Help on Direct Action against WalMart construction

[Ricardo]

alright, well i live in a town of like 9,000 people. A company which pretty much owns the town is planning on making a 400,000 + square foot "mega mall", including a Super Wal Mart. So, i'm against it, along with a lot of people in the town. Signs are on many people's lawn, town meetings are being held often, people are talking about it. I haven't really heard anyone that wants it, but it seems as if it will be built.

So i need some tips on what i should do, i mean direct action, sabotage, etc. Any help would be nice, thanks

[Forward Union]

Oh beautiful, this is a perfect oppertunity. :D

My advice, based on experience with this sort of thing is as follows.

I suspect that a majority of the opposition comes from liberal fluffy "not in my back yard" type individuals. Obviously their politics shouldn't be too important in this specific situation, they're working class people resisting capitalist expansion, so they're taking up their natural role!

Obviously the tactical proposals for stopping this are going to be awful, letter writing, petitions, telling the local paper. As a class conscious, and revolutionary minded individual, your goal should be to deepen and radicalise the opposition.

The most important bit of advice I think you could possibly get, is; do not reveal your politics. You don't need to. And it will probably make them pigeon hole all your suggestions from then on, pushing you to the fringes of decision making.

You know that their fluffy tactics wont work, but they don't. In order to appear as a normal citizen, with the same interests as the rest of the opposition, I would push myself to the forefront of their fluffy activism. Round up as many signatures as possible, volunteer to write to the papers, talk to the local politicians, everything - essentially to get street cred. And when all that doesn't work, be the first one to point it out.

And from there, suggest more direct action. You will have, by then, the appearance of a dedicated individual, on the same frequency as the locals and be in a good position to make such suggestions. You wont be the red flag waving nutter who turned up to cause trouble.

Remember, radicalising the people is far more important than stopping the wallmart from being built. If the campaign fails, it'll only serve to show the reality of capitalism, which is a far better recruiting tool than any amount of leafleting.

Best of luck mate

[bcbm]

Mixing a large amount of salt in concrete will make the concrete crumble when set.

Sugar in the gas tanks of building machines will fuck them up pretty bad.

Gluing locks and breaking the windows on construction companies, as well as stealing all of their documents including building plans, makes operating as normal rather difficult.

Ripping out surveying stakes (depending on the level of development) is costly and time-consuming, as those need to be re-mapped.

Not that I would ever encourage any of this, it is all educational information based on scientific observation, not intended for actual use.

[Tiparith]

Urban Spirit has the right idea and if you follow it correctly and remember to not use words like proletartariat and left-wing you'l be fine. As well, if it comes to it I highly suggest getting together with a chemistry student and going through the Anarchist's Cookbook to see what works and what doesn't. Not that such things should ever be used, but its good info to know.

[bcbm]

You should never use the Anarchist's Cookbook for anything. Its CIA disinfo.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

Yeah Anarchist Cookbook is bullshit, but you're bang on about getting together with a half-decent chemistry student, it's actually amazing what we're taught in bourgeois institutions. (One word: nitrates.)

[An archist]

First of all: Urban spirit's advice
Second off all: Don't trust the anarchist cookbook

Now, If you want to go for radical actions, you can go overt and/or covert.
Overt would be stuff like rallies and occupying the construction site.
Covert actions would be destroying the building material. I do not think you should do this at all.
The best ways of sabotage are sabotaging the most expensive things on the site. Usually this means the cranes, bulldozers, trucks, ... Sugar in the tank works well, but a better way is to mix salt water with sand and put it in the gas tank/oil supply.
However, the overt actions will probably be more effective, so yet again, don't do illegal stuff.

EDIT: oh and don't go paranoid, but even harmless peace groups with mostly senior citizens have been known to be infiltrated.

[Ricardo]

alright,thanks everyone, but what do you guys think would be more effective, the overt resistance or covert?

[whoknows]

please sam this. upon closer reading you didn't need my input and I don't know how to delite a posting.

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by [email protected] 15, 2007 12:10 am
alright,thanks everyone, but what do you guys think would be more effective, the overt resistance or covert?
If your goal is just to stop the wallmart being built then the most effective thing to do would be to detonate the construction a day before completion.

But that's a pointless victory without public support, as I said, even if the thing is built in the end, which I wager it will be, if you can radicalise the community and increase their class conciousness, then you have a sucess.

Go the overt, 'legitimate' route for now, and move onto the direct.