smashxsmashwest – Smash By Smash West

Smash By Smash West – Duplex Nation Neighbors Reportback:

Posted on March 17, 2026 - March 17, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

In the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s murder by federal forces in Minneapolis for resisting ICE terror, a number of Austin neighborhood rapid response groups were formed, inspired by the hyperlocal organization in the Twin Cities. In 78722 in central East Austin, a large meeting was held to this end. Several projects were spun off of this, including rapid response, assembly of whistle kits, canvassing of local businesses, attending city/APD community meeting in protest, and support of local high schoolers walking out in defiance of city and state leaders.

Some of us who live in the area of 78722 called Duplex Nation found each other and began to coordinate and share ideas. Duplex Nation is a collection of around 80 upstairs-downstairs duplexes built in the 1940s postwar housing boom tucked behind Maplewood Elementary. Though several have been converted to single family homes and a few more are owner occupied, neighbors are mostly renters and the quality of the buildings varies widely. The exteriors are painted in wild colors and backyards are up against alleyways, creating a balance of funky uniqueness and shared commons. Those of us that met at the rapid response meeting echoed that we expected more community when moving into the neighborhood and that we wanted to build more in order to face challenges like ICE/police incursions, episodic weather catastrophe, shitty/negligent landlords, or just needing a hand or tool for a house project.

We decided to throw an alley party on the first weekend of Smash by Smash West to meet this goal which we think was a sweet, wild success! With some light coordination we assembled a grill, hot dogs, tents, and chairs and set up in our common alley space! One of us reached out to musicians from the duplexes and booked a gentle show which rivaled that of rat/typhus infested Cherrywood Coffeehouse across the railroad tracks! Another whipped up an iconic flyer which was taken door to door and posted around the neighborhood. This generated enough buzz that dozens of duplexers came through the alley to meet each other on the day of the event!

We grilled, drank, shared neighborhood news, and swapped stories about issues in our units and with our landlords. A screenprinting station churned out patches with anti-ice and pro immigrant messaging. Literature about anti-ICE and policing movements was shared, thanks to a generous donation from the Smash By Smash West crew (if you need lit for your event, hit them up, there’s boxes ready to go!).

So many thanks to everyone who came out and who helped to put on this event! There seems to be an appetite for more community and for more gatherings, maybe seasonally? Rumor has it that other neighborhood groups are planning similar gatherings in the commons and streets of their areas. Please share reportbacks, so we can learn from each other’s experiences!

South by Southwest Uses AI Brand Protection Service to Remove Social Media Posts from Artists, Activists, and Critics on Social Media

Posted on March 17, 2026 - March 17, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUSTIN, TX, March 17^th — South by Southwest has used BrandShield, an AI-driven brand protection service, to report and remove Instagram posts by multiple independent Austin arts and music organizations promoting Smash by Smash West, a grassroots counter-festival that challenges SXSW’s ties to military contractors, Big Tech, and the real estate developers displacing long-time Austin communities. Organizers have saved screenshots of Instagram removal notifications identifying sxsw@brandshield.com as the reporting party, and have reported both threats of account suspension and that they are no longer able to send collaborator invites on Instagram posts. Posts by independent local organizers—including Alienated Majesty Books, activists with VOCAL-TX, drag performer and LGBTQ+ Quality of Life Commissioner Brigitte Bandit, Trib Relations, and Tiny Sounds Collective—were targeted. Also taken down were some of SmashX’s own posts, including an explainer about the festival’s mission and an article documenting SXSW’s continued collaboration with military and defense industry events despite their promises in 2024 to remove such companies from the festival.

The takedowns follow a pattern of escalating retaliation by SXSW against those who challenge its corporate partnerships, including threatening international artists with visa revocation for performing at unsanctioned showcases and legal threats against the 2024 “War Profiteers Out of SXSW” campaign, which prompted more than 100 artist withdrawals after the festival accepted the U.S. Army as a supersponsor. “A corporation that profits from platforming war profiteers and the tech companies driving displacement in Austin is now using AI surveillance tools to silence the communities most affected,” said Bernice, a Smash by Smash West organizer. “Reporting Instagram posts by small local arts collectives is not going to stop people from showing up for each other. If anything, it shows exactly why a festival like this needs to exist.”

Smash by Smash West, now in its third year, describes itself as “a radical alternative, an opportunity to rebuild what SXSW has taken from us.” The festival, which is organized by a broad, decentralized network of unpaid organizers, is hosting over 100 events across Austin this March, including concerts, film screenings, mutual aid workshops, and community gatherings. “We find it embarrassing that SXSW feels so threatened by critique that they’ve used an AI damage control company to remove posts promoting alternative events in the city they claim to love,” said Alienated Majesty Books in their statement on the removals. They continued to point out that “There are many things SXSW could do to improve their public image, like divesting from military and AI companies, or doing something that actually champions art instead of running what has become a pay-to-play scam.” SXSW has been under the controlling ownership of Jay Penske, an LA-based billionaire who has made significant contributions to far-right candidates and causes, since his Penske Media Corporation acquired a majority stake in the festival in 2025. SmashXSmashWest’s week of activity continues until March 22^nd, with more shows, screenings, workshops, and protests, undeterred by SXSW’s censorship, with a full calendar of events and a feed of articles available at smashxsmashwest.noblogs.org.

Contacts: SmashBySmashWest@protonmail.com;

Alienated Majesty Books: pr@alienatedmajestybooks.com

Tiny Sounds Collective: tinysoundscollective@gmail.com

Brigitte Bandit: itsbrigittebetch@gmail.com

SmashXSmashWest Press Release 3-17-26 Download

PUNK SHOW NOISE DEMO AT CAPITAL FACTORY: for the Prairieland Defendants, for all immigrants, for Palestine, for Iran

Posted on March 16, 2026 - March 16, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

an anonymously submitted reportback from the punk show noise demo

In solidarity with the Prairieland Defendants who have been wrongfully convicted of federal terrorism-related charges for protesting the abductions, detentions, and deportations of immigrants, and in defiance of the actions of the US & Israel, a noise demonstration punk show coalesced on the sidewalk in front of Capital Factory inside the Omni hotel in downtown Austin on March 14th to disrupt the meeting of war profiteers and surveillance tech companies who collaborate with ICE taking place inside.

A generator and musical gear arrived and was quickly set up behind the proudly displayed banners that read “CAPITAL FACTORY: BUILDING YOUR NIGHTMARES OF MASS SURVEILLANCE AND AI WEAPONS,” “PALANTIR SUX, FUCK YOU!” and “FREE THE PRAIRIELAND DEFENDANTS.” The squeal of amplified guitars and the thrashing of drums quickly burst through the air to the annoyance of the pathetic and desperate Capital Factory attendees, several of whom attempted to direct their undignified and petty anger at those having a good time. No one could hear them anyway.

People brought and waved multiple large Palestinian flags making our position clear to the thousands of SXSW attendees walking by and waiting in line across the street. Someone in medieval garb wielding a ball and chain as well as a large sword screamed into the streets over a megaphone demanding the liberation of the Palestinian people and freedom for the Prairieland Defendants.

As the punk bands raged, people ran around jumping and dancing and shouting for justice, continuously making noise in solidarity with our Prairieland comrades and those across the globe similarly facing state repression, violence, and dispossession. Throughout the evening, fliers with the faces, names, and companies of prominent Capital Factory House participants were handed out. The flier read: “War Profiteers: gotta catch ‘em all!” People from the streets honked their horns, shouted “Free Palestine!” and came to dance and make noise in solidarity. After the bands wrapped up, the noise demo became mobile and took to the street with banners and flags, shouting, banging, and blowing on whistles to instill the presence of resistance in our community.

Scavenger Hunt!

Posted on March 15, 2026 - March 15, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

Gather your friends and have a good time!

SXSWar: South By’s Continued Entanglement with War Profiteers

Posted on March 7, 2026 - March 7, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

In 2024, SXSW was supersponsored by the US Army and hosted dozens of military contractors, tying SXSW directly to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In response, activists disrupted SXSW events and over 100 artists dropped out, with some joining DIY and SmashX events. Facing mass pressure and fallout, SXSW claimed they would no longer have military contractors present at SXSW.

Two years later, as the US government opens a new phase of war abroad against Venezuela, Cuba, and most recently Iran while intensifying its domestic war against immigrants, SXSW has given backdoor access to the weapons contractors and tech companies that build the infrastructure for war, surveillance, genocide, and deportation. Military and hard tech conferences like the Deep Tech Expo and Capital Factory House openly use SXSW branding and SXSW badgeholders get into Capital Factory House’s Startup Crawl for free.

Compare this to how SXSW treats artists, activists, and the grassroots that it accuses of “copyright infringement.”

Threatening artists who play “unofficial” showcases in addition to official ones with visa revocation and deportation

Threatening legal action against the 2024 “War Profiteers out of SXSW” campaign

Reporting and taking down SmashXSmashWest posts

This is no surprise from a festival whose owning family, the Penske’s, are massive Trump donors. Last April, the Penske’s secured a controlling interest (over 51% stake) in SXSW and ousted its former leadership. Over the last few years the Penske’s have pressured SXSW staff to generate more profit and feature more conservative speakers. So it’s no accident that they would let the warmongers back in–but in secrecy, to avoid opposition.

SXSW want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to present themselves as the progressive-minded platform for discussions on ethics, equity, and good governance in tech while also staying entangled with the military, ICE, and authoritarian regime. Culture, equity, and “community engagement” are how SXSW rebuilds its brand legitimacy and launders its entanglement in death. At SXSW, a Google Gemini product manager goes from a talk on “responsible AI” to a Capital Factory networking event with the Department of War to a local BIPOC artists showcase all in one night.

SXSW is a masterclass in how corporate co-optation & military counterinsurgency work. Destructive forces offer money, platforms, and integration to the communities that might resist their destructive efforts, to buy off resistance and make those communities dependent on the same forces destroying them. In the military this is called counterinsurgency, and its focused on winning the hearts and minds of the population to prevent resistance to occupation and genocide. Once the the population and its leaders are pacified, anyone who does try to resist is easily isolated and targeted for incarceration or elimination.

SouthBy’s seemingly progressive collaborations with community organizations, abortion access nonprofits, local artists, and QTBIPOC community leaders are all part of this strategy. This is why oil companies throw money at arts and schools in the coastal towns they sacrifice, why Shell and Chevron used to sponsor “Black Lives Matter” events, and why the US military historically supported and controlled philanthropic efforts globally. If you control the opposition you will never lose.

a little throwback to 2010s era cooptation

All this is to say that when you collaborate with SouthBy, you are the product. That is why artists, activists, and all people of conscience must divest from SXSW and cancel capital factory house. If you are participating in SXSW, consider these options:

Participate in Cancel Capital Factory‘s week of action, either by attending an event or organizing your own event and disruption of Capital Factory House!
Drop your collaboration with SXSW! They need you more than you need them. You can make your event a DIY or SmashXSmashWest event instead, and move it to a local venue–a library, a park, or some other non-SXSW venue. Reach out to us at smashbysmashwest@protonmail.com if you want recommendations or assistance in connecting to other venues.
If you are organizing events that are “unofficial” sxsw, use “south by” in the title, or use the #sxsw tags, change your event to anti-sxsw, smashx/smashby/smashxsmashwest, “spring break,” or simply anything that does not reference sxsw. Stop giving them free advertising and clout!
If you have access to resources in SXSW, leverage them for disruption and strategic reappropriation. Use your platform to speak on SouthBy’s complicity and promote the autonomous organizing and shows happening at SmashX and Cancel Capital Factory. If you get SXSW badges or guest passes, give them to rebels to fight in the belly of the beast.
If you can’t drop SXSW or need that check, then consider doing a SmashX event in addition to your sxsw event. If you can spare some of that check, consider donating it to a local organization like Cancel Capital Factory, the Data Center Action Coalition, one of the many DIY venues hosting SmashX events, or the Prarieland Defendants. If you’re not getting paid or badge access…then why are you even doing SXSW in the first place?

TribRelations March Mutual Aid Raffle

Posted on March 3, 2026 - March 12, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

Submitted by tribrelations

Mutual Aid: A system of collective community care.

Mutual Aid is how our ancestors survived centuries of intentional exclusion and its how we will make it through whatever comes next in this wild world.

Team Trib is resting this month to reset our minds, bodies, and the organization so we can apply all our learnings. In the meantime, we invite you to take that ticket money and join us in supporting Street Forum ATX in their mission to protect unhoused Austinites. We’re launching a month long raffle to raise funds AND awareness!!

We got more info on prizes coming soon so keep checking our profile for more details.

If you’re interested in learning more about mutual aid and how to get involved, DM us (@tribrelations on IG) or @hurricane.short.king on IG about his bi-weekly crowdfunding. For over a year, TribLeader Hurricane Short King, aka Viper Lepore, has used his account to crowdfund for local mutual aid campaigns. Stay tuned for updates on how to support King with his ongoing project!

What would you like to know or share about mutual aid?

Mutual Aid Saves Lives
Street Forum is a mutual aid org centering unhoused Austinites since 2019. This month, tribrelations is partnering with them to support our unhoused neighbors, especially as they experience sweeps during SXSW.

How to enter the Raffle

1. Comment a scissor emoji and tag 2 friends in the comments of this post (on IG)

2. Support Street Forum

Purchase something from their Amazon wishlist
Donate one time or monthly to their Open Collective fund
Sign up to volunteer at their Sunday distro!

3. DM proof of donations to @tribrelations on IG or on Signal here

Smash Pol(ICE) Neighbors Week of Action

Posted on March 2, 2026 - March 2, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

An anonymous submission from some friendly neighborhood defenders

Over the last two months, inspired by the courageous and inspiring resistance of neighbors in Minneapolis, we have seen an explosion of neighborhood based organizing against ICE in Austin. This turn to neighborhood organizing is an exciting development, and faces important challenges that require creative experimentation: adopting the minneapolis strategy to the geography of a sprawled Texas city; interrupting deportations in a context where most arrests are carried out by state and local police rather than federal agents; a border state with some of the highest concentrations of deportation infrastructure and a police state built to defend it.

SmashXSmashWest is a festival and convergence that calls for creative experimentation and going on the offensive. Some of us have been engaging in it for the last few years, and we see it as an important opportunity for us. So this is an invitation to all neighbor defenders, rapid response networks, and neighborhood councils to take action in our neighborhoods during the week of SmashXSmashWest, March 13-22! Let’s use SmashX as an opportunity to deepen our neighborhood connections, flex our muscles for mobilizing and disruption, and asserting more power over our lives together, as neighbors. We want to see activity across every neighborhood throughout the week, so that we come out of the other side of SmashX with energy, moment, and increased collective power.

Get creative on how to take action in your neighborhood! Here are a few suggestions for what to do to build neighborhood power against ICE and police:

host a neighborhood block party, happy hour, or a show at a local venue
organize a march through your neighborhood
host a neighborhood meeting on how to divest from the police/ICE in our daily lives
go on copwatch/ICEwatch patrol around your neighborhood. Record their activity patterns
rally at a spot that police/ICE frequently stage or mobilize at, or at a local police/ICE facility
establish a defense hub at a site of high police/ICE activity and connect with people targeted
distribute whistles & resources throughout the neighborhood
remove FLOCK, ALPR, Ring, and other surveillance cameras from the area
blockade or barricade a street temporarily to keep police/ICE out
host neighbor-to-neighbor trainings and skillshares

If you want your event promoted on the SmashXSmashWest calendar/social media/signal announcement thread ahead of time, send it to @smashxsmashwest on IG, smashbysmashwest@protonmail.com, or @smashby.26 on Signal. Social media promotion not required–neighborhood, Signal-based, or word of mouth only events strongly encouraged, especially for protests, block parties, and other actions!

Free to use flyers and logos available at tinyurl.com/smashby.

You can also reach out to SmashX if you’d like literature or other materials relevant to the festival to distribute at your local event! Whatever you do, write up a few sentences after the fact describing how your event went and submit it to SmashX to publish the reportback.

SmashX26 Everyone’s An Organizer Challenge

Posted on February 25, 2026 - February 25, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

In the spirit of SmashXSmashWest and its call for decentralized, autonomous activity, this is a challenge to everyone who thinks of themself as just an attendee or participant: don’t just attend SmashX events, organize one!

Organizing an event doesn’t have to be some complicated affair. Anything you can do that strengthens more connections, develops skills, builds courage, and increases action is welcome!

You don’t need a big audience or promotion! Just invite your friends, neighbors, coworkers.

You don’t need fancy graphic design! Write your invitation on a piece of paper or in your notes app and send it around.

You don’t need a venue! Do it at your house, a park, the library, or any other space you have access to

share that skill you know. Read or watch something with others and discuss it together. go on a walk and put up stickers, agitprop, or graffiti in your neighborhood. map out the cameras, police hotspots, and scummy businesses in your area. make plans for resiliency in disasters and political crises. host a group dinner, crafternoon, game night, or house party. invite people over to share songs or jam, with no expectations of perfection. Get a crew together and introduce a little disoder in the city: play a weird game in a park, ruin the vibes at a bougie bar, drag a couch or a scooter into the street. get rowdy, get creative, get social.

Smash the specialization of organizing, whether as an “event booker” or an “activist!” Smash the perfectionism which stops you from trying out that idea in your head!

If you want anything promoted by SmashXSmashWest ahead of time send it to us; otherwise, please send us a little reportback after your event to tell us how it went!

Autonomous Kitchen Council Gathering

Posted on February 21, 2026 - February 21, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

This is an invitation to attend Autonomous Kitchen Council’s Central Texas gathering, taking place March 14-15th in so-called Austin during SmashXSmashWest.

Join us for two days of reconnection to each other, our Sacred Webs of Abundance, and our spaces while we learn about the AKC Decolonial framework/organizing model and its tools for community care and revolutionary flourishing. Please reach out to akccollective@riseup.net if you’re planning on attending and let us know any dietary/accessibility needs you have.

More on AKC: https://akccollective.noblogs.org/

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS to the 2nd Annual SMASHXFILM FESTIVAL: “Zero Intelligence”

Posted on January 27, 2026 - January 27, 2026 by smashxsmashwest

March 13th-22nd, 2026 – Austin, TX

Everyone knows it – something’s deeply wrong in the film world.

Netflix is cranking out “second screen” movies aimed at people looking down at other devices. Hollywood studios are locked in bidding wars over imaginary actors no one’s heard of. And striving directors are attending hard-earned festival premieres to find they share their honors with vapid, uncanny flops made by sitting back while a bot pukes up a series of plagiarized images and sounds

Big Tech has spent decades tempting us with speed, comfort, and convenience at the cost of our peace and privacy. Today, Big Tech offers filmmakers a Faustian fast-track to career success. Artists outside the system are being coerced into betraying their craft and integrity, afraid they can’t keep up in a landscape where even “Indie” has come to imply six figure budgets.

WE PROPOSE A CINEMATIC COUNTERATTACK: a film fest that says fuck shiny, fuck perfect, fuck paletable. A week of screenings that run the gamut of every mistake you can make in a film, from the inadvisably ambitious to the impenetrably idiosyncratic, to the grainy, blurry, fuzzy, and unfinished. A collection of films that reminds us that the path of the artist isn’t safe, smart, or profitable and that zero intelligence is required to create something that changes the world.

SEND US YOUR SHORTS, FEATURES, DOCS, PILOTS, AND MUSIC VIDEOS and we’ll program as many as we can in Austin, TX during SmashXSmashwest!

We welcome films of all genres and topics with a liberatory, rebellious, and critical spirit or that address our theme of “Zero Intelligence.”

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE LOCAL! We invite filmmakers from far and wide to come join, make connections, and get up for some Q&A.

ANYONE CAN JUMP IN! If you’d like to host or organize a screening, let us know how we can help!

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 2/20/2026! Get in touch with us securely at: smashxfilm@proton.me