HEiST! - CrimethInc

and support of one’s coworkers is more significant
than a huge heist carried out in secret. Stolen
goods shared in such a way that they build
workers’ collective power are worth more than
a high-dollar embezzlement that only benefits
one employee, the same way a raise or promotion
does.
Remember the story of the hardware store
employee who embezzled enough money to
get a college degree, only to find himself back
behind the cash register afterwards! When it
was too late, he wished he’d done something
with the money to create a community that
could fight against the world of cash registers
and college degrees. Even as he broke the laws
of his society, he had still accepted its basic values,
investing in status that could only advance
him on the bosses’ terms. Better we invest ourselves
in breaking its values as well as its laws!
Practically everyone steals from work, even if
many people won’t admit it, even if some people
would like to reserve the privilege of doing
so for themselves. Let’s draw this practice out of
the shadows in which it takes place, so all the
world has to engage with it and its implications
in the full light of day. Perhaps workplace theft
could be an Achilles heel for capitalism after
all: not because it alone is sufficient to abolish
wage labor and class society, but because
it is the sort of open secret that must remain
suppressed to preserve the illusion that everybody
believes in and benefits from the present
system.
So if you find yourself coveting items in your
place of employment, don’t just steal something
from work – think about how you could
steal everything from it, yourself and your coworkers
above all. Stealing from work one thing
at a time will take forever, literally – it would
be more efficient to just steal the whole world
back from work at once. That’s a daunting project,
one we could only take on together – but
it’s one we can begin right now.
AL
ROM
Y!HEiST!
Beyond Capitalist Meritocracy
An Interview with Robin Bossis
The Team is Real
CAAWW
Stories from the Front Lines
Various Artists
A Cashier’s Guide to Putting Yourself
Through College via Workplace Theft
The Angry Po-Boy Collective
In Search of the Great Homer
Miklós Haraszti
Beyond Stealing from Work
The Editors
Don’t carp, carpenters!
Don’t wait, waiters!
Let’s put the team in teamster!
Every steelworker a steal-from-worker!
Every hoodlum a Robin Hoodlum!
Raise the bar, baristas!
Raise hell, bellboys!
Wage war, wage slaves—
April 15 is Steal Something
From Work Day