We’re excited to announce that we have published our first zine! It’s on security culture and provides a wealth of practical tips on organizing in a safer way to minimize the risk of government repression.

We strongly encourage everyone to read the guide, share it with their friends, and incorporate the principles within. Recent instances of repression aimed at anarchists nationally in the Green Scare, the Republican National Convention (RNC) protests in 2008, and the Eric McDavid case, as well as recent harassment of anarchists locally make this required reading for anyone who’s dreams conflict with that of the state.

From the guide:

“A security culture is a set of customs shared by a community whose members may be targeted by the government, designed to minimize risk.

Having a security culture in place saves everyone the trouble of having to work out safety measures over and over from scratch, and can help offset paranoia and panic in stressful situations—hell, it might keep you out of prison, too. The difference between protocol and culture is that culture becomes unconscious, instinctive, and thus effortless; once the safest possible behavior has become habitual for everyone in the circles in which you travel, you can spend less time and energy emphasizing the need for it, or suffering the consequences of not having it, or worrying about how much danger you’re in, as you’ll know you’re already doing everything you can to be careful. If you’re in the habit of not giving away anything sensitive about yourself, you can collaborate with strangers without having to agonize about whether or not they are informers; if everyone knows what not to talk about over the telephone, your enemies can tap the line all they want and it won’t get them anywhere.”

You can download the zine from us or Zine Library.

Thanks to Crimethinc for publishing the original “Security Culture How To” in their Recipes for Disaster book.