Anarchism Spreads to “The Dirty South”
Executive Summary
A new online counter-information platform, The Dirty South, has emerged to fill the void left by the now-defunct Scenes from the Atlanta Forest, offering a regional hub for anarchist and anti-authoritarian activity across the southeastern U.S. Drawing on a lineage of Black and Indigenous resistance, the site embraces direct action, sabotage, and mutual aid as core tactics in confronting colonialism, capitalism, surveillance, and state violence. In its first weeks of publication, The Dirty South has already chronicled arson attacks on Tesla infrastructure, anti-surveillance sabotage guides, a communique from student vandals at Texas State University, and intelligence dossiers on U.S. munitions logistics.
Analysis
The launch of The Dirty South signals a re-anchoring of radical leftist media within the U.S. South—a region often stereotyped as a right-wing stronghold but with deep historical roots in rebellion. Explicitly anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian, the site positions itself as a continuation of the kind of militant organizing previously seen around Scenes from the Atlanta Forest and the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta.
The site’s early posts demonstrate a full-spectrum approach to resistance. A student communique from Texas State University defends recent anti-Israel graffiti as an act of direct confrontation against both genocide in Gaza and university complicity. Elsewhere, articles document sabotage of Tesla charging stations across the South and beyond, highlighting an ongoing FBI counterterrorism investigation into what federal agencies now frame as “domestic terrorism.” The anarchist movement, however, frames these acts as a justified response to Elon Musk’s alignment with Trump-era policies and the militarization of technology.
Perhaps most detailed is a zine titled Birds of a Feather, Destroy a Flock Together, which breaks down the technical specs of Flock Safety surveillance cameras and provides instructions for disrupting or destroying them. The text positions mass surveillance as both a physical and ideological battleground, with the company’s technologies linked to carceral capitalism, anti-Black policing, and state repression.
The platform also features intelligence-based resistance, including a comprehensive list of U.S. Army munitions plants tied into a larger logistical rail network known as STRACNET. This dataset, aimed at “fragile infrastructure mapping,” reveals an emphasis on decentralized sabotage and do-it-yourself reconnaissance—an approach that mirrors both past insurrectionary tactics and modern open-source intelligence (OSINT) practices.
Beyond militant content, The Dirty South also promotes community-building efforts like the Florida Abolitionist Gathering and upcoming events like the DMV Anarchist Bookfair in Washington, D.C. These efforts suggest a dual emphasis on both confrontation and mutual support.
By rooting contemporary resistance in Southern legacies of rebellion—from Indigenous wars to slave uprisings—the site reframes the “Dirty South” not as a bastion of reaction but as fertile ground for radical transformation.
