Lost in the Matrix - how police surveillance is labelling anarchist ideas.
Anarchists share a belief in the abolition of the state but in practical everyday terms, that means a rejection of state institutions in favour of encouraging working-class communities to take the initiative and organise things for themselves. Anarchism as an idea is expressed through mutual aid projects, renters unions, workplace solidarity and anti-raids or police monitoring groups.

However, under the Matrix, a new classification system designed to label different ideological beliefs, Britain's police have specifically picked out anarchist anti-state ideals as representing a high-level threat of "aggravated activism" (the new label for 'domestic extremist') akin to the violent racism of the far right. It's all extraordinarily subjective - but the latest in a long history of government propaganda seeking to demonise and criminalise anarchism and justify intrusive police surveillance.

So how do we resist it? How do we build solidarity against harassment and disruption by the police? How do we keep each other safe and - just as importantly - how do we actively celebrate anarchist principles as a genuine alternative to state violence? Join the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) for a wide-ranging discussion that may not offer all the answers, but may help us start to break free of the police using their political beliefs to label ours.

Further reading: https://netpol.org/2022/08/02/lost-in-the-matrix/