💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › robert-saleem-holbrook-black-autonomous-movements.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 13:44:48. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Title: Black Autonomous Movements
Author: Robert Saleem Holbrook
Date: 5 May 2011
Language: en
Topics: black anarchism, Black Liberation, autonomist
Source: Retrieved on March 17, 2016 from https://web.archive.org/web/20160317095303/[[http://freesalim.net/sites/default/files/BAM.pdf
Notes: Robert Holbrook, or Saleem, as his friends call him, is a politicized prisoner being held in Pennsylvania. He contributes regularly to numerous publications and is an active member of the Human Rights Coalition, an organization which advocates for prisoners rights and liberation as well as prison correspondent for The Defenestrator. To get in contact with saleem, visit his website for his current mailing address. https://web.archive.org/web/20190824073554/http://www.freesalim.net/

Robert Saleem Holbrook

Black Autonomous Movements

“The main threat to humankind, the flora and fauna and our entire

biosphere, is capitalist imperialism: a totally out of control,

predatory, global system of accumulation and oppression that’s on a

collision course with the limitations of our planet: daily devouring

children, women, people of color, the poor, workers of all stripe,

wildlife and the environment in pursuit of profits.”

Russell Maroon Shoats, The Dragon and the Hydra: A Historical Study of

Organizational Methods

“Two features of the new mass movement must be the intention of creating

dual power institutions to challenge the state, along with the ability

to have a grassroots autonomist movement that can take advantage of a

pre-revolutionary situation to go all the way. Dual power means that you

organize a number of collectives and communes in cities and towns all

over North America, which are, in fact, liberated zones, outside of the

control of the government. Autonomy means that the movement must be

truly independent and a free association of all those united around

common goals, rather than membership as the result of some oath or other

pressure.”

Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Anarchism and The Black Revolution

In the city of Philadelphia in response to the unprovoked brutal beating

of a Black man the Askia Coalition Against Police Brutality was created

to educate the community about police brutality and to confront police

repression while prisoners and their families united to form the Human

Rights Coalition, an organization committed to defending the human

rights of prisoners. In Miami the Take Back the land movement, a Black

collective, moves homeless families into empty or abandoned houses the

city has neglected and has even named a section of reclaimed houses

“Umoja” (Unity) Village. In Oakland, the once base of the Black Panther

Party, the spirit of community based resistance thrives as community

activists representing numerous grassroots organizations have organized

a People’s Hearing on Racism and Police Repression to challenge police

brutality and racism while across the Bay in San Francisco antipoverty

activists from the POOR Magazine and Poor News Network raise awareness

of economic injustice within communities of color. In St. Louis the

Organization for Black Struggle mobilizes grassroots activists and

organizations towards community empowerment while in New Orleans

grassroots activists within the Black community are at the forefront of

rebuilding Black neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Katrina by

demanding government attention and reconstruction.

All throughout the Black colonies of the empire (the United States)

local activists and organizations are mobilizing to meet and address the

problems and injustice they suffer at the hands of a corporate state

that is not accountable to the people, especially poor and working class

communities. These activists and organizations for the most part belong

to no Black national or centralized movement but instead are ordinary

people taking control of their spaces and struggling to live with

respect and to enjoy a life of quality and substance. Most of them are

Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Friends, Neighbors, etc who have

grown tired of depending upon unaccountable career politicians and

corrupt political parties to deliver for them. They have decided to

seize their own destinies and depend on their own communities to solve

problems the state is not interested in solving.

I. HISTORICAL CONTEXT

It is in the spirit and tradition of Black Resistance and Liberation

that these communities act. They are the legacy of the Black Liberation

Movement (BLM) which at one time represented a strong force within the

Black community demanding Self-Respect, Self-Determination, Community

and Individual Empowerment and the peoples’ control over the resources

of their own communities. The BLM was exemplified by Malcolm X, the

Black Panther Party, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the

Revolutionary Action Movement, the Congress of Racial Equality, the

Republic of New Afrika, Black Liberation Army, etc. These organizations

shook the foundation of the empire as their members challenged the

racist status quo of America by demanding not only the recognition of

Black people’s human rights but also our human rights and right to

self-determination, community liberation and the complete restructuring

of the system through revolution, not integration. They didn’t want to

accommodate with capitalism, they wanted to destroy capitalism and build

a new community and society based on revolutionary values and culture.

These movements of local resistance in the tradition of Black Liberation

constitute the legacy of not only the BLM but also the legacy of

COINTELPRO, the U.S. government’s internal counterintelligence program

that systematically destroyed, through assassination, false imprisonment

and disruption, the national Black Liberation Movements of the 1960’s

and 70’s that had by 1968 gained legitimacy and mass support within the

Black community. Contrary to popular impression the movements did not

gain mass support by shouting Black Power or strutting around with guns

threatening armed confrontation with the police. These are images the

state publicized to create the impression these movements were criminals

hell bent on violence and destruction. These false impressions allowed

the state to justify its repressive actions towards the movement,

actions which included assassination and false imprisonment of young

leaders of the BLM. In 1968 the Attorney General of the United States

stated that the Black Panther Party constituted the greatest threat to

the internal security of the United States. Within two years, by 1970,

over 28 Black Panther Party members were assassinated by police agencies

across the country and hundreds more were imprisoned on a host of false

charges filed to neutralize the strength and popularity of the movement.

The official justification for this massive level of repressive violence

against the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Movement

according to the government was their members commitment to violence,

however when the COINTELPRO papers were released by the U.S. Church

Committee in hearings on the COINTELPRO program in the 1970’s it was

revealed the government’s major concern with the Panthers was the

massive support they gained within the Black community from their

programs that addressed the needs and service of the people. The

Panthers and by extension the BLM was at its peak of legitimacy and

influence in 1968 within our communities. The year of 1968 was the high

tide of the Black Liberation Movement as well as Third World Liberation

movements around the world. Capitalism and Imperialism was on its heels,

anything seemed possible in these times as the United States was being

defeated in Vietnam and urban rebellions were rocking the major cities

of the United States and Europe, while guerrilla movements and student

activists inspired by the Cuban Revolution confronted U.S. imperialism

in Latin America.

Just when it seemed anything was possible and international capitalism

was on the verge of collapse, COINTELPRO kicked into high gear and the

U.S. government unleashed its full inventory of weapons, repression and

dirty tricks on the Black Liberation Movement devastating its members

and organizations until it became a hollow shell of its former strength.

This is where we find ourselves today, sidelined by the civil rights

movement and traditional politicians interested in business as usual

within the Black communities a.k.a. Black colonies of the empire. The

BLM has been reduced to scattered formations across the United States’

urban colonies (Black communities).

Yet as we see today the spirit of the movement lives on as everyday in

every urban colony there are ordinary people of color, activists,

organizing and mobilizing their communities around issues such as police

brutality, political representation, control of community resources,

education, mass imprisonment, etc. The same issues that our communities

mobilized around in the 60’s and 70’s. The potential of Black resistance

therefore still remains within our communities. Although these local

formations of activism are not formally connected they are interrelated

nevertheless and speak to the new ethos in the Black liberationist

tradition and that is local autonomous movements challenging state

repression within their own spaces and with their own ideological

positions based on the challenges they face. These autonomous movements

constitute a Black Autonomous Movement, though no one has formally

adopted that name, their actions constitute such a movement in this

phase of our people’s struggle within the United States.

II. AUTONOMOUS STRUGGLE

The concepts of autonmy and autonomous struggle actually are not a new

experience within our people’s history of collective struggle. Within

traditional Afrikan society, specifically West Afrikan culture, villages

ruled themselves autonomously within larger tribal and ethnic

federations. In the United States during slavery escaped slaves,

commonly referred to as “Maroons” created autonomous fugitive

communities within the dismal swamps of Virginia and North Carolina.

Autonomy therefore is nothing new within our collective experience of

resistance and struggle. While the origin of the word autonomy has its

roots in the Greek language meaning “self ” plus “law” its concept is

universal and is based on the foundation of all democratic movements:

consensus. Anyone involved in grassroots activism understands that

nothing can be accomplished without consensus and this is the strength

of the Black autonomous movements in the Black colonies. These movements

are born of local problems and grievances lead by longtime activists who

live within the oppressed communities. No “national” or “vanguard”

movement is dropping leaders in on the people explaining to them the

correct political line or how best to organize within their own

territories. Through consensus these communities have developed

solutions to confront the problems they are faced with.

It is necessary to clarify that autonomy and autonomous struggle is

about creating alternative and revolutionary systems of community and

government within and in opposition to the capitalist and corporate

democracies of Western societies. The reality is as radical activists we

are not presently in a position to, nor are the people presently

inclined to, overthrow the government. So we must carve out our own

spaces by meeting the needs of the people within whatever spheres of

influence we have within our communities. In doing this we are creating

systems of dual power, which is building up autonomous alternatives to

the current power structure that controls our communities.

The survival programs of the Black Panther Party are examples of dual

power structures created within oppressed communities. In the 60’s and

70’s the Panthers provided free health clinics, free breakfast programs

for children and free grocery packages to senior citizens. They also

developed independent schools called Liberation Schools that provided

students with an empowering education that instilled cultural pride and

a commitment to community and service in the name of the people. The

Panthers were able to generate massive community support around these

programs and their politics because they identified a need in the

community the government wasn’t providing and they stepped in to fill

the void. Systems of dual power within our neighborhoods enable us to

rely upon ourselves while at the same time developing an infrastructure

that would hold revolutionary potential and experience should one day in

the future the conditions become ripe for revolution or local, regional

or national uprisings. Again this ties in with the concept of the

Panthers Survival Programs. The Panthers labeled them survival programs

because they were programs to provide until the revolution while

simultaneously building community support and empowerment. The community

is relying on itself, not the state or local government.

Other examples of dual power and autonomous infrastructure that support

community needs are community gardens created on abandoned or vacant

lots/fields within our neighborhoods that would develop empowering

relations among neighbors and could also be used to grow organic food

that could be distributed (free) to community members. After school

programs and child care (by responsible community members), food co-opts

that would provide a space to purchase healthy foods at discount charges

(or free if possible), Adult GED and Adult Basic Education classes,

Alternative Schools (not Charters!) that could operate after school to

offer a education that promotes free thought, cultural/community pride

and responsibility, etc. Another empowering tactic that should be

considered is the occupation of abandoned houses—there is no excuse for

people to be homeless or neighborhoods lacking community centers when

there are so many abandoned houses. Activists should seize these

abandoned houses and turn them into community center hubs that provide

programs that will unite the community. In turn the support these

programs will generate from the people will make it difficult for the

city or police to enforce an eviction order because we will have turned

something that was run down, abandoned and considered worthless into a

vital component of the neighborhood that the people could take pride and

collective ownership of.

In developing these autonomous programs it must be emphasized that the

objective is not to secure nonprofit funding or corporate sponsorship,

that undermines the purpose of autonomy. Corporate and nonprofit funding

also ties the organization down inbureaucratic paperwork that consumes

time and eventually burns activists out as it turns activists into

clerks. Whenever possible funding from corporate nonprofits should be

avoided, however if it is necessary, then activists must approach the

funding not as sponsorship but rather as means to an end otherwise they

will surrender autonomy to corporate oversight. They should also (if

necessary) seek nonprofit funding from the most progressive foundations

they can find but again, this option should be avoided if possible.

Another trap autonomous activists and movements must avoid is electoral

politics that consume movements in false promises and expectations. A

perfect example is the Obama frenzy. Nothing has changed under this man,

his notable achievement of being the first Black President has brought

us the same results the first Black mayors brought our cities in the

70’s and 80’s = nothing! Autonomous movements therefore are not geared

toward campaigning for electoral politics. If movements do decide to

participate in electoral politics, they should only do so knowing that

they are only voting for the lesser of two evils and should understand

that autonomy is independence from electoral politics that only promote

and preserve the status quo. If autonomous activists decide to pursue an

electoral strategy it should be local and concentrated on electing block

representatives (or block captains) within the neighborhood that would

be answerable to the needs and concerns of the people in his/her

community while also preserving distance from the established political

machine that runs the city. This strategy would not be pursued to reform

the political establishment but rather to pressure it from below and

erode its legitimacy. Whatever member of the autonomous movement

occupies the block captain position should donate her/his paycheck

towards the programs the movement is running within the community,

otherwise he/she would just be another reformist politician/activist.

The United States electoral system is morally bankrupt and merely an

extension of corporations and international capitalism. The extension of

corporate power and profits is more important than people and democracy

in this political system, and we should harbor no illusions about

reforming it—our objective is to exist outside it or preferably, to

abolish it.

The concept of autonomy and dual systems of power therefore should

become more appealing when we consider the real possibility that the

nation could go bankrupt or face financial collapse bringing on rapid

inflation and loss of social services. It’s not far-fetched to consider

this scenario considering how close the nation’s (and world’s) economy

came to collapse during the financial crisis in 2008, a crisis that

global capitalism has yet to emerge from as of the date of this writing.

In the event of another financial meltdown and possible government

bankruptcy, communities would be left to fend for themselves. If anyone

is in doubt about this just consider the absence of government in New

Orleans following hurricane Katrina. The Black community was left to

fend for itself as police officers and emergency services pulled out of

the city and prevented people fleeing the flood water from escaping, in

some instances using deadly force. The objective of the police was to

prevent Black people from entering and overrunning the white, rich

suburbs that surround the city. If the nation faces financial

bankruptcy, we would be derelict in our duty if we believe that the

government wouldn’t leave our communities to fend for themselves. If it

ever comes to this we should be prepared, and this is what autonomy

prepares and develops us for (i.e. self-government).

We certainly, however, don’t need a national emergency to justify

self-government. We face a state of emergency within our own

neighborhoods every day when it comes to the state of police brutality,

mass imprisonment, unemployment, poverty, poor educational resources and

lack of affordable health care. These are the range of issues autonomous

activists confront everyday within our neighborhoods. To quote an

activist from the book We Are Everywhere:

Understanding autonomy includes community owned and run health care,

education and social support, direct democracy in zones liberated by the

people who live in them, not as enclaves to withdraw to, but as outward

looking communities of affinity, engaged in mutual cooperation,

collective learning, and unmeditated interaction.

This is autonomy and every day that we confront injustice and initiate

solutions to our problems, collectively and individually, we are

creating liberated spaces within our neighborhoods and most importantly

within our minds because we rid ourselves of the mentality that some

leader has to swoop into our communities and save us from injustice.

Autonomy therefore first starts in the mind, it is the governing of self

based on the revolutionary ideas and principles that the community and I

can address and solve our own problems. This should not be interpreted

as neighborhood separatism or a reason to carve our neighborhoods into

enclaves, that is not autonomy. Autonomy unshackles the mind from

reliance on government or outsiders to solve our own affairs. It breeds

a confidence of self-determination and creates innovative solutions to

problems we are confronted with by placing the people on the frontline

in charge of uniting to liberate our own spaces.

Anyone involved in present day community advocacy will recognize this

image of people power in motion. Anyone who has ever been in a community

center or neighborhood living room, or even a prison cell, brainstorming

with fellow activists on how to mobilize people, protests and programs

with limited resources, volunteers and time understands the feelings of

empowerment these experiences breed. This is autonomous struggle that

liberates the individual while he or she empowers the community. It is

actual empowerment, it is something tangible that we can feel while

transforming our lives and communities.

Autonomous struggle therefore removes the “beloved leader” and “top

down” method of organizing from the movement. It promotes and inspires

consensus building thinking and decentralized organizations. Too many

Black organizations, even ones claiming revolutionary politics, have

adopted the corporate leadership structure complete with board of

directors or central committees that consult amongst themselves and

issue directives to the people or communities they claim to serve

instead of involving these communities in the decision-making process,

which would empower the community as opposed to the organization. This

approach is contrary to autonomous movements which operate from a

decentralized posture making decisions rapidly, fluidly and at the

service of the people and community by directly engaging them in the

process. Previous attempts at centralized leadership of the Black

Liberation Movement has been met with resounding disappointment and

failure.

For those of us who have been shackled by the outdated politics and

rhetoric of the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements autonomy

should be music to our ears, allowing those of us who were born in the

70’s and 80’s the opportunity to fashion our own ideas and solutions to

the social and racial injustice we are confronting. It is our time to

rebuild and refashion the movement as Fanon so eloquently puts it: “Each

generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission and

fulfill or betray it”. In this regard, we are not only breaking free

from the political reality the state has imposed on us and our

communities we are also breaking free from the “messiah” dependence that

many of our people and communities used to be trapped in that operated

under the assumption Black people must be led to the promised land by a

Black leader or organization. No, that is not the case, we will lead

ourselves. Any leaders or leadership that emerges would flow from an

activist’s history and track record of struggle and uncompromising

positions when it comes to confronting state injustice as well as

commitment to consensus building and new ways of meeting the needs of

the community. Also any decisions the leadership arrives at would be the

collective decision of the movement after consensus meetings and debate.

So the concept of leadership in autonomous movements does not involve a

leader directing—rather she/he is being guided by the informed decisions

of the movement’s members.

There are good reasons for stripping leadership of corporate-style

decision-making processes. How many times has the community’s interest

been compromised or betrayed by national Black leaders like Jesse

Jackson or Al Sharpton swooping in to take the lead of a protest that

local activists initiated only to have them hold a photo-op press

conference with local politicians, push aside the local activists and

cut a deal that leaves the core grievances in place while highlighting

themselves as responsible negotiators then they hop in a plane and fly

off back to their headquarters. These great compromisers take the steam

and the initiative out of local activists campaigns and protests. They

are more interested in symbolism than substance. Autonomous movements

and activists on the other hand focus on substance as opposed to

symbolism. Also this critique should not be interpreted so broadly as to

imply that no national movement or national movements should exist but

rather that movements that possess national structures should allow for

autonomy at the local and regional level.

In leading ourselves and developing our own generational ideas and

solutions, we should not hesitate to look to other regions of the world

that have a history of autonomous struggle. At this moment Latin America

is the region with the most dynamic examples of autonomous movements

carving out spaces for themselves within urban and rural societies

traditionally neglected by their governments. A recommended book to read

on these movements is Dancing With Dynamite: Social Movements and States

in Latin America by Benjamin Dangl. Another idea from Latin America that

activists operating within autonomous radical organizations/collectives

in the United States should adopt is networking through an umbrella

organization similar to the People’s Global Action network, a global

network of autonomous movements that shares ideas, tactics and

strategies related to grassroots resistance and activism. There needs to

be an autonomous congress or collective within each city that would

allow activists and grassroots organizations to network and share ideas,

coordinate protests and, if possible, share resources. These grassroots

organizations need to break out of their own spheres of activism,

focusing on their issues exclusively, and develop multi-issue campaigns

in concert with other grassroots organizations that would connect

antipoverty activists with anti-police brutality activists, social

justice activists with housing and health care activists, prisoner

rights activists with human rights activists, etc, etc. Alliances of

solidarity are important in autonomous movements—it prevents the

movements from becoming isolated.

III. AUTONOMOUS CULTURE

Autonomous activism and movements also create an autonomous culture, a

revolutionary culture that is directly in opposition to the capitalist

“Me First” culture of consumerism that dominates the social, civic and

political landscape of our communities. When we are attacking the

legitimacy of the state, or rather identifying its illegitimacy, we are

also in the process of developing a revolutionary culture that revolves

around a system of values based on camaraderie, ethnic solidarity and

solidarity with all activists that share our vision of building a new

society that eliminates oppression and exploitation, and promotes

collective economics and a social and civic medium in which feelings of

love, sincere support and commitment are the mediums of exchange as

opposed to individualism and the pursuit of a materialistic consumer

culture. A person should not be judged on their financial worth but

rather on their human qualities. The pursuit of happiness, authentic

expression and self-determination in the individual and collective

spheres is the cornerstone of autonomous movements.

To quote Che, “At the risk of sounding absurd, I will say that the true

revolutionary is guided by feelings of great love.” In this context

autonomous movements and communities are not automated enclaves, they

are vibrant enclaves with positive and progressive energies where

conservatism, patriarchal, or homophobic attitudes should have no place.

These traits being stagnant and in the path of personal and communal

development. The values of our society are not rigid moral codes that

place us in judgment over one another but are righteous moral values

that respect the individual and the community—they are communal values.

The environment we seek to create will allow for the full development of

an individual’s potential and a new culture and society that releases

the full potentialities of human beings. While this may sound like a

simple goal, when you think about it, it is truly revolutionary

considering we inhabit a society that is completely in opposition to the

values we hold and strive to replicate within our communities.

So the culture we are building is an empowerment culture, a communal

culture as opposed to a consumer culture and this can only be built

through action and mutual cooperation amongst ourselves:

“One of the great strengths of traditional Afrikan societies was their

communal democratic composition. This great communal tradition was

founded on the deep understanding of the unity of life. Our Afrikan

elders understood that the land, the air and the water are God’s gift

(or natures gift) to all living things. God and Mother Nature did not

invent the idea that land, the airwaves and the water are private

property. Put another way, the great Afrikan communal tradition teaches

us that true liberation cannot exist under a system that allows a few to

control the land, water and airwaves”.

— Oba T’Shaka

IV. CONCLUSION

“You have the emergence in human society of this thing that’s called the

state. What is the state? The state is this organized bureaucracy. It is

the police department. It is the army, the navy. It is the prison

system, the courts, and what have you. This is the state, it is an

organized oppressive organization.”

— Omali Yeshitela

In conclusion the concept of autonomy and dual power is not about

reformism, its about liberating ourselves from the oppressive state.

We’re not out to be better politicians than the politicians or make the

police better police or the corporate state a better corporate state.

Autonomy is independence, as best possible, from these entities which we

view as illegitimate. Our relationship with government one of opposition

and if any relationship is necessary it must be one of pressure and

confrontational politics. We can’t pretend to be on the same page, we’re

in an all together different book. A book of resistance that the

oppressed peoples of the world are presently writing and each autonomous

movement and member is a chapter being written in this book of love and