At such a conjuncture, in which de jure wins have produced new monstrosities, our own quintessential forms of protest might be the strategies and gestures that move ordinary people to disrupt their routines and take action against the ruling class. The riot, the encampment, and the blockade: Occupy, Ferguson, Standing Rock, the Oakland dockworkers, Stop Cop City. Place matters too. It was in unemployment offices, soup kitchens, and flophouses that Communist Party members organized what became the Unemployed Councils of the 1930s. Now, Joshua Clover observes the freeway and port shutdowns as central sites of circulation struggles, indicating how capital is moving and where it is vulnerable.

To that list we might add the courts. Prison abolitionist organizing has clarified that any understanding of “criminal law,” or even the legal system writ large, must start with the arc of the policeman’s baton, the disproportionate budget of the local jail, and the flow of money from the corporation to the university and the police foundation and back. Each of these institutions can be disrupted, and the long relational chains that legal processes depend on offer many nodes of contact. Disruption happens through protest, but also through building relationships, solidarity, and organization.