💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › anonymous-black-armed-joy.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 19:49:44. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
➡️ Next capture (2024-07-09)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Black Armed Joy Author: Anonymous Date: 2022 Language: en Topics: Black, Black anarchism, insurrectionary, insurrection, armed struggle Source: Retrieved on 2022-01-18 from https://haters.noblogs.org/post/2022/01/18/black-armed-joy-some-notes-towards-a-black-theory-of-insurrectionary-anarchy/ Notes: *Note from haters cafe: This essay was submitted to us by a group of
This essay is dedicated to the memory of our revolutionary elder,
theorist, and warrior Russell Maroon Shoatz
This essay was inspired partially by one of our comrades while we were
discussing the failures of non-violence as a tactic and philosophy. She
said something along the lines of “I was raised by radicals from the
1960s and 1970s. If you were a Panther and you got caught, you were
doing something wrong.” The zine is a product of a variety of
conversations among Black anarchists in the post-George Floyd rebellion
although many of these strands of thought have existed prior to this
moment. We have three questions we hope to address in this zine.
What would an insurrectionary anarchist position thoroughly rooted in
black radicalism and black revolt mean? How does the current white
insurrectionary anarchist milieu fail? How can Black revolutionaries
extend the insurrection?
To those who are unfamiliar, “anarchism” does not mean “chaos” nor does
“insurrection” mean “mindless destruction.” Anarchism is the concept of
social self-rule etymologically translating from “anarkhos” in Greek
meaning “no rulers.” Therefore, In the words of Elder Lorenzo Komboa
Ervin, “Anarchists are social revolutionaries, who seek a stateless,
classless, voluntary, cooperative federation of decentralized
communes-based upon social ownership, individual liberty and autonomous
self-management of social and economic life.” When we discuss
insurrectionary anarchism, we are discussing a tendency within the
anarchist movement that focuses on insurrection as the primary
revolutionary practice. Insurrection meaning, the social phenomena of
unmitigated rebellion; the forceful redistribution of private property,
land, and justice by the unsettled masses. The concept of attack and
constant conflictuality with hierarchical forces is central to
insurrectionary anarchism. Insurrectionary anarchists do not believe
that we can simply “dual power” or “vote” our way to freedom. The
institutions which currently uphold racial capitalism and all other
forces of domination must be smashed. There can be no revolution without
revolutionaries who must be engaged in taking militant actions against
the State and Capital. Finally, insurrectionary anarchists value the
self activity of the masses as important. While not neglecting
organization, insurrectionary anarchists understand that insurrections
as a revolutionary phenomenon are social, not military. The self
activity of the exploited and the oppressed drives revolution, not the
actions of Leninist parties or so-called revolutionary unions.
Insurrectionists emphasize the informal nature of revolution and
organization. The revolution to destroy this world happens from the
bottom up and includes all or does not occur at all. We define the terms
of insurrectionary anarchism here before we launch into our critique to
clarify for readers who are unfamiliar and to avoid any confusion.
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.” – Assata Shakur
It is imperative that we develop a Black insurrectionary anarchist
position. The history of Black struggle in this kountry is a history of
revolt by any means necessary. It is a history of constant attack by the
Black masses against the capitalist and colonial powers which enslaved
Black people. 2020 reminded many of us of this history and legacy.
Despite this, many Black liberals hope to erase the George Floyd
rebellion from our memories. Many on the Black “Left” hope to do the
same so they can suck us into the same 50 year old organizations that
have failed to produce anything other than symbolic protests and useless
conferences.
Going even further, many on the more reformist and authoritarian ends of
the Black Left wish to reduce the history of Black people and Black
radicals down to simply formal organization. Despite lifting up figures
such as Assata, they label any sort of Black rebellious activity as “too
fast” or “not ready” or complain about the ultra-left “ruining” their
plans for revolution despite the rebellious actions of Black youth in
the summer of 2020. They do not want black people to study the Black
Liberation Army’s tactics. They wish to erase Kuwasi Balagoon and his
rebellious ways. They wish to erase how Assata Shakur was liberated.
They wish to erase the general strike of the Slaves. They wish to ignore
the Maroons. They just want us to participate in their reformist
campaigns to “Defund the Police” or “Community Control of the Police.”
The Black insurrectionary must reject these positions.
We seek unmediated and uncompromising conflict with State and Capital.
It is abundantly clear that last summer, the Black masses proved they
were uninterested in “Defund” or “Community Control” instead opting to
fight cops and loot businesses. We reject non-violence and compromise.
In the words of Elder George Jackson, “We must accept the eventuality of
bringing the U.S.A. to its knees; accept the closing off of critical
sections of the city with barbed wire, armored pig carriers
criss-crossing streets, soldiers everywhere, tommy guns pointed at
stomach level, smoke curling black against the daylight sky, the smell
of cordite, house-to-house searches, doors being kicked in, the
commonness of death.” We all saw the Third Precinct in Minneapolis burnt
to ashes. We reject “tactical” arrest. We reject symbolic protests and
marches that continually lead to more violence from the police with
nothing in return. We share a fundamental belief that the Black
insurrectionist should seek to dismantle all oppressive systems even
within the so-called “radical” organizations and scenes. Living anarchy
means living by principle. Living by principle means we dismantle
systems (as best we can) in this world at this moment.
Although there have been some formations such as Salish Sea Black
Autonomists which have linked Black radicalism and insurrectionary
anarchy, we feel that it is continually important to point to how attack
and conflictuality are central to any serious Black anarchist politics
concerned with revolutionary change. With the resurgence of interest in
Black anarchic forms of radicalism with the works of William C Anderson,
Zoe Samudzi, the Anarkatas, and Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, we think it is
important that Black anarchists do not fall into the trap of believing
that only prefiguration will be enough for revolution. We must
physically attack the white power structure by any means necessary.
Simply building Black owned co-ops is not enough. While we believe the
work of the people in Cooperation Jackson is important, it is
insufficient to simply build co-ops to “opt-out” of capitalism when the
reality is that the State could easily repress these “communes” through
laws or through just sheer force. There is no way out of this capital
nightmare, but through relentless attack, struggle, experience, and
introspection.
We find that the resurgence of “mutual aid” as practice is important for
us to criticize. A lot of “mutual aid” work being done is in reality
just redistributive work with a radical label. While we are not opposed
to this type of work on principle as it helps build relationships
between revolutionaries, the issue is that real mutual aid as a concept
is more present in black queer communities doing GoFundMes for one
another than in radical organizations doing what amounts to leftist
branded charity. We posit, if the act of mutual aid does not contribute
to the development of a revolutionary subsistence economy, then it is
not “mutual aid” that is inclusive of society and must be criticized.
Unfortunately, most “mutual aid” that happens now is not mutual in
nature. Further than that, it does not confront power. We believe the
the mutuality of mutual aid is critical as well as an insurrectionary
element. For instance, many on the Left have dismissed the mass looting
that happened in 2020 as the actions of criminals or as “not political”
while in fact, Black people liberating resources and commodities from
corporations is far more revolutionary than much of the “organizing”
done by leftist or abolitionist formations in this kountry.
Expropriation from the capitalists will create the basis for our
subsistence economy. We must think of the revolutionary bravery and
solidarity these acts inspired as we look toward militant property, land
reclamations, and capital expropriations in the future. We should look
more toward these types of examples of mutual aid as opposed to a more
charity-NGO driven model. Our critique of mutual aid is similar to our
critique of “dual power” or the “solidarity economy.” Alone, mutual aid
is not enough to confront and destroy capital. We cannot simply
“opt-out” of capitalism. We must become ungovernable.The Black Communes
must arise out of the Black insurrection as we learn from our elder
Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin.
We dedicate this section to the memory of Antonio Mays Jr who was
murdered by a white leftist at the so-called CHAZ. We also dedicate this
section to Michael Reinhoel, Eric G. King, and David Gilbert. We
encourage white revolutionaries in amerika to follow your revolutionary
examples. If there is to be a revolution realized there must be less
talk, more action.
From our vantage point, the insurrectionary anarchist milieus in the
United States are mostly white in composition and analysis. Their racial
analysis does not really recognize the insurrectionary capabilities of
the Black masses, and their attempts to are often festishizing. Most
insurrectionary anarchist analysis and theory focuses upon Europe as the
primary example of revolt. When the insurrectionary milieus such as the
white boys at Ill Will do focus on Black revolt, they downplay the
racial dynamics of the riots by labeling everything as “multi-racial.”
Without a proper understanding of the experience of being Black, there
can be no understanding of how to nurture the Black revolt beyond its
infant stages. Needless to say, this experience and leadership must be
led by those living between the margins of racial capitalism; women,
trans-folk, lesbian, gay, and other sexually and racially oppressed
groups. Beyond that, we understand the youthful character of the
insurrection as those young-people living in our cities have the most to
gain from the beginning stages of our revolution. While the character of
the 2020 George Floyd rebellion was not limited to just Black people
participating, the white insurrectionists seeking to universalize the
black revolt are the “All Lives Matter” types of the anarchist movement.
We risk being accused of perpetuating the “white outside agitator” myth
by writing this essay but the reality is that whiteness and
anti-Blackness continues even during a riot and after it. It is
anti-materialist to ignore these realities by suggesting that once we
all get into street, all of our actions are the same in the eyes of the
State. These white insurrectionists fail to grasp how their own
whiteness continues to exist within and beyond the riot, instead opting
to believe that race is magically transcended when they smash a window.
White insurrectionists fail to engage with the long histories of Black
insurrectionary history in this kountry by trying to import strategies
and tactics from other revolts here into the United States…please shut
the fuck up about France. This is not to say there are not elements of
struggle in places like Palestine and Rojava or Central & South amerikan
struggles against the state and police. Our oppression is similar in
form and structure and so, our methods of resistance will also be
similar. Indeed, we believe white insurrectionists have very little to
teach us about our struggle. For instance, the fear and critique around
guns at demonstrations that emerged last summer from a number of
“anarchist” publications and report-backs speaks to this. Armed struggle
has always been a part of Black insurrectionary activity. Further, it
makes absolutely no sense to struggle against state and fascist violence
using lesser means of violence compared to their own.
Let us remember, amerika has the largest amount of civilian arms
available to public citizens in the “developed” world. In fact, armed
struggle is a core part of this kountry’s founding documents and
cultural development. We plan on using every element of amerika’s
creation to destroy it. Why is it not asked why George Washington,
Lincoln, even Stalin, Mao, and white anarchists across the world
utilize(d) armed struggle? There are no changes to power or domination,
but with force. Intuitively, we are well aware of the existence and
“doomsday preparation” of far-right militia and fascist cells that are
intent on furthering our extinction. We are also aware of the
infiltration of these accelerationist fascists into our so-called
federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and the national
military. Therefore, we will wage war against white supremacy on all
fronts. The white left may believe that either we have a death wish or
that our lives are dispensable and we are intent on proving otherwise.
The white anarchists handwringing about “symmetrical warfare” or
“horizontal violence” reflects a, perhaps willful, misunderstanding of
history and power in this kountry. This kountry has already been in a
civil war, the remnants of which form the foundations of the current
cultural war. The 2020 rebellions resurfaced white anarchists historic
apprehension toward Black insurrectionary methods, namely guns at
protests/direct actions. We recommend they take a moment to reflect on
the reality that, in the United States, Black people have been and will
continue to be forced to face down white people who continue to act as
proxies of the State. We intend to do as our ancestors did and use any
means available to fight these people regardless of some white
anarchists’ fear of guns. Idris Robinson speaks directly to this white
fear in his open letter to Michal Reinoehl (shot and killed a fascist in
Portland):
“What the double-standard with regards to your situtation reveals is how
violence in America will always necesarily have a profoundly racial
dimension. And it is precisely this–the terrifying core of racialized
violence–that they are trying to repress when they lie to both
themselves and others when they say that their issue with what you did
is a question of strategy or tactics. I mean, give me a break: in a
country that is literally saturated in violence, from blind mass
shooters to murderous police, no one can honestly claim that the few
shots that you let off could in some way be miscontrued as an
escalation. There is simply no way to avoid the spiral of violence that
began at the very moment when the first wooden ships reached the shores
of the Atlantic.”
The white left in the current era must become willing to not only come
to terms with the fact that some of their own family members, so-called
friends, and idols will have to be put down by revolutionary violence if
they act as violent state proxies, fascists, or racists. Those that do
not understand our struggle may see this position as “adventurism,” but
it is only common sense to mitigate racialised violence with a united
front of counter-violence that transcends the psychological and social
racial boundaries of settler-colonialism at subsequent stages of the
armed conflict. In other words, we seek to generalise the armed conflict
amongst the people on the north amerikan peoples united against the
state, all states until the hegemonic machinery and points of production
for ruling class consumerism are reduced to ashes.
Greg Jackson critiques the white left in his “Authoritarian Leftists:
Kill the Cop in Your Head” in the world of anti-blackness, whiteness is
law and order and white people are deputized (made into cops) by the
state meaning their actions are a result of the ” natural way of
things.” White led communes and autonomous zones replicate the state’s
actions on a smaller scale. This is what Jackson alludes to in his essay
real white “comrades” know the importance of Black autonomy is killing
the cop in your head. Thus, We will fight against white led “autonomous
zones” as they replicate the state and antiblackness as shown in 2020 in
the aftermath of George Floyd rebellion, when in the autonomous zone
named CHAZ two black boys ended up shot and one ended up dead. This is
not insurrection at all. Insurrections require deep networks of care and
love or they will die out before they can develop into a revolutionary
movement. These white led anti-black autonomous zones must be attacked
with the same ferocity that we attack the cops and the white militias.
It goes without saying that white leftists who kill black people and
reimpose white supremacy onto supposedly liberated spaces are our
enemies.
Supposed black anarchists or leftists who cover for the White left’s
violent and anti-black tendencies must be considered enemies as well.
Tokenism exists within anarchist spaces. We are tired of yt people
claiming that their groups are multi-racial and unproblematic because
they have the one token black anarchist. It is strange that anarchists
and the Left in a broader sense seem to understand tokenism less well
than liberals though this speaks to the failure of any sort of yt
anarchist political orientation towards race. It is clear that anarchism
exists as a scene rather than a revolutionary movement when there are
multiple majority white “anarchist” projects in majority black or POC
cities. Furthermore, publishing a black anarchist book or having one
black anarchist in a project does not mean your anarchist project is not
colonial. If you are a black anarchist covering for white anarchist
nonsense, you should stop. We don’t care if these people are your
“friends.” If they reimpose white supremacy on black people even as
“anarchists,” they are enemies.
The white left, for the first time in human history, must collectively
prioritize the rest of the world’s wellbeing in mind over their own
cultural racism and privilege. It is the job of all other oppressed
affinity groups across the kountry to ensure that they have no choice
but to act in our interests. We are not our elders. We do not have the
time or patience to wait for the white left to garner the moral capacity
to become true revolutionaries while we are slaughtered like dogs in the
street. Either you will aid the revolution as comrades or we will attack
you as enemies until you do.
We must begin to realize that only the community will effectively deal
with the matter. Not the racist capitalist system, with its repressive
police, courts, and prisons. Only we have the psychology and
understanding to deal with it; now we must develop the will. No one else
cares. – Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
We believe in evolutionary and revolutionary change. Evolutionary change
means prefiguring ourselves and immediate comrades towards
organizational changes we can make on a daily basis towards our end goal
of revolutionary abolition of the state. Our evolutionary changes opens
the door to an insurrectional opening once the catalyzing event occurs.
Revolutionary change is the accumulation of actions by the whole of the
people that result in a mass movement with the goal of aiming of all
humanity’s resources towards the abolition of the state, capitalism,
authority, and domination, simultaneously. It involves the whole of
humanity in constant conflictuality with forces of oppression on an
interpersonal, community, national, and international level. The
insurrection is a social event which means it has social implications
that span international borders. Thus, as the shackles of empire and
militarism are attacked and destroyed in this nation-state, it should be
made it all the more clear in other nation-states how to attack and
destroy the nation-state. If amerika falls, so too does the manager of
international capitalism and colonial oppression.
The Black Insurrectionary position seeks to replicate the destruction of
“3^(rd) Precinct” everyday and the takeover of an “Attica” every hour,
until the amerikan project is deceased and the land has been reclaimed
from those who it was stolen from. In order words, it seeks endless
rebellion and uncompromising counter-violence to deconstruct our violent
world into the peaceful one from which it came. Since the state and
fascists will not hesitate to use all weapons at their disposal to
achieve its aims, so will we to achieve the complete abolition of
amerika as a nation-state in the social, economic, political, and
cultural sense.
In order to prevent the isolation of Black & Indigenous revolutionaries
and subsequent concentration of repression by the repressive state and
fascist populists on our communities, the movement will necessitate the
courageous actions of revolutinaries of every color, creed, and age but
especially, white revolutionaries. We say this because of your historic
failure to act. We refer to the words of Black Liberation Army’s “Open
Letter To The White Left In The U.S.,”
“It should come as no surprise then, that the White-left in modern
western nations is inhibited by their own urge for bourgeois legitimacy,
by their own cultural racism, and by the very process of western,
working class cooptation. The sum of these parts add up to the
revolutionary bankruptcy of the traditional White left in the modern
capitalist nations.”
We believe that for any actions taken by white anarchists, socialists,
communists, and whatever else you all call yourselves to be truly
“revolutionary,” not only must they attack the white power structure at
the pressure points of capital in solidarity with other assisting
forces, but they must attack the white power structure at home. This
means creating the psychological break with whiteness and privilege
required for establishing new relations amongst human beings and nature
itself. In other words, to preserve the lives of countless of oppressed
Black and Brown folks across the world, you all will have to betray your
white privilege to become a white infiltrator with intentions of
eliminating your former family, friends, and compatriots who refuse
change. Third World peoples do not have the time to wait for the
“difficult conversations” you had during summer 2020 while now at the
beginning of 2022 we have endured numerous show trials since the 2020
uprising illustrating the amerikkkan justice system’s desire to avoid
further rebellions by the masses by convicting infamous murderers like
Chauvin and Potter while the rest of the pigs get away with murder and
assault everyday. This means white revolutionaries organizing their own
anti-fascist teams to combat the state and fascist racism beyond just
staging counter-demos. In the example of Michael Reinhoel, shoot to
kill.
We do not believe in statist solutions. We do not support efforts to
“seize” state power, either. Each of our methods is means towards an
ends of abolishing the state. We prefer methods of decentralized
organizations based on common affinities. Once they are formed we should
grow these networks among local groups to national and international
networks of aboveground and underground self-organized resistance. We
prefer making decisions in a series of votes and consensus gaining meant
to garner understanding and establishing solidarity among comrades in
our network and in our communities. We encourage exchanging skills,
arts, and trades and exploring new ones to eventually teach to others as
we create new structures for employment and self-organization within our
communities. We will have to develop our own autonomous trade unions and
apprenticeships to challenge the state and white racism.
We currently observe what can be considered low-intensity warfare among
the young people in our communities. We must initiate the creation of
forums and safe spaces to discuss community-led interventions to deter,
redirect, and reduce the violent and criminal activity in our community
at which point the hatred, despair, and desolation that plagues our
community will be converted into revolutionary armed joy against the
state and capitalism.
We observe that we must cultivate a revolutionary culture to provide a
counter-hegemony to the dominant themes of intracommunal violence and
personal robbery offered by reactionary rappers Lil Durk, King Von, Pooh
Shiesty, Dolph, Nudy, other celebrities in their music, and even the
sports celebrities. These celebrities have been given amenities and been
propped up by the white power structure for a reason. This does not mean
we cannot mourn them or enjoy their arts and talents but that we should
understand their purpose and function. There is a reason that rap went
from an art form that was inherently conflictual, underground, and
counter-cultural to one that has been coopted and mass-produced for
profits and for white people. A reactionary life of drugs, money, and
fame may be appetizing to some but we must somehow invent ways to make
the coming insurrection more appealing to black youth. We can build new
futures based on our own dreams and communities. We must develop a new
sense of care for one another and develop solutions to the violence by
any means necessary. Let it be known, we can attack the state and white
supremacy and build our community simultaneously. “Black-on-Black,” is a
white invention as is “crime” itself. Abolish the kkkriminal justice
system. Free all political prisoners. Free Larry Hoover. Free Tay-K.
Free Palestine.
A failure to act is an implicit approval of state-sanctioned genocide.
For example, as of December 2021, Black people comprise 29.6% of
Chicago’s population but we account for over 80% of all homicides.
So-called “Hispanics” comprise 28.8% of the city and just 13% of all
homicides. Whites comprise 50.0% of the city and just 3.8% of all
homicides. We observe that the vast amount of mental health and
educational resources, healthy food options and after-school
opportunities lie in the white communities. These resources must be
seized and reproduced in all underserved communities over the course of
the insurrection to benefit all. Otherwise, they must be destroyed to
benefit none. Revolutionary violence must be spread to the affluent
areas in the suburbs to create a new field of conflict for the state. It
must be understood that the city, county, and state police, and by
extension, the army are what holds this violent arrangement in place, by
force and so, they must be destroyed by force. We must build networks of
protection and movement from within our communities and without.
History tells us to be wary of the inactive white left. We believe that
inaction is complicity with white supremacy. In fact, we believe it to
be intentional, willful inaction due to the characterization of
collective movements for liberation by white people since we were
brought here as slaves. Throughout our time on this continent, a status
quo with Black people as victims of racialised violence via slave owners
and later police has been quite acceptable. We understand that we are
still slaves in this system and you understand this as well. A failure
by the white left to organize a counter-violence to white supremacy in
coalition with us will result in the Black people left with no other
choice but to move on the white community with force. If nothing, we
will prove that we are all humans that can live and die by violence all
the same and at the same rates. In the words of Elder George Jackson,
“Our pledge is to arms, our enemies are institutions and anyone with
vested interests in them, even if that interest is only a wage. If
revolution means civil war — we accept, and the sooner begun the sooner
done.” That is our pledge, in the event that a revolutionary movement
against the ruling-class is made impossible by the white masses across
the kountry.
Black youth matriculating through the amerikan university system must
accept the university as a site of white supremacist machinery and work
to bring its operations to a halt. We must take whatever information is
useful from the universities back to our communities to educate,
organize, and propagandize those both younger and older than us. The
university, much like the state itself, only serves the further
development of the neo-colonial class of Blacks and the cooptation of
movements led from the bottom-up. The university in amerika whether
“historically black” or otherwise is the pit of “crisis management” that
will never find actual solutions for the problems it creates. It is a
cesspool of student loan debt and worker exploitation. We must leave
bourgeois affiliations and corporate opportunities behind at the
universities in preparation for the coming insurrection.
The only alternative for the masses to revolution is death. The
protracted genocide of the oppressed masses are reacting to COVID-19’s
political, social, and economic crisis and the slow collapse of this
system. The time for change is now.
The current insurrectionary tendencies in the United States tend to lack
any sort of genuine politics which are anti-oppressive or move from the
Margins as the Anarkatas say. They instead tend to be dominated by men
who just want to fight. We do not believe there is revolt without care.
This is completely erased by the “insurrectionary” tendencies who
dismiss all collective care work and long term organizing which
prioritizes building relationships as “liberalism.” We fail to
understand how a serious insurrection will be sustained without deep
networks of care and love let alone supplies and infrastructure.
We must begin to build dual-power. We want to be clear that dual power
if it is built must be tied to the insurrection. Leftist cooperatives or
projects that do not serve the spontaneous revolt of the black masses
are simply vanity projects. We see this with how most “infrastructure”
built by leftists was irrelevant to the George Floyd uprising. Dual
Power, as defined in anarchic terms, is the strategies of building
self-organized counter-institutions to combat the current decadent,
capitalistic institutions. Emphasis on the combat part of that sentence.
As we build our affinity groups we must come up with new alternatives to
the current power structure to begin building. New systems of justice,
fresh food gardens, community entertainment, community defense, etc. As
institutions are destroyed, new consensus-based, horizontalized,
self-managed structures will take their places. At the same time, we
must begin armed squatting of our homes and community centers to defend
ourselves from gentrification and forced displacements. It may end up
being inevitable, but we will also need to find suitable places for
communities in the event our homes are destroyed by the capitalists’
military bombs. If it happened to MOVE in 1985, it can and will happen
today. We must build solidarity networks and create anarchic solutions
to the problems faced by those seeking refuge at the southern border. We
must do this all at the same time and the revolutionary anarchist
minority can start action in these areas immediately.
We should especially prepare for an escalation in repression and
likewise in resistance should a general strike develop among the Black
masses over the course of the next insurrection.
We must have support and love for our homies who are locked inside of
the prison for making the ultimate sacrifices for the revolution. We
must also devise clever ways of aiding in their liberation. The actions
of building care networks (we don’t use mutual aid as we feel that this
term has mostly been co-opted) is an insurrectionary act if done in a
way that does not mediate conflict with the State. Many of our comrades
cannot risk arrest, injury or death because they are providers for
others or they cannot participate on the streets because of disability.
If insurrections are meant to be social and not military, why do most
insurrectionist formations and theories seem to not include the most
marginalized in our society? Everyone must take part in an insurrection,
and that requires us to center the most marginal.
This section is dedicated to Sandra, Rekia, Breonna, Korryn, and many
more we lost too soon. We love you. We fight in your memory.
I don’t have any illusions. Words are or are not comprehensible
according to their actual situation. We only give them space and
credibility if they fall into our patterns and certainties. Defence
mechanisms become automatic and prevent the very reception of the
message. If that was not so the illuminists would have definitively
changed the world two hundred years ago. – Alfredo Bonanno
Make no mistake — we intend to use every method at our disposal to
create a new world. This means in a literal sense, changing ourselves,
the world around us and the conditions of those changes by any means
necessary. We understand the revolutionary potentiality of violence over
the course of the insurrection and subsequent revolution and we also
understand the reactionary propensity for violence in the current era of
fascism, racial, sexual, and cultural oppression. We understand one of
the tools historically at our disposal has been the utilization of arms
in the struggle. It is important to note that this is not the only tool
at our disposal but an ongoing development and synthesis of current and
past struggles. Indeed, both the life and blood of our current youth,
elders, and ancestors has been spilled to provide the economic impetus
for the current ruling-class corporatist arrangement and the
sociological impetus for the pervasive racism, sexism, homophobia, and
transphobia plaguing our current society. This system cares nothing
about our lives, families, homies, or hopes and dreams which we intend
to protect with arms as we attack each of capital’s major productive
points. These strategies will develop as future rebellions develop into
longer insurrections, as society shifts into a condition favorable for
the revolution that is fomenting amongst the masses of dispossessed
peoples. We will unite, inspire, and protect our community and build
bonds with autonomous armed revolutionary projects across the world. We
desire the destruction of capital, policing, racial and sexual
hierarchies, and all forms of sexual and cultural oppression. The
insurrectionary movement of the near future will build upon the
aforementioned networks of care developed through revolutionary
reclamations of capital and property to create conditions favorable to
the growth of a Black Commune. The only way to begin to protect these
revolutionary projects while delivering blows to the state is by the
understanding and proliferation of Armed Joy.
By “Armed Joy” we mean the self-organized armed struggle of the
committed Black anarchist minority affecting and proliferating among the
Black masses at-large to provide the gasoline fuel for the wildfire that
will eminently burn the amerikan plantation in all its capitalistic
splendor and initiate the long-awaited social revolution at the critical
moment. By initiating this attack, we intend to give our children a
fighting chance to survive on this planet regardless of the fears of
white amerika in general and the almost non-existent white left in
particular here in amerika. We understand from the fatalities in kenosha
that the state will aid fascists that kill whites that stand against
their occupation whether peaceful or otherwise. We encourage dedicated
non-Black comrades to struggle against oppression in their own unique
ways while genuinely learning from the struggle and leadership of Black
comrades. We must find the best ways to resist together. However, we
will not hesitate to use arms against those “allies” who willfully
misinterpret our actions to justify state repression or whose reckless
actions engender harm upon our communities. Due to the capitalists’
greed and reckless oversight in placing copious amounts of drugs and
guns in our community, our communities are already well armed and
proficient in the use of arms as tools of destruction and self-hate.
They will be made to see who the real enemies are. The weapons the
capitalists created to destroy us will destroy them. The capitalists’
international weapons manufacturers are also our enemies. There can be
no peace until all the oppressive modes of production are destroyed.
That is, our last gun will be stripped and destroyed when the last
capitalist is dead and the methods of reproduction for firearms are no
longer necessary. Until then, no cop is innocent and no military officer
will be spared our bullets. We urge the new klan-type militias to think
twice before attacking our communities as well. We will not hesitate to
defend ourselves. We argue that the violence that once made racial
capitalism in general and amerikan fascism in particular the cultural
and economic center of the world will destroy it and all it represents
from the inside-out.
This document by no means speaks to the objective will of the black
masses as a whole. It is simply a reflection by a few anarchist comrades
in our an attempt to document insurrectionary anarchism and the path
forward to insurrection as we see it. This document was a product of
conversations and struggle. We welcome critique, study, and practice.
The social revolution in the context of the United States will flow from
the actions of the black masses. While anarchists and insurrectionaries
must participate, we understand the black masses guide the course of
history. We cannot emphasize enough that black anarchists and
revolutionaries must take up the critical questions of revolutionary
strategy in the coming years. We cannot allow white anarchists or Black
vanguardists to dictate how we move. We hope to see this document
generate discussion, organization, and further action within black
anarchist circles. While many black anarchists are busy doing anarchy,
we do feel that black anarchist throught needs more reflection and
theorization in order to broaden the scope of what is possible. Forward
ever towards black insurrection and the black commune!
We Will Shoot Back by Akinyele Umoja
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
A Soldier’s Story: Revolutionary Writings by a New Afrikan Anarchist by Kuwasi Balagoon
Revolutionary Struggle & Insurrection by Alfredo Bonnano
In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
Reparations as a Verb by Salish Sea Black Autonomists
Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
Some notes on insurrectionary anarchism by sasha k
Blood In My Eye by George Jackson
Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon
Move Like Mycorrhizae: Suggestions for Praxis by AFA
Building a Midwest Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement
Black Fighting Formations by Russell Maroon Shoatz
The Dragon and the Hydra by Russell Maroon Shoatz
Real Resistance to Slavery in North American by Russell Maroon Shoatz
The Black Liberation Struggle in Philadelphia by Russell Maroon Shoatz
16 Things You Can Do To Be Ungovernable by Indigenous Action