With the assistance of the curator of the Labadie collection, the most extensive archive of anarchist material in North America, we were able to track down a copy of this early CrimethInc. poster and add it to our own archive here.
This design dates from a quarter of a century ago. It’s the sort of hastily conceived poster that young punks who lived at densely-populated collective houses would compose and print at Kinko’s at three in the morning in those days.
A dramatically improved version of the text of the poster later appeared in the inside cover of our book, Expect Resistance.
The revolution will not be on television.
Nothing will be on television.
…or at least if anything is, no one will notice.
The revolution might not be able to feed or house or heal you at a times but hunger and thirst and cold and even sickness will trouble you a lot less.
The revolution will not furnish you with infallible birth control. It will usher in communities in which raising children is not such a terrifying, isolating prospect.
The revolution will not mean that you finally get what you deserve. It will give you treasures no one could ever deserve, just as it will hurt sometimes with a pain that nothing in your life has warranted.
The revolution will not arrive with loud guitars and dance beats. It will teach you how anything can become an instrument, show you how to make music out of moving, cooking, dancing, kissing, fighting, imagining.
The revolution will not offer you free beer and drugs, but it might make the world a place that you can enjoy without them.
The revolution will not help you to lose weight or tone those flabby thighs. It will help you to see how beautiful your belly and thighs and stretch marks and acne are.
The revolution will not give you more muscle mass or train you in martial arts; but it may make it possible for you to feel safe around strangers for once.
The revolution will not organize camping trips in the forest. Walking down the street will finally be profound enough; or perhaps the streets you walk down will be in the forest.
The revolution will not provide you with a new car. It will bring the places you want to be closer to home, and make the roads more pleasant traveling.
The revolution will not enable everyone to go shopping at the most expensive stores. It will enable people to find happiness and pleasure in simple poverty.
The revolution will not come with pirated cable and free long distance and instant messenger programs. It will help you to be where you are to share time and happiness with whoever is around you.
The revolution will not make it possible for you to take care of yourself. It will give you other people to take care of, who will take care of you in return.
The revolution will not be simple or clean or easy. It will help you to find meaning in difficult things, to not be afraid of complexity or contradiction, to get your hands dirty and like it.
The revolution will not provide you with the man or woman of your dreams. It will train you to speak the languages in which the unique beauty of the ones already around you are written.
The revolution is not going to happen tomorrow its never going to happen. It’s taking place right now. It is an alternate universe that coexists with this one, and you can step into it any time you like.
CrimethInc. is here by order of those out of order, so that nothing may ever be in order, on made to order, again!
for more fire, go to crimethinc.com
CrimethInc.