Just out of curiosity, and apropos of nothing, we asked Grok (the AI chatbot created by Elon Musk) the following question: If a president of a superpower wanted to destroy his own country, what steps would he take? Here’s what Grok had to say: If a president of a superpower aimed to deliberately undermine their […]

An ongoing excavation at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii yielded an unusual pair of marble funerary statues. The figures depict a man in a toga and a bejeweled woman, who experts believe may have been a Pompeiian priestess.   Statues Found at Pompeii’s Porta Sarno Necropolis   Archaeologists unearthed the pair of relief […]

Wrong Side of History Newsletter #61

What makes a perfect government? Is it one governed by the wisest people or one that ensures the greatest possible happiness for the largest number of citizens? These questions have fascinated thinkers since ancient times—from Plato and other classical philosophers to John Locke and more recent political theorists. In this article, we will take […]

A complete guide to assembling and employing lockboxes and other means of blockading. There is a broad spectrum of tactics to choose from between simply holding up a protest sign and setting things on fire. If you are looking to intensify a pressure campaign or to stand your ground more effectively when challenged, consider the following options. From the vantage point of 2025, more than two decades after the original version of this guide was published in the book Recipes for Disaster, civil disobedience has become somewhat more dangerous as far-right politicians have put more laws on the books and police and other fascists have become less concerned with preserving human life. Civil disobedience presumes that your adversary is constrained from inflicting permanent harm upon you. In some cases, if you are prepared to get arrested, you may be able to accomplish a great deal more by remaining mobile and risk-tolerant rather than engaging in an activity that is scripted to end in arrest. Nonetheless, there are still many regions and contexts in which the following information will be applicable. Why, Where, How There are many reasons to blockade: to call attention to or prevent an injustice, to support other direct actions by securing a space or creating a distraction, to decrease traffic fatalities. There are many sites that can be blockaded: highways, factory and shopping mall gates, business districts, the front doors of restaurants that are to host corporate dinners or party delegates. Intrepid blockaders can lock themselves to the equipment that is to destroy a forest, or lock authorities out of a building that has been occupied in a political action. One of the most common implements for blockading is the lockbox. A Stop Cop City protester locked down to Brasfield & Gorrie construction equipment in Midtown Atlanta in March 2024. Locking Down with Lockboxes When it comes to blockading, lockboxes can be very useful, assuming that you are not facing adversaries who are willing to do serious harm to you and that you are willing to be arrested. The design described here has been used in many cities, including some in which the police are experts at handling protests—and all the same, it can take police hours to move blockaders who use these devices from a busy street. This is one of the simplest designs; there are many other possibilities. You can make lockboxes with 90-degree angles in them that accommodate both arms of one individual, so one person can comfortably lock down to a gate, a truck axle, or even a railroad track. For serious engagements, you can make big concrete barrels with lockboxes fitted inside them, or dig a hole in the ground and build a vertical one-way lockbox into it with concrete and rebar, or drive a junker car into place, disable it, and lock down to it. Lockdowns can be used to stop movement into and out of an area, providing a spectacle perfect for attracting media or other attention. They can stall traffic to allow support teams to hold an awareness-raising rally, and distribute leaflets to or otherwise engage drivers stuck in traffic. After blockaders are removed from the area, police generally block the area for another hour or more themselves, lengthening the impact of the action. Lockdowns can appeal to the public by showing that people are dedicated enough to put their bodies on the line; they are descended from a long heritage of non-violent civil disobedience that many civilians find less threatening than other brands of direct action. A June 2018 demonstration against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Second Avenue in Seattle. Impeding the actions of heartless mercenaries determined to rend apart communities is a moral duty if there is any such thing. Ingredients Metal or plastic tubing or piping—such as PVC pipe Bolts and nuts—at least one bolt and one nut for each box Chain or rope Carabineers Glue—optional, but encouraged Hacksaw Drill Bolt cutters—optional At least one person ready to put their body on the line Instructions A lockbox is a piece of pipe by which a person can be locked securely to another person or object. The average lockbox accommodates two people; with several lockboxes and people, you can form a human chain. Lockboxes utilize the width of your torso and arm span to take up space. To lock down, you attach yourself to a mechanism inside a piece of pipe; in order for a police officer to unlock you, he would have to get his arm into the pipe as well, but as the pipe fits snugly around your arm, this is impossible. Should police attempt to pull you apart, the strain will be on the metal chain and bolt, not your shoulder joints, assuming your box is built correctly. If you use a carabineer to connect to a bolt within the pipe, you will be able to detach from the box immediately whenever you choose. With lockboxes, a group of people can swiftly move into a space, block it, and defy the efforts of police officers who would remove them. Scouting the Target, Planning the Action1 The first step is to scout the area you want to blockade. There are a wide variety of environments in which you might choose to apply lockboxes, but for the purposes of this introduction, we’ll assume that you will be operating in an urban environment. You could blockade the entrance to an event or business, or an entrance to a tunnel, highway, or access ramp. The first step is to figure out where the traffic—whether it be car, foot, or other—can best be bottlenecked. Often, if you block one street successfully, you can snarl traffic in a large area. Look for streets that lead to main roadways, and watch the traffic patterns. If you are planning to block a road, listen to traffic reports; determine which roads gridlock easily and which roads feed major transportation routes. Note all the details of your target, including the length of traffic lights, which lanes are open at certain times, and which directions the majority of cars turn. Once you have found the location that best serves your purposes, you’ll need to determine how many people it will take to block it. If you have a well-chosen target, but you do not have enough people, traffic will still be able to pass, and you will simply be a nuisance, not a blockade; if you cannot create a “complete circuit” with your human chain, connecting it at either end to immovable points, it may be easy to move you out of the way even if the lockboxes that connect the participants are secure. To measure distances quickly without drawing too much attention to yourself, you can count your steps heel-to-toe across an area, or run string or yarn across it. You’ll also need to take into account the sizes of the lockboxes you are making and the people locking down. If a street is 20 feet wide and your lockboxes are 3 feet long, you’ll probably need five or six people. Plan your formation carefully. If you are locking down in a line, the two people on the ends can be locked to stationary objects—with bicycle U-locks around their necks, for example, or by a less secure means such as chain locks. If you use bicycle locks or any other locks that require keys, have an accomplice on hand to spirit the key away quickly, or be prepared to hide it where it cannot be recovered. For a less durable blockade, you could leave the ends of your formation open and sit or lie down. Alternatively, you could close the formation at both ends, locking down in a circle, or form two lines crossing each other in an X. When planning, take into account the strain of being locked in place for a long period. If the lockboxes are not supported by something, those locked together will quickly be worn out by holding them up. There are also the matters of food and blood circulation to consider. On April 2, 2025, a Jewish-led group of Columbia University students chained themselves to the locked campus gates in solidarity with Palestinian students, demanding that the University provide the names of the trustees who reported Mahmoud Khalil to ICE. Chains may suffice, but a lockbox will usually provide more staying power. Gathering Materials Once you have worked out your plan, the next step is to gather materials. These can be expensive, so look around for places you could acquire them for free. PVC pipe can be found at construction sites; chain can be cut from a locked dumpster; tools can be borrowed or stolen. If you do not want to draw attention, you may prefer to buy the supplies at multiple locations. While purchases of bolts, carabineers, and glue will not attract attention, a septum-pierced revolutionary may raise eyebrows if she brings thirty feet of PVC pipe to the counter. Rumor has it that before and during mass mobilizations, store employees are told to look out for such purchases. Use the same care you would for buying spray paint, crowbars, bolt cutters, or glass etching solution. Do not use a credit card if you do not wish to create a paper trail. Design, Construction, Adaptation, and Fortification Summary: Cut the pipe to the appropriate length. Drill a hole all the way through both walls of the pipe at its midpoint (or thereabouts, depending on the differing armspans of the two who will be using it). Pass a bolt through both holes. Secure the bolt. Cut a length of chain to fit around your wrist and reach up to the bolt. Fasten a carabineer to the chain by which to secure it to the bolt. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the person who will share the lockbox with you. Fortify the lockbox. Constructing lockboxes can be a fun group activity. Make sure the people who are going to use the boxes try them on and modify them according to arm length and other variables. How much of your arm goes inside a lockbox is a matter of preference and tactical strategy, but on average your pipe should be about 4 feet in length. The more of your arm is covered by the PVC pipe, the more of your body is safe from police action. For example, if your bicep is exposed, the police could attempt to use pain compliance there to force you to unlock yourself; if your entire arm is in the pipe, this is impossible. Everyone’s arms are unique. If you are locking down, you need to be able to put your arm far enough into the pipe to grab the bolt, so you can easily connect and disconnect your carabineer. If the people who are to use the box can be present during the construction, measure their arms and custom-fit the pipe. If this is not possible, build the box to a length that almost anyone can use—say, between 3 and 4 feet. If you are using PVC pipe, it can easily be cut with a standard hacksaw. For more long-lasting lockdowns, use more durable piping. It’s important that your pipe be the right diameter; you should be comfortable sliding your arm in at least to your bicep. Unless your arm is especially small or large, the pipe should be between 4 and 6 inches in diameter. After the pipe is cut so that both people who are to use it can put their arms in as far as they want and touch fingers, secure a bolt at the point where their fingers touch. The length of the bolt should be longer than the diameter of the pipe; if you use 5 inch pipe, make sure your bolt is at least 5.5 inches. Stay away from bolts with sharp threads or a sharp point on one end, unless you are prepared to modify them for safety and comfort. Your bolt should be thick and difficult to cut; it will probably be the weakest link in the chain, so you’ll want to make sure it’s as secure as possible. Drill a hole all the way through one wall of the pipe and out the other. If you have to drill the top hole first and then flip the pipe to drill the bottom hole, make sure the holes line up! Put the bolt through both holes. It should be slightly off-center in the pipe, so the people locking to it can fit their fingers around it and have space for their knuckles. Now use nuts to secure it in place; these can go inside the pipe, or outside it, or both. You can use powerful glue to strengthen the bolt; better yet, if you have the means, weld it into place. You could include multiple bolts in your design, to make it harder for the police to know where to start. If you have more than one bolt, you can also experiment with attaching yourself to all of them. Now you have to build the chain bracelet that secures you to the bolt inside the pipe. Cut a length of chain that can loop around your wrist at one end, and attach at the other end around the bolt in the pipe; it will be in the shape of a P. Experiment with chain length until you have a comfortable fit. Make the clasp that holds the chain around your wrist permanent and durable; use a carabineer to clasp the chain around the bolt, so you are able to unclasp from the lock box in an emergency. Attaching the chain to the central bolt with a carabineer is a very secure and safe option, but there are others. For a simpler, though weaker, variation, skip the central bolt entirely and run a length of chain through the tube to attach your wrist to the wrist of your partner. This option might be useful if you have limited time and funding to prepare for the action. A benefit of the central bolt is that when you are pulled, the bolt absorbs some of the force, and gripping it can provide some control; if you are connected to another person by a chain directly, and one of you is pulled or dragged, both of you will bear the brunt of it. Once the device is assembled, the holes drilled, the bolt secured, and the chain attached, make sure it all fits comfortably. Put some padding around the chain at your wrist, and pad the entrance to the tube if need be. If nothing else, wrap the chain in an old sock or two, and sand down the edges of the pipe to prevent it from cutting your arm. The final step is to fortify your creation. Many police departments now understand how lockboxes are constructed and know how to disassemble them. This does not mean locking down is ineffective, since it still takes the police time to react, retrieve the necessary tools, and cut apart each lockbox; but it is worth brainstorming about how to stay ahead of their technology. The police are likely to try to cut the pipe to expose your hand and the carabineer, or attack the box at the bolt. Consider ways to slow this process. You could wrap the lockbox in materials that dull saw blades, for example, or wind layers of duct tape and wire around it, or cover it in viscous tar and sand, or weld rebar armor to it—or do all of these! The more layers of material that require different forms of cutting technology, the better.2 For heavy lockboxes that can anchor you in place, you could put a layer of concrete around your pipe, and a layer of plastic or aluminum drain tubing around that. A police officer attempting to cut through a lockbox. Practice and Transport After all of the boxes are constructed, practice locking in and out of them. Do this alone until you have it down, then try it with a partner, locking at once into both sides of a box. Before an action, practice for speed and organization with everyone who will be involved, so things will go smoothly on the big day. To prevent confusion, you can label each end of each lockbox, and plan out which direction each person will face and the order in which people will lock together. It can help to have individuals involved who do not actually lock down on the line; not only can they help get things together quickly at the beginning, they can also provide food and water to the people who cannot move their arms, and help deal with police and others. It can be a challenge to get all the lockboxes to the site of the lockdown. You could hide them nearby in advance, or bear them there in a march, disguised as puppets or banners. If you have access to a car, you can use it to drop off all the lockboxes at the very moment your group suddenly converges at the chosen site. If you are doing a long blockade line, you have access to several cars, and speed is of the essence, pairs of blockaders could lock together in vehicles before driving to the area, then all be dropped off at the site and link up in a matter of seconds. A large group of people walking any distance with bulky lockboxes will probably attract the wrong kind of attention, especially if the authorities are on the lookout for civil disobedience, but you could come up with clever ways to camouflage them in a pinch. As in all blockading, if you are blocking a road or highway that is in use, it is crucial to stop traffic first. This can most easily be accomplished by another group working in concert with those who lock down; it is a lot to ask of a small group that they stop traffic, then lock themselves together properly while holding it at bay. Angry drivers can be even more dangerous than police under these circumstances; be careful not to give them the opportunity to do anything stupid. Once You’re Locked Together The people who have come with you to play supporting roles can complement your blockade with a rally, street party, or outreach event. If you are blocking a street, there will be drivers to witness street theater or receive pamphlets; if you’re blocking the entrance to an official event, there may be reporters to record you issuing your statement. Either way, there will be curious passersby who deserve to be told more about what’s going on and why, and perhaps to be entertained in the bargain. If your lockdown is going to create a traffic jam, and you are concerned that the action might be misinterpreted as an attack on civilian drivers, consider distributing peace offerings of some kind. Those locking down can be dressed in symbolic or expressive garb or draped in a banner explaining the reason for the action. If your human chain is not connected to anything at the ends, you could conceivably move from one point to another while locked together, but this will not be easy or particularly safe. If you are planning on moving at all, you should practice in advance, and perhaps designate coordinators to talk everyone through certain movements or count off marching steps. Whether you expect this to be an issue or not, it is wise to prepare a basic communication and decision-making structure in advance, if there are more than a couple of you planning to lock down together. Police Reactions, Legal Consequences Ultimately, there is no way to predict for sure how the police will react, so there is probably little to be gained spending hours debating it in your group. It is important to have a police liaison present to negotiate with the authorities or at least make sure they understand the situation, and reporters or other witnesses to temper or at least document their behavior. If they start to do something that seems dangerous, calmly inform them that your arm is inside the tube and that you are unable to remove it, and that a team of crack lawyers eagerly awaits the chance to sue them into oblivion. Police will always try to intimidate you; call their bluff while maintaining your composure. They may use pepper spray or similar weapons on you, but this could cost them a lot in the public eye, especially if you bear this persecution courageously. If your line is anchored at each end, they may begin by trying to disengage the people in the anchoring roles. If they can move the entire line out of the way and work on you once you are no longer blocking traffic, they probably will, but this will be difficult if you are seated or supine. If they can’t move you all, they will work lockbox by lockbox, cutting the line into smaller, more moveable sections. The method the police use to cut you out will depend on how experienced they are. No police department wants a lawsuit, so they will probably try not to injure you. If you hide the location of the central bolt, they will have no way of knowing where your hands are inside the tube; this will prevent them from simply cutting the tube in half. Often, the police will call in the fire department to use special tools designed for removing people from wreckage. Last time I locked down, the police brought special wooden frames to support our PVC pipe lockboxes, then slowly dismantled the boxes with wire cutters, saws, and various other tools. It is also difficult to predict what your charges will be when you are arrested at the end of your lockdown. In the past, at least, the charge was often “incommoding,” the same charge associated with blocking a street or similar conduit with one’s body. The use of lockboxes is not a separate crime, though the police may make threats or try to tack on additional charges such as “possession of implements of crime” (PIC). In both the lockdowns in which I participated, the police told us that because we used the lockboxes we would be charged with an additional PIC offense, but of course, as police are wont to do, they were lying. PVC pipe, chain, and carabineers are not implements of crime, no matter how you slice it. In multiple cases in the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta in 2024, demonstrators who locked down were repeatedly charged with misdemeanor trespassing, but when two activists climbed a crane at a Brasfield & Gorrie construction site and locked themselves in place, a prosecutor charged them with “False Imprisonment,” a felony kidnapping charge. Absurdly, the police claimed that the crane operator—who was on the ground the entire time—was “unable to leave” due to the activists suspended 250 feet above him. In any case, you should have a group ready to provide immediate legal support. Barricades and blockades have a storied history in labor struggles in the United States. In this illustration, police officers face off with striking streetcar employees in New York City on March 4, 1886. Committing to a lockdown is a serious matter. You must be prepared for the ordeal of interacting with infuriated police officers over a protracted period of time, while being unable to move freely. This will be followed by the further ordeal of being arrested and spending time in jail. Embark on a lockdown in a state of inner peace and resolve, properly fed and hydrated, prepared to weather storms of danger and drama—and if you think you might be there for a long time, wear an adult diaper! Other Blockading Methods There are many other ways to create blockades. The most traditional is to build a barricade. An individual who desires to lock herself to something or someone can do so by putting a bicycle U-lock around her neck, though this requires the same support infrastructure that a traditional lockdown does. Extremely experienced and prepared groups can build tripods and suspend individuals from them, taking the civil disobedience of lockdowns to another level. Dirt roads can be blockaded by digging ditches across them; fencing, metal or wood poles, cables supporting such poles, or other materials can be planted in them, too.3 If police become anxious or confused enough, they may block off an area for you. A barricade at la ZAD in France. When blockading a busy thoroughfare, it is important to slow traffic to a safe speed first. A bicycling group could slow to a stop, becoming a blockade in itself and offering the opportunity for more permanent blockading to take place. Old bicycles, perhaps outfitted with extra metal, could be locked together and abandoned as a blockade at the conclusion of a bicycle ride. It is possible to set off the automatic arms of railroad crossings by using jumper cables to complete the circuit between little trigger wires on the tracks. Individuals dressed as construction workers can put out traffic cones and barrels and wave down cars; for that matter, giving drivers a spectacle of any kind to stare at will slow them down. A banner drop over a busy highway can slow traffic significantly, potentially creating a traffic jam which might itself constitute a blockade of sorts—nothing obstructs cars like more cars! Speaking of cars, you can drive old junker cars into place and disable them; better yet if you managed to buy them with cash from people who won’t remember anything useful about you if the authorities come asking. They can be loaded with barricading material, ready to be deployed wherever they end up; people can even lock down to them.4 Once traffic is slowed or stopped, you can stretch cables or fencing across highways and affix it to telephone poles, light posts, or guardrails. Don’t forget that quick-drying concrete can effectively seal many gates and other means of access. Mixing nuts and bolts or other material into it can make it more durable. For a humorous effect in a low-risk environment, you could brick up the door of an office or business. Pick a quiet night, so the mortar will have enough time to dry. When blocking off both ends of a street or bridge, make sure you leave an exit. You don’t want to let traffic in, but you also don’t want to trap civilians—or yourself. Always make sure that you are not blocking access to a hospital or similar establishment. Ecuador. A supposedly unstoppable force meets an actually immovable object. “Let your tears freeze to stones we can hurtle from catapults.” Account In winter 2003, before the second Gulf War began, people were carrying out direct action all across the globe in an attempt to stop the war before it started and to connect the impending invasion of Iraq to the larger war that capitalism wages everywhere. Direct actions in New York City and San Francisco had shut down the Holland Tunnel and Financial District, respectively, and other protests were also making headlines. Anarchists and other direct action enthusiasts in Washington, DC were organizing regular actions while trying to prepare a plan to carry out as soon as the bombs started falling on Iraq. Our theme was “When the War Starts, America Stops.” We put out fliers calling for an “Emergency Response Direct Action—the Morning After War on Iraq Starts.” People who wanted to participate on bikes could show up for a “Race Against War” in Dupont circle; at the same time, people who wanted to participate on foot would head to the other side of town for a “March of Resistance” at the Eastern Market Metro stop. We also put out a call for groups to carry out actions on their own to further disrupt business as usual throughout the city. We had organized a lot of direct actions in DC over the preceding few years. The state was usually aware when there’s going to be a lot of protest activity, and the police presence would be really intense. Given this atmosphere, just meeting up for a protest without being shut down from the start could be really difficult. To account for this, we came up with a complicated plan like nothing we’d done before. We would use the city’s public transportation system and the fact that Washington, DC is wedged between two different states to our advantage. The march started in southeast DC, near the US Capitol. But instead of the march taking to the streets of that area, a typical setting for DC protests, the crowd was led down into the subway station. We handed out different colored slips of paper corresponding to the colors of the flags participants were to follow onto different cars of the same subway train. The people leading the groups into the different cars were responsible for making sure no one got separated from the protest and that everyone made it to the correct stop. On the train, people sang, chanted, had conversations with commuters, and passed out fliers about why we were there. A lot of folks in DC ride the train to work at that hour, so it was a good opportunity to take our message directly to many people. You can disable cars and trucks quickly and easily by using a stick to push a large raw potato into the exhaust pipe and out of sight. This technique can baffle even skilled mechanics. Once the potato is removed the automobile will work again. After the train crossed the river into Virginia, the various color-coded groups were instructed to exit at the Roslyn stop, a short walk from the Key Bridge. The Key Bridge is a main artery between DC and Virginia; it serves as the entrance to Georgetown, one of Washington’s wealthiest and most upscale shopping districts and also full of targets which could be related to the war. In addition, the Metro stop was only a few short blocks from the offices of the Boeing Corporation, another possible target with obvious connections to the war. As the march headed toward the Key Bridge on the Virginia side, the Critical Mass ride was weaving its way through the DC streets to meet the march on the DC side of the bridge. We hoped that this would enable us to block the bridge effectively from both sides, bringing business as usual to a halt, focusing attention on the war that had begun only hours before. To add to the display of resistance and accompany our actions with precise and pointed messaging, other affinity groups, separate from the march and bike ride, brought banners to the bridge and hung them up around the main intersections while still other groups handed out fliers detailing our reasons for shutting down the bridge and explaining our opposition to the war. Two drivers sat in junker cars near the bridge on the Virginia and DC sides, waiting for the word that the march and bike ride were nearing so they could get into place. When they learned that the march was coming, both cars drove out and stopped and parked at the DC side of the bridge. Originally, there was to be a car on each side, but the police presence on the Virginia side of the bridge, combined with the landscape of the area, made it seem very unlikely that a driver who had to abandon a car there would be able to make a successful getaway. The drivers parked their cars at an angle to take up as many lanes as possible, hopped out, moved to remove the license plates that had enabled them to drive around safely, and ran like hell to get away. Unfortunately, there were hundreds of cops on the DC side of the bridge, some of whom immediately began chasing one of the drivers. They eventually caught up to him, punched him a couple of times, and threw him in the back of a paddy wagon. They also picked up one of the scouts who was doing communications on the bridge, mistaking her for the guy who had been driving the other car. In custody, she heard over the radio that the cops had realized their mistake. They suddenly opened the doors to the police van, saying, “Get out, we don’t want to deal with you right now”—and let both people go! Three people were arrested on the Virginia side of the bridge. We had a bail fund and legal support team ready to go to get them out. They were out in a couple of hours, and thanks to the coordination of the National Lawyers Guild and DC’s local direct action legal collective, a local lawyer took the cases for free. Let’s back up and talk about how we put this together. This action posed several organizing challenges because we did not know when the war would start. Because of that, we took steps to ensure that we had all the needed action roles sorted out weeks in advance. We even had understudies for some of the roles, in case certain people happened to be unavailable the day we needed to carry out the action. In the planning for the action, we secured two junker cars to help stop traffic from reaching the bridge. The two cars, one of which was a minivan, were also loaded up with big scraps of wood and metal (including a bed frame), chains, and locks that would be used to form barricades that would fill in the areas around the cars. In the vicinity of the site of the action, there were also road signs and other construction-related barricades that could have pulled into the street. The plan was for an affinity group in the march to open up the cars and pull out all the materials to set up the barricades—but it happened that the folks who were going to do this were tied up on the other side of the bridge by a heavy police presence. By the time they got near the cars, the police had blocked them off and made them inaccessible. In addition to getting drivers for the vehicles and people to assist in building the blockades, we secured volunteers for several other key roles. We had a loop of communications people within the bike ride, the march, and on the bridge as scouts, as well as folks on site in advance to check for any early police presence. Cell phones were used to insure the simultaneous arrival of both the march and the Critical Mass ride. We also had a couple of people set to lead the various risk levels of the march: those who couldn’t risk arrest followed one color flag to a support rally across the street, while those who could engage in blocking the street followed another. While our ultimate goal was for no one to be arrested, we wanted to make sure that those for whom arrest was not an option were able to participate as well, and to feel comfortable participating. Action medics and legal observers accompanied the march, and the variety of roles allowed for those who could not engage directly in the blockades to play an equally active and important part. This plan was largely organized in public, so the police presence awaiting us was unavoidable. Only a handful knew the full details of where we would end up, but unfortunately that must have been leaked. Had we done a better job of keeping the target a secret, we might have had more time to get things in place. On the other hand, the bridge we picked is one of the main entrances to the city, so it might have had a large police presence regardless. However, the bridge was completely shut down for about 30 minutes, and partially shut down and made into a spectacle for hours after that. It was a nasty day, cold and pouring rain. The action didn’t entirely go as planned—the idea was to shut down both ends of the bridge and have a street party against the war in the middle. Instead, the police cleared all of us from the bridge pretty quickly. But it was shut down, our message against the war and business as usual was all over the news, and the action clearly affected the morning commute to work. In addition, we gained useful experience for our future endeavors. A barricade in Lebanon. Further Reading “Lock-Ons, Devices, Tree-Sits, and More” by the Direct Action Movement Subsequent to the original publication of this guide in the book Recipes for Disaster, the Swedish d-beat band Auktion took this section title for the title of their hit song of the same name—a dream come true for any anarchist publisher. ↩ For example, barbed wire need not only appear in your life as an obstacle; you can also apply it yourself to obstruct the movements of your foes. ↩ You can heat rocks in a fire and use them to blockade a road or thoroughfare. Use porous rocks, as nonporous rocks will simply explode, and be sure to identify them for everyone’s safety. For the sake of convenience, you could set the fire, rocks within it, at the location to be blockaded, so as not to have to work out how to move them. ↩ When puncturing tires, aim for the sidewall; if you want to be sure the spare won’t help, you can puncture at least two of them. You can also use a pocket-size valve stem remover to disable tires without puncturing them. ↩