Chicago has amplified calls from the Palestinian resistance factions for mobilization against the Zionist entity and its enablers in the month of Ramadan and to mark six months since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Israel cannot prosecute this war of extermination without the financial support of the United States. Nor can it maintain the pace of destruction without massive American arms transfers. In light of this we level our attack on the reserves and industrial capacity of the military-industrial complex.
A short drive west from Chicago sits the Rock Island Arsenal, headquarters of the US Army’s Joint Munitions Command. The JMC produces, tests, stores, repairs, and distributes conventional weapons, chemical weapons, vehicles, and other materiel to supply the US armed forces – and for arms sales and transfers. A militarily designated strategic rail network (STRACNET) rail line crosses the west end of the island on which the arsenal sits, connecting it to other JMC facilities and the wider strategic rail network at large. This rail bridge crosses a section of the Mississippi River that frequently floods – as such, its steel supports on the industrial southern bank have seen better days.
On the night of 4/6 we attacked this vulnerable section of track. Inspired by actions of anti-war anarchocommunist factions in Russia, we loosened and removed bolts from the tracks, installed a shunt to halt rail traffic, and applied an oxidizing compound of iron oxide, salt, and paint stripper to portions of the already pitted and rusting steel. And while they can power wash the supports and replace the bolts, the corrosion has already taken hold. It will fester even beneath new paint. Perhaps a similar seed of corrosion will take root in the minds of those who sit assured of the US empire’s invulnerability.
Although we do not know the effects of our actions, we are choosing to publish them to demonstrate how easily accessible these targets are and how relatively few and simple materials can be employed in the fight against Zionism and its imperial master. Our research on the national network of JMC facilities, strategic rail infrastructure, and replicable methods of disruption can be found here.
Much focus has been on the visible symbols of American complicity: the driveways of plants and headquarters with names on them, individual politicians, the registering of dissent through crowds in the streets. But the machine grinds away on slowly failing rail, road, and port infrastructure. We offer this to comrades within Chicago and beyond: The tanks do not drive themselves to the transport ships. The white phosphorus does not pack itself into shells. STRACNET rail junctions and routes crisscross the country, easily accessible by millions. How far do you live from a JMC facility? Attack at the death machine’s weak points. Create uncertainty about the things these murderers take for granted.
Ever vigilant,
Eleventh Hour
Submitted anonymously