Call for Support as Riseup.net Turns 25

Call to support long-running anarchist tech-collective, Riseup.Net.

Riseup is a small anarchist, anti-capitalist, volunteer-run, social movement organization offering secure email, email lists, a VPN service, chat, and other online services to support activists engaged in various social justice causes. Riseup.net was launched in Seattle in 1999 with borrowed equipment by activists, who became known as “Riseup Birds.” It quickly grew, and twenty-five years later still provides vital anti-surveillance digital infrastructure.

The Riseup Collective states that they are “an autonomous body based in Seattle with collective members world wide. Our purpose is to aid in the creation of a free society, a world with freedom from want and freedom of expression, a world without oppression or hierarchy, where power is shared equally. We do this by providing communication and computer resources to allies engaged in struggles against capitalism and other forms of oppression.”

One of the Riseup Birds, Snow Owl (Bubo scandiacus), explains that they “helped start Riseup when living in Seattle because he was dismayed by all the activists who showed up to shut down the WTO with their hotmail and yahoo accounts.”

As part of an autonomous effort to support and celebrate Riseup’s 25 years of autonomous communications, a project called #montreal4riseup features 20 songs, released (or not) between 2020 and 2024, that span a large range of genres. They say that it is important to support Riseup and that, “Over time, with the rise in popularity of Signal and the creation of large so-called secure companies like Proton Mail, some activists have abandoned trusted autonomous communication services. It’s important to shine a light on these alternatives.”

In an interview published in 2013, an anonymous Riseup member discussing privacy and surveillance told Vice, “We cannot rely on corporate providers for confidentiality of sensitive communications. Not only are their commercial interests at odds with what we are doing, but monitoring and association mapping gives them (and by extension the state) the ability to build a detailed map of how our social movements are organized. This gives them precise information about what links should be disrupted in order to disrupt larger social movements.”

Why support Riseup?

Over time, with the rise in popularity of Signal and the creation of large so-called secure companies like Proton Mail, some activists have abandoned trusted autonomous communication services. It’s important to shine a light on these alternatives.

The popular belief is that these autonomous services, especially email, should only be used for activities deemed illegal by the State. However, using secure communications is always a good habit to adopt. To protect oneself from digital surveillance, it is better to limit the use of digital tools. It is important to remember that some collectives offering secure and autonomous communications have proven their reliability. Riseup is one such example, but there are several others, including Disroot, Systemli, Immerda, Autistici/Inventati, and Espora — you can visit https://riseup.net/radical-servers for a more complete list.

We must support these initiatives so that they can continue, and that’s the goal of the #montreal4riseup compilation. We encourage you to support Riseup so that the collective can continue its mission.

Time to pass the hat! Can you make a contribution?

Running Riseup services takes a lot of labor and financial resources, so if you’re in a position to make a donation, even the smallest amount, that’d be really helpful. Riseup provides all of their communication services free of charge, but they have to have our help to make that possible. If you can, please take a moment and make a financial contribution towards the work that Riseup does to make another world possible.

https://riseup.net/donate/

Support Riseup with this Montreal Music Compilation

For decades, there has been a vibrant anarchist tradition in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montreal). Anarchists, often in contact with one another, quickly turned to Riseup’s various services after its creation. Some of the “birds” (members of Riseup) were even present and/or active in Montreal. It is only natural, then, that a compilation celebrating a project that has supported so many autonomous, decolonial, and anti-authoritarian initiatives over the years would emerge from Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang.

For more info, check out: music.riseup.net and mtl4riseup.bandcamp.com.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash