Austin Autonomedia: Keeping Austin Criminal
Strolling down the thumping, plastered downtown streets that SXSW treat as its campus, you are likely to have a free can of “C4” shoved in your face. This energy drink named after an explosive is the perfect symbol of what the festival-conference has to offer: a cloying and too seamless blend of brand consciousness, work cultism, consumerist reverie, and militarism. The can is a bomb lobbed at you– but one you are meant to gleefully let blow you up to improve your status and efficacy within the capitalist-imperialist project.
Watching Southby’s lanyard wearing throng drink down these noxious narratives left us with a seething desire to knock the can out of their hands, to shout the truth to the heavens, to shake some sense into the world around us. And so we did.
Whether answering SmashXSmashWest’s call for Divestment and Disruption or following their own paths, autonomous crews of protesters, revolutionaries, and hooligans made their presence known downtown last week, ripping through layers of self-congratulatory spectacle to reveal the conference’s deep cynicism, moral bankruptcy, and harmful consequences within Austin and far beyond. Here are the interventions we know about.
DIVESTMENTS & DISRUPTION
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY DAY AND NIGHT
Beyond the already nauseating presence of military industry at the conference, the US military’s “Super Sponsoring” an “entertainment fair” while it abets ethnic cleansing in Palestine is infuriating and scandalous. Just days after the SmashBy call dropped, Austin For Palestine Coalition put out their own “War Profiteers Out of SXSW” call to action that included an email campaign and flyers for use in disruptions. In the week or two leading up to SouthBy, these calls quickly gained traction and thrust the Military presence into the spotlight. 100 artists cancelled their official showcases, and many others that didn’t went on to make statements of solidarity, sometimes in lieu of their performances. The military presence became the hotly contested issue of the week, and with so many participants in the war machine from across the state to corporate spectrum present, opportunities abounded for action. A relay of affinity group actions and mass gatherings seized these opportunities, storming high-traffic sites at SXSW to put pressure on this partnership.
A“SHUT DOWN SXSW” rally spearheaded by Austin’s Party for Socialism and Liberation took the downtown streets on opening night with numbers and energy. Despite making four gratuitously violent arrests, the cops failed to halt or disperse the march as it took 6th Street. The group rallied in front of the Capital Factory in the Omni Hotel, which hosted a wide range of military innovation events throughout the week. Out front, a group performed a version of “un violador en tu camino,” a Chilean feminist protest performance adapted for the Palestinian liberation struggle by INCITE-Paliforce .
According to a national press release from INCITE, actions were carried out in Austin, Dallas, Denver, NYC, and San Francisco. A reportback from the Austin demonstration reads:
This year at SXSW the US Department of “Defense” is a super sponsor. Today, on International Women’s Day and 152 days into Israel’s latest genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza, we call out the militarization of SXSW and make clear that feminized bodies are never safe in the presence of state sponsored colonial and capitalist violence!
At the opening of the festival, we disrupt the warmongers and their infiltration of SXSW – the US military, Raytheon, BAE, Collins, the war contractors and the tech industries that support the surveillance, targeting, and murder – Amazon, Google, IBM, HP. We know that state violence and sexual violence are inextricably linked and that growing surveillance and the normalization of war will NOT keep us safe. As feminists of color in the belly of the beast, we must stop the US war machine.
If, later that weekend, you found yourself staring up at Tau Ceti, the Brazos St. mural depicting a transfixing spectrum of colors, you may have noticed fliers and cards billowing down from the sky. Or perhaps you were at the “Boundary Breakers” event by Collins Aerospace at Method Three and saw the flyers raining down while disruptors shouted from above. The flyers read “SXSW SUPPORTS GENOCIDE,” and called attention to Raytheon and other arms manufacturing companies holding court downtown. One brief statement from a crew, posted to the SmashBy socials, read:
“SXSW has become a networking festival for genocidal actors to spread technologies of violence. Many who attend SXSW are unaware of its ties to the military and weapons manufacturers. As people who live in this city, we feel compelled to spread awareness that this festival comes at the cost of genocide.”
These actions are no doubt how some passersby learned for the first time that Southby invites war profiteers to network and recruit in Austin. For others, these were a reminder that they aren’t alone in the disgust, disappointment, and rage. We can only hope a passing Raytheon employee slipped on and cracked their head on the curb.
Disruptions continued into the week. One group held a Ceasefire Now banner in front of the Paramount Theater, which hosted the SXSW Film Festival. We could not find a group that specifically claimed credit for it. A contingent from Jewish Voice for Peace weaved their way through the Creative Industries Expo and all the way to the US Army’s showroom stall with a banner reading “SXSW RUNS ON GENOCIDE.”
Military sponsorship of a music festival is a classic fascist move. Who would dare bring down the mood with tough questions when there are big acts to go see? How could empire be in decline if arts and entertainment are thriving? A sizeable demonstration (attend by close to sixty artists who pulled out of the festival) outside the Department of Defense stage struck to the heart of this exploitative tactic in a powerful show of solidarity.
Originally planning two separate rallies, the Austin for Palestine Coalition and the United Musicians and Allied Works joined forces to demand the festival both divest from all entities enabling genocide in Palestine as well as increase the paltry compensation musicians have tolerated from Southby for years. The message that the political, the economic, and the artistic are ever entwined was hard to ignore, attracting local media and drawing ire from Greg Abbott online, which in turn forced SXSW to acknowledge the controversy. Toothless and evasive as Southby’s statement on the matter was, their response nonetheless marks an unsightly crack in the neon illusion that they depend on to function.
ANDRE DICKENS SHUT DOWN
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens–under whose administration Cop City is still being built in the Weelaunee Forest, forest defenders have been charged as organized criminals, and police murdered demonstrator Tortuguita in cold blood–arrived at SXSW to speak on a panel concerning the struggles “progressive” Democratic mayors face in Republican-governed states.
No sooner did Dickens open his mouth than he was interrupted by someone in the crowd pointing out the hypocrisy of sitting on this panel while collaborating with Georgia governor Brian Kemp on Cop City. Dickens attempted to ignore and equivocate, but some ten more protesters rose from the seats in unison, shouting over him, calling to Stop Cop City and completely blocking the view of the stage with a banner. Having completely lost control of the event, conference staff escorted Dickens out into the hallway of the downtown Hilton, where a half dozen more protestors greeted them. Dickens and his entourage were chased down the hallway all the way to the stairs, the halls of the Hilton filled with chants of “Viva Viva Tortuguita,” “Free Jack” and “Stop Cop City.” While it was reported that the other three panelists returned for some abbreviated discussion, no one remained to sanitize Dickens’ ongoing deadly collusion with the cops and the state, and none of them mentioned their colleague who had been run from the building.
RALLY AGAINST SB4
In 2017, a bizarre contractual clause raised eyebrows among artists invited to perform at SXSW. Prohibited from playing any unofficial shows during their visit to Austin, it stated that any international musicians found in violation risked being reported to the “appropriate U.S. immigration authorities.” Not unlike its alliance with the military today, this was a mask-off moment for Southby, an entity far more concerned with control than culture.
It’s thus fitting that while the Homeland Security collaborationists put on their festival, friends and families from across Texas assembled in Austin to demand the repeal of SB4 and an end to Operation Lone Star. Hundreds marched from City Hall to the Capitol, where the event was punctuated by impressive performances from indigenous dancers and large-scale puppeteers. While we always encourage Austin protesters to break away from expected downtown targets like the Capitol, the movement to prevent local police from acting as border enforcers is only gaining momentum, with SB4 having been suspended in appellate court as of the time of writing.
LOVEBIRDS
On March 12th, one disruptive event transcended the dichotomy between shows & actions that defined much of the week. Flying under the radar as an “BIPOC/LGBTQIA Unofficial Showcase,” a SmashBy showcase took place at Lovebirds–a gentrifier bar on E. Cesar Chavez. Instead of the indie-pop atmosphere implied by the aesthetics of the flyer, the bar was taken over during happy hour by harsh noise and grindcore. A crowd of 50 punks & freaks milled around the spot, scaring away the typical patrons and SouthBy crowds passing by. The management, caught off guard by the show, was seen scrambling to assure potential customers that “it’s not always like this,” and to remove art from the walls for fear of its destruction.
The crowd was overall tame, with only a small mosh pit forming early in the show. Some members of the audience found the bathroom too pristine for their appearance and redecorated with markers in order to fit the aesthetic quality of the grungier venues they are familiar with. Before the last set, the political message of the show was made clear as the crowd was led in chants of “Smash South By South West” “Black/Brown/Poor People Used to Live Here” and “Fire, Fire, Gentrifier!” A raucously good time was had by all at the expense of Lovebirds and its patrons.
SIDE SHOWS
Parallel to the circuit of DIY shows and activist-led protests, another world of conflictual activity was running wild through the week: the takeover crews.
This world of rowdy kids take over parking lots and streets with shows where they can show off their cars, do tricks like donuts & burnouts, and evade or fight the cops. The takeovers caused a huge uproar amongst politicians and liberals over a year ago when a particularly rowdy night took over the intersection of Barton Springs and chased off the cops who responded with fireworks and projectiles. Subsequently, even nominally progressive politicians came out demanding a harsher police crackdown. The State responded, with the legislature passing laws enabling the impounding of cars involved in takeovers, and collaborative investigation between DPS & APD leading to dozens of arrests and pre-emptive shutdowns of subsequent takeovers.
Despite the repression, the takeovers have continued with new crews and new accounts popping up to organize them. Takeovers took place Friday, Saturday, & Sunday night on both the first and second weekend of SmashBy, in locations ranging from industrial parks in North & Southeast Austin, to frontage roads out in Manor, to parking lots in front of department stores across the city. These takeovers didn’t reach the size and intensity of those from last February, and opted for evasion over confrontation with the police, cars scattering when cops arrived and regrouping at another announced location. Across the nights the takeovers stayed ahead of the police response, which seemed to be caught on the back foot and under-resourced to actually catch any substantial number of participants. We do not know of any arrests during either of these weekends of takeovers.
The takeovers are not political in the proper activist sense. They’re not part of an organization, they don’t make demands or have a stated ideology, and aren’t trying to recruit for some campaign. However, they are organized, have strategic intelligence, and are an expression of conflictual subcultures that challenge aspects of social order. The crews used the opportunity opened up by SXSW well, staying away from the city core and having their fun at a time when the police resources are already stretched to their limit. The movement of locations outmaneuvered the police’s ability to predict them, sometimes traveling back and forth across the city to scatter the police’s ability to coordinate a response. Taking over industrial parks, parking lots, and streets opened up unauthorized uses of public space, hacking the hostile urban architecture of cars & roads into a tool for agile action and joy.
Including the takeovers in this roundup isn’t an attempt to equate them with other activist endeavors or treat them as unproblematic exemplars of radicalism. But it recognizes that these side shows were expressions of a current of rebellious joy that made use of the opportunities presented in the week, living up to the invitation in the SmashBy call. Revolutionaries would do well to pay attention to these groups and consider what sorts of tactics could be circulated and links built across subcultures, without attempting to incorporate the takeovers into the world & logic of activism. Maybe, if they pay attention, more activists can learn from some of the strategic intelligence exhibited by these crews, particularly regarding the geography of power beyond the city center, and the possibilities enabled by highly mobile, dispersed action.
A SMASHING GOOD TIME: SHOWS, TEACH-INS, AND SKILLSHARES
Far from the belly of the beast, a parallel conference-festival brought communities across Austin together for music and learning. The SmashxSmashWest calendar was packed with performances by over 100 bands from near and far – as many as withdrew from SXSW to protest its military sponsorship. The menu of shows ranged from day parties by bookers like Howdy Gals to DIY punk shows and renegade raves. There were many evenings of SmashBy where one was confronted by having many options, sometimes conflicting, for what to go to, producing an unexpected sense of FOMO.
Seminars and workshops under the Smashby banner touched on topics ranging from queer youth liberation to gentrification and environmental racism to the restorative power of interpersonal conflict. Conversations around trans health autonomy, the autonomous hackerspace, and the healthy conflict workshop brought together new people to share conversations around their needs, desires, & capabilities. In the shadow of the spectacle that is SXSW, we can notice a slow growth of networks and skills coming out of SmashBy.
You can find resources from the trans health autonomy mixer & the conflict workshop in the SmashBy public Proton Drive
On the first day of SmashBy, community members gathered at a potluck where they wrote 10 letters and raised $100 for Atlanta forest defender Jack Mazurek, who remains incarcerated following recent retaliation against Cop City activists. The local Weelaunee Defense Society chapter tabled at SmashBy events through the week and raised $500 for the Tucson Anti-Repression Committee to support activists arrested during the recent Nationwide Summit Against Cop City in Tucson. A show at Four Fountains hosted screenings and materials from ATX Barrio Archive, a community archive highlighting the histories of life & resistance among working class Black & Brown East Austinites. Falasteen Street Museum took over City Hall Plaza for the week with art, panels on the history of Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonization, film screenings, performances by artists (many of whom had dropped their SXSW showcases), and more.
At the end of the week, A benefit event at Monkeywrench Books raised over $400 to support two antifascists from North Texas, Chris G. and Aeshna. The two were arrested during an action defending a drag show from a protest by the christo-fascist New Columbia Movement; at the action, the police rampaged and targetted antifascists. Since then, the pair have faced constant stonewalling by the prosecutors, harassment by federal investigators, and a lawsuit by the New Columbia Movement. These moves are clear attempts to intimidating resistance to fascism & queer exterminationism, with movements by the State & extra-state fascist actors going hand in hand. A statement from Chris was read out to the crowd, which invokes a spirit of hope and connects it to struggles from Weelaunee to Gaza
CONCLUSION: CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES
Shortly before the week started, we at Austin Autonomedia launched our own challenge & bingo sheet. A surprising amount was crossed off the list. Many of the challenges offered were not met, but other limits we didn’t mention were pushed through. So how did the first SmashBy stack up? What were the missed opportunities, limits, & challenges? What is possible now, and what new horizons could be opened up for next year?
Few of our friends, and even fewer of our enemies, could have expected SmashXSmashWest to pop off the way it did this year, with only 3 weeks between the launching of the call and the start of SXSW. It appears the SmashBy call truly found its moment, and hit on a current of antagonism to SXSW which, combined with the hostility to the US Army and Palestine solidarity activity, was bound to explode. More people broke out of the tired roles of Instagram spectator-commentator or body in a crowd in an inspiring show of autonomous, self-organized activity.
SmashBy’s strength was its ability to spread mimetically, with little coordination or infrastructure needed as it spread through social media and found people to answer its call. This mimetic strategy was limited in effect. While it could circulate ideas & proposals, it could not provide the infrastructure, coordination, or initiative for people to act on them. Planning for actions beyond the city core would likely require some fore-thought and a group dedicated to carrying it out. Deeper connections and collaborations could push the limits of both the art and protest scenes. More coordination could bring in new groups & spaces into the week of action. The kind of infrastructure that could support organizers from across the country to come for SmashBy would require even higher levels of coordination and planning.
All of these things must happen in the realm of direct connections & relationships, not through Instagram story. Such mediums are limited in what they can give us, and are always fragile. We know that SXSW threatened Austin for Palestine Coalition and reported a SmashBy post for trademark infringement; had the SmashBy Instagram been suspended, it would have cut off the means to communicate information about the week. To increase the resilience and capacities of the networks that are forming, we must find ways to communicate to each other directly, build our networks rather than our follower counts, and not be reliant on hostile social media infrastructure. [To that end, you can follow Austin Autonomedia’s mailing list here]
[Edit 4/17: After publication, it was reported that the SmashXSmashWest Instagram was reported and suspended on behalf of SXSW, adding renewed relevance and to this point. You can still follow SmashBy on Twitter, and any updates we receive about future SmashBy activities will be posted to our mailing list as well.]
The call to action was effective because it spoke to both the political and art scenes. The art & music scene was especially receptive to the call to autonomous activity, which resonated with a pervasive DIY ethos. These SmashBy showcases provided a social base for the week, filling it out with a host of events that spread the message of SmashBy and offered opportunities for political milieus to circulate ideas and connections. The political milieus followed suit with their own lineup of disruptions and activities, and maintained a presence at the showcases through things like tabling and speaking.
This cross-pollination was limited though, as it does not appear that many of the people organizing or going to art & music events joined actions or political workshops. Part of this was a reflection of a separation of spaces–a wide range of showcases venues compared to Monkeywrench Books as the hub for most workshops/trainings. While SmashBy pushed the art world to sharpen its political edge, it has not yet answered our challenge to “break down the divide between art & action.” Perhaps next year we can see these barriers break down, with trainings & workshops hosted in the same venue or in conjunction with a show, or a renegade show turned into a disruptive action.
The week of SmashBy also pushed the political milieus in new directions. Groups like the Austin for Palestine Coalition, which up to this point had largely led the sort of pacified rallies criticized in other posts on our site, began to cut its teeth in more confrontational, disruptive, and decentralized activity. While we normally maintain the position that Downtown is a trap for activism–symbolic, empty, and hyper-policed–SXSW proved to be an exception. For that week, Downtown was actually filled with enemies, and so actions targeted at SXSW had material stakes and the ability to disrupt the networking & innovation, to strike at the brain of Empire. Additionally, successful disruptions of SXSW events are likely liabilities for the festival as well, as it calls into question their preparedness and reliability.
The risk of prioritizing actions targeting SXSW is that it locks activists & militants into a symmetrical, head-on conflict with our enemies. Such conflicts are advantageous for oue enemies, who have greater resources and force to throw at us in such confrontations. However, it seems that many of the actions achieved success by avoiding direct, pre-announced confrontation. Dispersed actions which were not announced publicly gave activists the fluidity, speed, and secrecy to outmaneuver the stretched-thin security at SXSW, exploiting their weakpoints. Some of these, such as the disruption of Andre Dickens and the INCITE-Paliforce, were able to muster relatively large numbers despite not being advertised publicly. By contrast, the anti-SXSW rally at the beginning of the week was pre-announced and therefore confronted a more prepared, concentrated, aggressive security response.
While the range of actions was inspiring, this year’s SmashBy saw little activity beyond the city core, with the takeovers being the notable exception. Despite the attention brought on to SXSW for hosting the US Army and military contractors like BAE Systems, few looked beyond the conference itself to notice the many recruitment centers scattered across the city or the BAE Systems facility in North Austin. Perhaps next year, with more preparation and information, the locus of action can move out of downtown. Such a week of action would be truly decentralized and be even harder to police and govern; a week where the cops are stretched thin trying to simultaneously protect the conference and move around the city to stop actions.
Try as they might to sidestep or roll their eyes at demands for justice at SXSW, we doubt anyone from the expense account schmoozers to the dilettante grinders to even the festival organizers could ignore the malaise and ambivalence that permeated the festival this year. While the exploitative and elitist power that SouthBy visits on Austin each year is hardly new, growing disillusionment from locals and travelers surged this year into new, powerful shapes of resistance. Only time will tell how this antagonism will re-emerge next year, but we don’t have to wait – while SmashXSmashWest hibernates, we can build on the relationships and lessons we took away from this week to smash all year ‘round.
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