Purpose

The Riseup Collective is 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.

• We value, support, and engage in struggles for human liberation, the ethical treatment of animals, and ecological sustainability. We join in the fight for freedom and the self-determination of all oppressed groups. We oppose all forms of prejudice, authoritarianism, and vanguardism.
  
• We organize on the basis of automony, mutual aid, resource sharing, participatory knowledge, social advocacy, anti-oppression work, community creation, and secure communication.
  
• We work to create revolution and a free society in the here and now by building alternative communication infrastructure designed to oppose and replace the dominant system.
  
• We promote social ownership and democratic control over information, ideas, technology, and the means of communication.
• We empower organizations and individuals to use technology in struggles for liberation. We work to support each other in overcoming the systemic oppression embedded in the use and development of technology.
  

Principles

The purpose of our organization is the creation of a free society organized along the following principles:

• Democracy: A free society depends on a free media and organizes civic, social, and economic life using the principles of participatory democracy arising from direct action and public accountability. Those affected by a decision have an opportunity to participate in that decision.
• Equality: All people are welcomed as part of a free society. All people are equal and all labour is valued equally.
• Diversity: All people in a free society are different, and space for their difference is paramount to their equality.
  
• Security: Every human in a free society has secure access to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, health care, information, education, and transportation.
  
• Creativity: A free society values culture, art, and leisure as fundamental needs. Every person has the right to their own culture and to practice creative expression.
  
• Self-Determination: A free society is decentralized and all localities are autonomous and self-determined so long as they do not infringe upon the other basic principles of a free society.
• Interdependence: Communities in a free society are dependent on one another through mutual aid and exchange.
  
• Justice: All people have the right to be free from coercion, threat, and violence. A justice system should reside in the community it affects, seek resolution rather than revenge, and should work towards abolition of authoritarian prisons and jails.
  
• Peace: A free society uses conflict as an opportunity to learn from divergent views, opinions and experiences, with the goal of crafting agreements and taking actions that affirm the humanity and basic rights of all parties.
  
• Ecology: Humans live in balance with, and are part of, the natural world. A free society recognizes the right to clean water, clean air and food free of industrial toxins and genetic engineering.
• Economy: In a free society the means of production should be placed in the hands of the people, empowering communities to organize meaningful employment, and provide a responsible and sustainable standard of living which tries to meet the needs of all people.