Box 1963, Olympia, WA 98507, U.S.A.P.O. Box 1963, Olympia, WA 98507, U.S.A.P.O. Box 1963, Olympia, WA 98507, U.S.A.
cyberspace cadets should proceed directly to
www.crimethinc.comwww.crimethinc.comwww.crimethinc.comwww.crimethinc.comwww.crimethinc.com
and then on out the door into the world.
It is now safe to turn off your computer.It is now safe to turn off your computer.It is now safe to turn off your computer.It is now safe to turn off your computer.It is now safe to turn off your computer.
. . . the cats locked in uptown apartments,
staring out through the windows . . .
. . . the train cars bearing graffiti and run-
aways back and forth across the country . . .
. . . the broken automatic-flush toilets carry-
ing on senseless conversations in empty air-
port restrooms . . .
At the public library, in the air raid shel-
ter converted into a museum, in their apart-
ments, they long to be protagonists of their
own stories, for once, not professionals or pro-
testers? a whole generation wasted, working
in the service industry, collecting comic
books, matching skin tones to shades of lip-
stick . . . but the fuse is lit, now, a hiss in the
distance like air escaping from a slashed tire?
and ears are pricking up.
It was right in front of everyone? s
face? we just made it visible. It
was on the tip of everyone? s
tongue? we just gave it a name. All
the words you wish you could speak,
all the life you wish you could
live? that? s us. We fight like you
want to fight, we love like you
want to love, we never submit or
compromise? we are free in all the
ways you wish you could be.
WE DO NOT EXIST.
-Locate pressure points in society at which the right stimulus could trigger
massive responses the graduation of thousands of state university students with
grim job prospects the cancellation of welfare programs that enabled poor single
mothers to afford child care the inauguration of an unpopular president, at-
tended by thousands of angry voters aggravated by a hostile police presence.
Apply that stimulus.
In reference to making propaganda, this point bears some explication, for the sake of
those who still are accustomed to and expect the old-fashioned approach of simply trying
to ? ? say what the truth is? [a activity now recognized as impossible by philosophers, histo-
rians, and scientists alike] and waiting for everyone to understand. The way we see it, the
value of the propaganda is not in whether or not what it says is ? ? objectively true? or not,
but rather in what the effects of saying it are. For example if one makes propaganda
extolling what is revolutionary about shoplifting, one is not necessarily trying to get would-
be revolutionaries to shoplift so they can be ? ? more revolutionary? [obviously a stupid ap-
proach if there ever was one? although exploring the tactical benefits of shoplifting for a
class of people looking to do less buying might make sense]? one might instead be trying to
identify for shoplifters what is already insurrectionary in their actions, so they can
broaden their analysis of their own lives. The same goes for adultery, hithchiking, and a
thousand other subjects. When approaching any of these pressure points, where massive
tension exists between what people desire and the world they know themselves to live in,
expect other radicals to sometimes misinterpret your work as urging people to indulge in
these half-measures rather than celebrating what could be revolutionary about them if
they are followed through to their logical conclusions. Don? t be distracted by them. The
last ones you need to need to worry about reaching with your propaganda are other radi-
cals, for heaven? s sake.
-Find ways to provide for people? s needs in ways that demonstrate the value
of cooperation and resistance organize dumpstering parties for middle class
students short on cash, put on film festivals featuring radical speakers discuss-
ing conventional films, set up tables giving out anarchist literature at gun shows,
put on subtly subversive puppet shows for children and their otherwise iso-
lated parents, put together community bicycle exchanges and similar projects
to replace the religious condescension of ? ? Christmas gifts for poor children?
and other such smug charity, get state funding for youth centers run by insur-
gents in which youth can learn to organize themselves.
Otherwise, why should people believe you or your ? ? alternatives? have anything to
offer? And without a support system, how are they supposed to have the time and peace of
mind to get active?
You were looking for a way to change your life. You could not do this on your own.
You were looking for evidence that what you wanted was possible. You found it in a ghost?
which you made flesh.
People do this every day? they talk to themselves, they daydream, they see
themselves as they would like to be. They project what they long for, fear, wor-
ship upon others, when it is already present within themselves.
CrimethInc. is not an elite commando unit of freedom fighters. Crime-
thInc. is the fucking Wizard of Oz. The various poor saps who act as ? ? Crime-
thInc.? have no patent on crimethought? they barely know what they? re do-
ing. You know much better than they do. Whatever is free, glorious, real about
anything CrimethInc. has ever done is your doing you made it so, by needing it,
exalting it, making it breathe and stir. You were ready for it, but you weren? t
ready for it to be you? so you created it, reflected it off of the world as a dis-
tress signal to yourself, and seized it as a life preserver. By itself, the text is a
prescription in a dead language? you brought it to life.
THERE IS NO CRIMETHINC.1
CRIMETHINC. IS SIMPLY YOU.
CrimethInc. is not a membership organization? it belongs to anyone who
has the audacity to claim it, just as death belongs to anyone who can pick up a
frying pan. Anyone can put on a black mask and join the Black Bloc, anyone
can dumpster food and become Food Not Bombs, anyone can act on behalf of
the E.L.F. or design a poster with the familiar bullet logo at the bottom.
Crimethought is everywhere? it? s in every life, in every heart, woven into the
history of humanity and the cosmos as surely as submission and inertia and
everything else are? if it weren? t, there would be no such thing as CrimethInc.,
and you certainly wouldn? t be reading this.
If CrimethInc. is everyone, then, by the same token, it is no one. There is no
enchanted inner circle working secret spells upon the world, creating from the
void those propositions and subversions and dares that have been so important
or infuriating to you. CrimethInc. is not the property of some board of trust-
ees, there is no genius to credit for it, no malefactor to blame for it there is
simply the world which wrought this strange thing and shaped the hearts that
respond to it.
1
It? s true. If you go to the CrimethInc. H.Q. address in Atlanta, you? ll find a suburban
house like all the others for miles around, inhabited by a well-behaved middle class
woman who wants nothing to do with ? ? revolution? or anything like it [ask Marietta
native Robert Bly, he tried it].
FOLK SCIENCE
squatting, dumpstering, gardening, inventing, d.i.y. building and plumbing and decorat-
ing and printing and repairing . . .
The end of specialization? the end of expertise as a commodity in a scarcity
economy. The rejection of technology as a deity mediated by an elite priest
caste, and of linear ? ? progress? as the sole and unquestionable principle of hu-
man history. The realization that each of us can do anything, that it is more
valuable to make your own progress than to passively accept or even contribute
to a ? ? progress? beyond your control.
FOLK LOVE
Food Not Bombs, local and international communities, communal living arrangements,
community spaces, open relationships, loving friendships, affinity/infinity groups . . .
The emergence of mutual aid and emotional support outside the exchange sys-
tem, for their own sake rather than as a transaction, so that we can build com-
munities which protect and foster individuality and cooperation at once.
FOLK WAR
demonstrations, squatting, Critical Mass, Reclaim the Streets, the Black Bloc, wildcat
strikes, spokescouncil meetings, topless federations . . .
The collective establishment of means of defending our individual freedom
and autonomy that do not endanger those in the process. The abolition of lead-
ers and orders, even in times of war (like this one), in favor of radically demo-
cratic, decentralized or consensus-based strategies of resistance.
SOME STRATEGIES
-Identify potentially revolutionary classes of people whose frustration and
resources are currently not being channeled into anything positive apolitical
punk rockers and other rebellious teenagers, rejected would-be sorority sisters
the week after rush, forgotten mothers whose children have grown up and left
home, devoted librarians whose jobs are endangered by administrative budget
cuts. Seek common cause with them? what can you offer each other?
Revolution is not the sole province of a specialist class? there are revolutionary cur-
rents in all circles. Revolution happens when these autonomous currents become aligned in
such a way that they change? better, derail? history. It? s up to you to find connections to
people in other walks of life with whom you can build symbiotic relationships of resis-
tance. Quitting your job was about having more time to do what needs doing, not just
isolating yourself from the rest of humanity? wasn? t it?
NATURALLY, YOU? RE STILL WRESTLING WITH THIS, SO
SOMETIMES YOU? RE STILL YOU? ? ? JUST YOU.?
Those moments of absolute terror when everything around and inside you
is alien should come as no surprise. You? re not just tweaking a few knobs here,
you? re trying to step into an alternate universe. Sometimes nothing will make
sense. Be patient, let the fear wash over you, survive until the wave passes and
the horizon is a step closer.
During those instants, it will seem like everyone knows what is going on
but you. Is it unusual that at such moments you are capable of inventing fantas-
tic underground societies possessed of super-human powers?
OTHER TIMES, YOU IMAGINE YOURSELF WATCHING US.
LITTLE BY LITTLE YOU? RE BREAKING FREE,
LETTING YOURSELF GO.
The lengths the child of the bourgeoisie must go to in order to shake off
his conditioning are incredible. It may be that for some to begin they need a
myth to believe in, as some recovering addicts claim to need a ? ? higher power.?
If sometimes you still need us, then so be it? ? ? we? will drag you kicking
and screaming into the new dawn, bearing all the blame for the suffering you
have been yearning to bring upon yourself for the one who wants to be born
must first destroy a world. But you cannot arrive until you divest yourself of
your crutches. In the end you will turn to thank us, and find you are all alone.
? ? WE? ARE STILL HERE IF YOU NEED SOMETHING TO
REBEL AGAINST.
? ? The adolescence of every free human being is a war, a struggle with those who came
before it is this war that maintains vitality, that fashions destiny? a deadly war one
must wage against the very factors and influences which gave birth to oneself.? ? Brutus to
Julius Caesar
The only thing to do with something you have put on a pedestal is knock it
off. If, once you realize your mistake, you find that you need to reject us, rebel
against us, assert your selfhood and independence from us, then by all means
do it! But don? t go on to assume that everyone who isn? t rebelling as you are
must therefore be a CrimethInc. robot, a mindless follower. They have reasons
of their own to do what they do maybe they are where you yourself once needed
to be in order to arrive where you are maybe they are actually where you hope
WE HAVE AT HAND THE GUNS FOR WAR. NOW, TO SEIZE THEM
Given that our lives and our world are occupied territory, that relations of
struggle and competition exist on every level in our society because once intro-
duced they tend to replace other relationships everything then depends on
whether we can find ways to reappropriate our own creativity and productivity
from this cycle, and thus subvert and abort it.
Revolution will never be bought at list price. Obviously, we? re not going to
get our ? ? money? s worth? for either our labor or our capital on the ? ? free? market
we have to create situations, as fleeting as need be (for nothing can or should be
sustainable, in an unsustainable world), in which we have power over resources
that are otherwise out of our hands. We need to learn from those already adept
at these practices the bank robbers, the cheating high school students, junior
high students who call in bomb threats in spring, workers who cheat the time
clock or use company materials for private projects, office-supply pilferers, sub-
urban adulterers, grill cooks who pull off workers? compensation frauds. With
this precious contraband, we contra-bandits can rediscover the folk arts? which
we can use both to create new, liberated environments, and to rescue our fellow
human beings from the current nightmare.
FOLK ART
murals, markers, spraypaint, stickers, posters, wheatpaste, stencils, bricks, gasoline and
styrofoam . . .
The reappropriation, by every individual, of the means (and ? ? right? ) to trans-
form the environments we live in. The realization that as the fashioning of the
world is a collective project, the designing of it must be as well.
FOLK LORE
stolen photocopies, broadsides, pamphlets, ? zines, phone trees, discussion groups, oral tradi-
tion, independent media networks . . .
The circumvention of the mass media by direct, decentralized, and non-hierar-
chical means of communication. The rejection of History, any History, in the
objective sense, in favor of myth and legend and storytelling.
FOLK MUSIC
d.i.y. punk rock and hip hop and techno music, pirate radio, drum circles, demonstration
chants and songs . . .
The demystification of the role of musician? the realization that anyone can
create an aural environment, that anyone can shape the emotions of her fellows
into fear or courage, love or sentimentality, rage or despair? and the subse-
quent insight that this must be done cooperatively, or else the result will be a
dreadful, atonal mess. Thus, the recognition of music-making as the perfect
analogy for human relations.
to be in the future maybe they are on a track of evolution entirely different
from yours. You might succeed in wasting a lot of time, theirs or your own, by
pointing out faults instead of new vistas. And do you really want to provoke the
mindless choosing of sides, the accusations and insults and defensiveness, the
struggle for superiority that always accompanies such contentions?
Ultimately, it makes as much sense to attack ? ? CrimethInc.? as to attack
punk rock, the state of activism, the human race itself. There are negative and
positive forces within all of them, but these things are simply what we make of
them. The spectator passively votes for or against things, imagining his status
to be greater the more he finds below himself, and seeking something illustri-
ous and perfect enough that he can invest in a distinctioned identity by associ-
ating himself with it. The individual who has become conscious of her powers
as an active participant in life approaches everything in terms of what it might
have to offer, then adds what she feels is missing, making shortcomings into
opportunities. It is healthy to critique individual ideas, methods, actions, deci-
sions it is thus that better ideas, methods, actions, decisions come to be. But it
is infantile to attack a forum for ideas, methods, etc. because it does not serve
your particular needs? let those who need it use it you can apply your energies
where you choose.
Those who believe that there is a CrimethInc. to be rejected are the last
guardians of the myth that there is such a thing as ? ? CrimethInc.? at all.
BUT YOU WILL NOT BE FREE UNTIL YOU REALIZE THAT
WE DO NOT EXIST.
Once you apprehend that CrimethInc. is not a disembodied force or a
strictly-defined entity, that whatever it has been and is to be is entirely under
your control, you will be free to dispense with it entirely? and then, if you like,
to contribute to it. CrimethInc. is composed of individuals who are not enam-
ored of it or threatened by it, who have no illusions about it, who see it merely
as one of many possible means to greater ends. Certainly it has its shortcom-
ings, like any tool it also offers some advantages others don? t. Consider this an
invitation to show what can be done with it.
CrimethInc. must be superseded to be realized. Whether you act autono-
mously as ? ? CrimethInc.,? or under any other name, is immaterial? the impor-
tant thing is that you begin to act autonomously, to discover your own capabili-
ties and dispel the mythology you have created around those who exercise theirs.
The next move is now in your hands, the fate of CrimethInc.? and much more
important things? with it.
? ? Now I bid you lose me and find yourselves. For it is only when you have all denied
me that I will return to you.? ? Zarathustra, taking leave of his adherents
Remember, crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle,
but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles?
and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and
lifestyles challenging. It is not crimethought just to survive without a job by
dumpstering, squatting, and hitchhiking it is crimethought to realize that this
lifestyle provides resources that can be used to revolutionize demonstration
activism, or underground literature. It is not crimethought simply to distribute
propaganda attacking the monotony and limited options of traditional employ-
ment it is crimethought to create situations in which both workers and ex-
workers benefit from each others? different experiences, and consequently dis-
cover new options and new adventures that were previously obscured.
3. Be sure to deny authorship of any projects you undertake, and avoid
accruing personal glory as a ? ? member of the C.W.C.? If we aren? t careful about
this, CrimethInc. could become a traditional ? ? membership organization? after
all, with status established simply by celebrity standing.
4. Pick some projects that need doing and do them. If you need help, con-
tact others (fellow ? ? CrimethInc. workers? or not) for advice and collaboration .
. . if you need raw materials, don? t hesitate to steal from previous CrimethInc.
projects, or from anywhere else for that matter. Some media you might enjoy
working in include wheatpasting, pranks (call in bomb threats to workplaces on
sunny days, dress as Santa Claus and give children ? ? free toys? off the shelves in
department stores during Christmas, etc.), providing resources to people capi-
talism deems unworthy (food, baby-sitting, companionship), spreading wild
rumors, creating new urban legends . . . the sky? s the limit.
5. It can be fun (and useful in preserving anonymity) to choose a Crime-
thInc. alias for yourself. Think of something hilarious, something that says ev-
erything that needs saying without an essay or manifesto, like Jello Biafra or
Rolf Nadir. Once the myths of intellectual property and changeless identity
itself are dispensed with, the signature on any work has significance only as a
part of the work itself. Remember that using just one alias will not obscure your
identity for long? better that you shift between a series of them, or, better yet,
borrow someone else? s name or pen name from time to time! All the former
CrimethInc. aliases are fair game, for example . . . confusion as to ? ? who is really
who? protects CrimethInc. workers from both stardom and F.B.I. investiga-
tions, and keeps the focus on the relevance of the ideas to the readers? lives,
where it belongs. [See below for an example of this principle in action.]
6. If these suggestions don? t please you, make up your own. CrimethInc.,
just like the rest of your life and the whole world for that matter, is whatever you
make it. Get busy.
-Hakim Bey for the CrimethInc. Central Committee for De-Centralization
Postscript for the Faithful
As a famous theoretician? s ex-lover once said to him ? ? I wish I could be as sure
of anything as you are of everything.? Doubt killed Jesus, Socrates, countless other
crime-thinkers . . . but seems to pose no problem for Christians, philosophy
professors, subscribers to CrimethInc.TM? that? s ideology at work for you.
In the words of another wise woman nothing is true, everything is permitted. We? re
trying to give permission, not instructions? don? t take us at our word, whatever
you do! Less faith? more mercilessness, my friend.
ONE MORE TIME NOW? WHAT GOOD IS CRIMETHINC., IF IT DOESN? T EVEN EXIST?
For one thing, CrimethInc. offers an alternative for those of us who have
been frustrated to see our efforts to make things happen interpreted as attempts
to glorify ourselves. By putting the CrimethInc. tag on our projects, we can avoid
attracting attention to ourselves (and communalize the work we? ve done, offer-
ing credit for it to whomever calls themselves an Ex-Worker), while simultaneously
establishing that the project is part of a larger current of anti-capitalist/anarchist
action. Beyond these practical purposes, CrimethInc. also serves as a sort of pla-
cebo revolutionary organization for those who know that the traditional ? ? revolu-
tionary organization? with all its hierarchy and inertia is a contradiction in terms,
but still feel the urge to associate themselves with an ? ? organization? of some
kind. There? s an undeniable pleasure to be found in secret societies and clandes-
tine plots with CrimethInc., one can indulge in mythmaking to one? s heart? s
delight, without ending up supporting some vanguardist power elite2.
If you? re still interested in becoming a ? ? member? of the ? Collective, now
that you know there is no such thing, here are some steps to take
1. Have your own reasons for being involved, your own ideas of what is
worthwhile about CrimethInc. and what it should do next. No one can be a
CrimethInc. Worker who is still waiting for instructions? that? s what the whole
? ? ex-worker? thing is about, of course. Those who are already active are busy
enough directing their own projects? and, as the poet writes, ? ? To be governed is
tragic. To govern is pathetic.?
2. Be ready to claim responsibility for everything the C.W.C. has done, ever?
especially in the case of tracts and actions that contradict each other. Thinking in
terms of ? ? collectives? (rather than atomized individuals) means that when one of us
acts, she acts on behalf of whatever part of the rest of each of us, however small,
would do the same thing. Rather than fighting over the ? ? right? individual method,
our program must be to find effective ways to integrate our individual actions into
a symbiotic whole. We are all responsible for each other, and for making each other? s
actions into something beneficial this revelation should put an end to the old in-
fighting about who is ? ? most revolutionary,? an end long overdue.
2
? ? The revolutionary organization must be dissolved at the moment of revolution? ? otherwise, it becomes
another vanguard, another authority. For years, I wondered how this could be accomplished? after
all, ? ? revolution? isn? t just one moment, it? s an ongoing process of decentralization and empower-
ment, one therefore always impeded by the existence of ? ? revolutionary? elites . . . and, for that
matter, how does one dissolve the power of a group that has already exercised an influence on
human affairs? Even if the organization is broken up, its legacy will continue to influence the present
for example, the Situationists, who have been contemplated as ? ? authorities on revolution? for de-
cades since their self-annulment. Power, once established, is hard to undo.
The solution finally struck me the way to dissolve the authority of the revolutionary organi-
zation is simply to communalize its powers by extending them to everyone. The greatest resource a
non-hierarchical, largely mythical organization like CrimethInc. has is its reputation if this can be
put at the disposal of all, then the authority CrimethInc. has can be effectively undermined. The
moment of revolution is the dissolution of the revolutionary organization? that is, the appropria-
tion of its resources by everybody