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Title: Platform of the Phoenix Anarchist Federation Author: Phoenix Anarchist Federation Language: en Topics: platform, anarchist organization, organization Source: https://phxaf.gay/?page_id=715
We are anarchists in so-called Phoenix, Arizona. We live upon stolen Pee
Posh and O'odham land, and this is the lens through which our anarchism
comes to life. Our objectives are inextricably linked to Indigenous and
anti-colonial struggles.
Anarchy, the negation of hierarchy, is the method of those who wish to
build a liberatory world based on equality and autonomy. Part of our
mission to build this world is the formation of a lasting organization
to promote anarchism and autonomous institutions in our communities.
This organization must empower anarchists to act collectively while also
ensuring freedom of initiative within our organization and community. As
anarchists, we do not seek to impose a program on others; doing so would
make us no better than the authoritarians we oppose. We seek instead to
create a framework for a society in which multiple worlds can coexist.
The anarchist movement's developmental core is theoretical unity,
tactical unity, collective responsibility, and federalism.
Theoretical unity arises from our desire to collaborate with those who
pursue compatible methods in both organization and action, rather than
being divided over the most basic ideas.
Tactical unity means striving for united activities rather than
fragmenting into contradictory actions and goals.
Collective responsibility necessitates that each member is accountable
for the activities of the organization, and the organization is
responsible for the actions of each member acting on its behalf.
Federalism ensures that we function within a decentralized and
horizontally structured system that stifles the formation of internal
hierarchy.
Power and its abuse take many forms in our lives and must be fought at
every turn. White supremacy, colonialism, cisheteronormativity,
patriarchy, institutionalized religion, and capitalism all shape our
lives, weaving an intersecting web that keeps us entangled in the
structures that are destroying the earth and killing untold millions. We
cannot break free by cutting one strand. All must be attacked and
severed for any of us to be free. We seek nothing less than the
destitution of power and the abolition of all hierarchical institutions
and social relationships.
The goal of our program is the total destruction of capitalism and the
state. As long as either remains, it is impossible to disentangle our
lives from the web of intersecting oppressions that surrounds us.
Capitalism in the United States is built on a system of racialized
slavery and exploited labor that is maintained to this day, through the
prison-industrial complex. At the core, it holds a privileged
property-owning class over the rest of society, who are forced to either
sell their lives and bodies or be ground between its gears. Those who
are perceived as less "productive" face a society fundamentally
uninterested in accounting for their needs or remaining accessible, and
they are often made dependent on structures that bureaucratize and
measure their existence, to avoid even providing the necessities of
survival. In the grasp of capital, our lives are made precarious and
alienated. Even the most ascendant of the working class are only one
disaster from economic ruin, and the communities and social support that
once offered a safety net have been dissolved over centuries of
capitalist dominion, leaving us with no protection from the crises so
common under capitalism.
The state is the guard dog of capital. Even the actions of the state to
regulate the worst excesses of capitalism serve to protect it from
itself, to redirect energy away from a departure from capitalism
entirely and towards a lifeless reformism, whose victories can be just
as easily dismantled once they are no longer necessary to assuage the
anger of the exploited. No matter who claims the mantle of the state, it
remains an engine of subjugation and class stratification, seeking
nothing more than to maintain its hegemony, and any project to wield the
state against capitalism will inevitably recreate the society we wish to
escape. To bring about a free and equitable world, both capitalism and
the state must be abolished in kind.
Protests, the establishment of institutions committed to reducing the
burdens of the exploited, the formation of unions to create worker
power, and other peaceful tactics are essential to improving conditions
and building the foundations of a free world. However, such tactics will
never be fully sufficient to overthrow the current system of domination.
In particular, while protests to the seats of power call attention to
the ways in which we are oppressed, these tactics are merely a plea to
those in power, rather than a true expression of our will. The state,
capitalism, and white supremacy will constantly endeavor to suffocate
and destroy any attempt by the oppressed to construct a better world. As
a result, the exploited must not only build the new world but also
defend it, carving out zones of autonomy where the new society can
resist and push back against the old, initiating a struggle to abolish
the state, expropriate the means of life, and build a society free of
exploitation and domination, one where all beings receive the full
dignities of existence, regardless of their perceived ability to produce
value.
The modern state derives its power and authority from the capitalist
domination of this continent, which is built on the ideology of white
supremacy. The stolen land and labor of Indigenous and African descended
peoples, through genocide and enslavement, are the foundation of
capitalism. Throughout history, white supremacy, capitalism, western
civilization, colonization, and so on have all been interchangeable
forces of human suffering. As anarchists, we recognize that fighting any
of these forces is synonymous with fighting any of the others, hence
Indigenous and Black liberation are essential for anarchist analysis,
theory, and activity. The state and all of the misery it sows are
founded on white supremacy and whiteness. As a result, we regard
whiteness and white supremacy as something that must be abolished
totally.
Since its inception, the United States has laid on a foundation of
slavery and extraction, targeted towards people of color, particularly
black people. Through the struggle of abolitionist movements of the
past, chattel slavery was abolished, but the USA could not let go of its
free labor so easily, and enslavement took a new form, in the
prison-industrial complex, where a disproportionatly black and brown
population of prisoners have their labor exploited in these modern-day
plantations for mere pennies by a system that treats them like refuse.To
enforce this system of domination and extraction, the modern police
force was created, inspired by slave-catcher posses. While they claim to
"protect and serve," one must only look at what this protection and
service looks like in black communities to see this falsehood for what
it is. In truth, the police are nothing more than a force for social
control and counter-insurgence, the armed thugs of the state.
To justify and perpetuate these atrocities, the modern state has split
society into two categories, "criminal" and "not-yet-criminal."
Complicated social issues, often created by the systems of domination
that surround all of us, are individualized and treated as personal
failings. The criminal is dehumanized and treated as an inherent stain
on the fabric of society and while the state speaks of rehabilitation,
it makes every effort to trap the criminal inside a labyrinth of
incarceration, even after they have left the prison. The
not-yet-criminal does not escape the carceral state's attention, either.
Their every move is monitored for the moment they cross the line, and
particularly in black and non-white communities, systems of debt and
exploitation push them towards the very criminality that the state
eagerly awaits to punish.
There can be no reform for the carceral system, nor is there any way to
create a police free of brutality, no matter how much they are defunded.
The abolitionist movements of the present must seek to utterly rid
ourselves of these structures, to seek a method of dealing with social
ills that does not attempt to lock them away in a box but looks to
address the root causes and centers the agency of everyone involved.
There will be no peace until we've toppled every wall, shattered every
gate, razed every prison, and this slave state is nothing but ash.
Anarchists must stand in solidarity with and join in the struggles of
the exploited, whether or not the movement is explicitly anarchist or
not. Anarchists must always be on the side of the oppressed, whether it
is in the fight for indigenous liberation, queer liberation, black
liberation, women's liberation, ecological defense, or any other cause
in the fight for a better world. Because the institutions of domination
are not restricted by national lines, anarchists must not limit their
efforts to the destruction of these systems in the country they reside
within. Rather, we advocate for a global revolutionary struggle against
the ruling classes and the mechanisms that maintain their power. Only by
uniting the oppressed will we be able to build a truly free and equal
society.
The destruction of our environment and our relationship to it as humans
cannot be separated from the social relations and collective assumptions
within human society. Hierarchical institutions and ideologies such as
the state, capitalism, speciesism, anthropocentrism, patriarchy, white
supremacy, colonialism, etc. are made of a complex system of command and
control that wields the threat of institutionalized and culturally
accepted violence if one disobeys and seeks to normalize, recreate, and
expand itself. This system projects its ideas of domination onto
something incompatible with that logic; the natural world and the
animals, both human and non-human, that live within it.
What command does humanity have over the phytoplankton, or the soil we
fill with toxic pesticides? Can we command our lakes to handle more and
more industrial waste and pollutants? Why is it that humans can demand
consent and bodily autonomy but willfully ignore the concept when
applied to non-human animals? Why must the value of nature and its
non-human inhabitants be based upon the benefit they provide to humans?
The projection of hierarchy onto a plane that thrives from multiplicity,
biological diversity, and mutualistic relations leads to nothing but
destruction. The path to re-harmonization between the non-human and the
human worlds, and acknowledging and embracing our inherent place as part
of the natural world, is paved with anti-hierarchical and
anti-speciesist action, the complete eradication of anthropocentrist
views, the dismantling of all forms of non-human animal oppression and
exploitation, unity in diversity, the end of capitalism and commodity
production, a return to indigenous stewardship, and the abolition of the
state and all forms of domination.
Direct Action - Only through the united action of oppressed classes,
inspired by anarchism and organized into social libertarian
institutions, can the anarchist social revolution be achieved. We reject
any attempt at state power because, regardless of who claims the mantle,
the state will always lead to class segregation and violent oppression.
Therefore we oppose anyone seeking state power under the cover of a
"workers'" party because no free society can be built using the means of
the state, which are intrinsically domineering and ineffective to the
goal of freedom. Rather, we encourage the oppressed to take the struggle
into their own hands, through an anti-hierarchical movement eager to
combat the state on all levels, free of politicians and vanguard party
parasites. We must support and organize our communities, create
institutions to serve the interests of the exploited, combat white
supremacy, push authoritarian influences out of our lives and educate
ourselves and our communities on how to organize in ways that enable us
to build the new world rather than shackle us to the old. We declare
direct action to be the oppressed's only effective tool, both in the
defense of immediate material interests as well as the building of a
free society through the social revolution.
Dual Power - We believe it is critical to create and strengthen
autonomous, anti-hierarchical structures to incite revolutionary passion
among the oppressed masses while also striving to alleviate existing
material demands. Community councils, mutual aid groups, self-defense
councils, cop watches, and other libertarian institutions are critical
for demonstrating the exploited people's organizational strength and
fighting authoritarian control in our communities. To thwart cooption by
the state or parties, anarchists must join and build these dual power
groups, imbuing them with an anti-authoritarian ethos.
Propaganda & Community Education - The creation and distribution of
coordinated propaganda, whether directly, via means such as flyers or
tabling, or through the example of our deeds is crucial to the anarchist
project. Our efforts to establish an anarchist consciousness in our
communities would be hampered if we only committed to direct action
without any means of spreading our ideas. As part of our efforts,
community education events are being developed where participants can
socialize with anarchists and be exposed to our ideas while also
learning essential skills that will enable them to be less reliant on
state and capitalist structures.
Current Goals & Tactics - Our immediate objectives are to increase
contact and organization with our fellow anarchists, to form alliances
with local groups that share our ideals, to spread and develop anarchist
infrastructure, to build anarchist educational structures within the
broader community, to form popular organizations such as community
councils and mutual aid groups, to create and distribute anarchist
propaganda, and the creation of an anarchist space that can facilitate
greater organizing within our communities.
The Federation - The Phoenix Anarchist Federation is a decentralized and
horizontally organized organization made up of a collection of
collectives, committees, and working groups, each dedicated to their own
purposes in the development of anarchism and the alleviation of
suffering in our communities.
Non-Hierarchical Organization - The Phoenix Anarchist Federation
operates through the combined will of equal members. All decisions are
made through consensus (and in some rare cases voting), whether in the
committee meetings or the larger organization-wide monthly general
meetings. The member presenting the agenda for each general meeting
switches to a random member to ensure no member can simply dominate the
agenda at each meeting. Members are free to engage with committees and
working groups and can flow in and out of them depending on their
availability and desire.
Membership - To join the Phoenix Anarchist Federation, potential members
must agree to the federation's goals, methods, and structure outlined in
the platform. While we would like to see the anarchist movement grow as
much as possible, we recognize that to maintain a well-functioning
organization, we must limit membership to individuals who share our
ideals and means.
Committees/Collectives/Working Groups - The committees are sections of
the organization dedicated to certain goals, such as propaganda,
community outreach, or self-defense. Each committee's general structure
must be horizontal and open to all members, and its overarching
objective must be authorized by the Federation as a whole. Collectives
are groups of people who have opted to collaborate closely and, in many
circumstances, organize under the Federation's umbrella. The federation
as a whole must authorize the admission of collectives into the
organization. Working Groups are ad hoc committees with a specific goal
in mind that simply disband once they've achieved their goal.