A Case Study of Recent Anarchist Tactics
Executive Summary
Over the past month, disparate anarchist and insurrectionary groups have employed a spectrum of low-tech, decentralized tactics—from disabling surveillance cameras in Philadelphia and smashing National Guard office windows in Indiana, to impromptu street occupations in Phoenix, arson attacks on a Greek bank branch, and vandalism/arson against NYPD vehicles in New York City. Each action targets a facet of state or corporate power—surveillance infrastructure, military recruitment, immigration enforcement, financial institutions, and police mobility—to degrade regimes of control while cultivating a culture of everyday resistance.
Analysis
Disabling Surveillance (Philadelphia)
“Camover 2025 Philly” revived a 2013 Berlin-based game by urging participants to remove or destroy as many security cameras as possible—using grappling hooks, spray-paint, hammers, even “flex seal”—with zero documentation requirement to maximize anonymity and unpredictability. Organizers argue that every camera functions as a de facto cop, and that systematic “kills” of these devices can blind AI-driven monitoring systems that aggregate and analyze public movements over time.
Striking State Militarism (Bloomington, IN)
On June 13, an affinity group shattered the windows of an Army National Guard recruiting office, framing it as more effective than “standing on a street corner.” Their communiqué traced the Guard’s lineage from post–Civil War militias to today’s border-patrolling force, and celebrated riots as joyful releases and forms of mutual care for communities under patriarchal and colonial violence.
Autonomous Occupation (Phoenix, AZ)
A hastily organized “demonstration” on Roosevelt Row drew roughly fifty militants who, after 30 minutes of circling sidewalks, took the street and assembled makeshift barricades. Despite chronic opsec failures—open planning chats, live-streaming on gimbals, undercover cops in the crowd—the action illustrated both the power of spontaneous coordination (“taking the street”) and the importance of clear objectives, security protocols, and post-action debriefs for sustaining momentum.
Incendiary Solidarity (Volos, Greece)
In the early hours of May 28, the Anarchist Action Group in Volos placed gas canisters at an Alpha Bank branch on Larissis Street. They dedicated the attack to imprisoned comrades and the daily victims of capitalist profit-driven oppression, calling on all who suffer injustice to strike—by any means—against the intertwined violences of state and capital.
Vandalism and Arson (New York, NY)
Ahead of large anti-Trump protests on June 15–18, crews in Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn vandalized marked NYPD cruisers with “FTP” graffiti, slashed tires, and threw bottles at windshields. Separately, an anonymous arsonist affixed an incendiary device (“flamey package”) to a police van in Williamsburg. These acts attacked police mobility and public projection of power, while reinforcing solidarity with those targeted by state repression.
Together, these actions form a mosaic of insurgent praxis: each tactic degrades a pillar of the security-surveillance-control apparatus, spreads confidence through small-scale victories, and signals to would-be participants that resistance can—and must—be woven into daily life.
