An autonomous spring festival occurring every March in so-called “Austin, TX”
Every Spring, South by Southwest brings down a flood of tourists, celebrities, politicians, technocrats, venture capitalists, military officials, professional activists, and the elite. Together they showcase the cutting edge of Capital, its left and right wings fused in an unholy alliance to chart out the future of Empire’s hell-worlds. For Austin, this week is simultaneously the economic lifeblood of the City and a period of intensified exploitation and dispossession—homeless encampments swept away, neighborhoods colonized for South By-oriented development and hyper-gentrification, precarious workers pushed to their limit physically and financially. SXSW is a time when our enemies come together to connect, strategize, and consolidate their power.
Beyond the conference room walls, we are building something different: Smash By Smash West, a counter-festival for those of us struggling against domination to connect, commune, and conspire. Each year we are developing new ways of thinking and acting that that undermine the rule of our enemies and build our collective powers. While the conference is a show of strength for the ruling order, we turn our enemy’s strengths into weaknesses and their weaknesses into opportunities, taking advantage of infrastructural overload and the convening of the powerful to engage in creative and courageous disruption.
Each year, we invite all those building and defending realities from techbro hellworld to gather from near and far in hosting events and taking strategic action with these goals in mind. We also invite the locals who, year after year, self-organize a plethora of “SXSW Unofficial” events to adopt an explicitly anti-SXSW stance with the SmashBy branding and ethos, to deprive SouthBy of free advertising. While SXSW shrinks in size and relevance, SmashXSmashWest remains a 10 day counterfestival covering two whole weekends of music, building, and action. We are building a network that infuses culture with politics–against the depoliticized commodification of culture–and infuses politics with culture–against the boring and stifling professionalization of politics. We are building a festival for celebrating autonomy and the spring long after the end of SXSW and its world.
Smash By is not an organization. It is a radical alternative, an opportunity to rebuild what SXSW has taken from us and advance our own liberatory initiatives. It is a platform and an open brand that you can use for all activities you take in the spirit of this invitation, that are not part of & express antagonism to SXSW.
We encourage as much self-sufficiency and self-organization as possible. Reach out at SmashBySmashWest@protonmail.com for questions or support around:
- Sharing your event (or post-event reportback) on social media & our calendar
- Connecting to venues, artists, or workshops
- Resources you have to offer (such as space, housing, art production)
- Questions about hosting and lodging for travelers
- More ambitious proposals you want help collaborating on
We will do our best to assist you, with the understanding that our capacities as a decentralized, grassroots network may be limited.
Beyond SouthBy And Its World
SmashXSmashWest
@smashxsmashwest on IG, Twitter, Bluesky, & Mastodon
download open source logos and materials: tinyurl.com/smashby
