Back in 1992, Bruce Little was a DJ for a political hip-hop/talk radio show (one of the only ones out at the time) and, with Lorenzo Komboa Ervin and Greg Jackson, one of the founders of the Federation of Black Community Partisans, perhaps the first American-organized Black anarchist formation. At the time, the FBCP and its publication, Black Autonomy, were some of the freshest ideas emerging in the anarchist movement. From its in-your-face style and no-BS politics, Black Autonomy took both black leadership and the white left to task on developing a tendency of struggle. Bruce went on to pen pieces like “Tha New Script,” and was passionate in his efforts for revolutionary change.The FBCP evolved into Black Autonomy International and then the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers. Since that time, Bruce has written about various political struggles, being a person of color in revolutionary movements, and how to make effective change. Along the way, he and his wife had a child and relocated from Houston, Texas to New York City. In this interview, Bruce talks about his political coming-of-age, the formation of the FBCP and strategies for organizing among people of color in the years to come.

Q: So how did you first get acquainted with politics, and then get connected with anti-authoritarian politics?

Bruce Little: I shook hands with a guy who was working a table in front of the Hillcroft Fiesta. He was a member of the Socialist Workers Party. I saw the various Malcolm X books which this particular organization loves to use as bait and I stopped and talked politics with him. Prior to me coming upon this table, I had just read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, I had just discovered Public Enemy, and it had just clicked with me that all the guys dying on CNN that were Crips and Bloods were black. I had always been a political animal since I was a teen, but the need to make change had never been stronger ’til then. Actually the guy at the lit table was a nice person. He died months later before my first political action. Anyway, The white left ploy worked on me. I went to their table every Saturday to buy more Malcolm books and their damned Militants [Militant is the SWP newspaper -ed.]. But that’s ok, it all lead up to me becoming active in anti-apartheid work. I joined the Young Socialist Alliance in ‘89 and about eight months into it, I was really questioning the race issue vs. the strict “class struggle” perspective that most Marxist-Leninists come from. I felt that there was hostility against people of color who see their Diaspora and its politics as a priority. And the way I saw it, right or wrong any sentient group, race, gender, or sexual orientation has the right to determine what direction they should go towards their liberation and that self-determination should not be seen as an inconvenient obstacle. And that’s when I ran across an issue of Anarchy: Journal of Desire Armed. For years I looked back on my “punk” days and saw anarchy as an attitude or lifestyle that fueled a youth culture, but after reading Anarchy and getting into the various perspectives from its letter section, Anti-Authoritarianism became real to me. At least as real as a socialist revolution.

Q: What writings and ideas inspired and educated you at the time?

BL:Malcolm. And later when I left the SWP, I began to read others who were inspired by Malcolm. Assata Shakur, George Jackson, Harold Cruse’s Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, Maurice Bishop and Ishmael Reed.

Q: As a DJ, you used talk and music to educate youth. What impact do you think that had on listeners?

BL:A good one at first. I think the callers we had gotten were very impressed with the selection of music that we played at the time. Commercial radio wouldn’t play the more radical stuff that Public Enemy was saying as well as not playing acts that were underground and unknown. The music was the catalyst that brought people to us to talk politics or listen to the issues we were putting out there.

Q: You’ve mentioned before when we’ve spoken before that Harold Cruse’s The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual opened your eyes about some things. How so?

BL: Harold Cruse’s Crisis of the Negro Intellectual was a real reality check for me in the way he described the political scene in New York in the 30s. The patronizing relationship that white progressives from the Left and artistic structures had with black progressives was one were there was a siphoning of the best and brightest black thinkers and talent and then they used them to a point of ineffectiveness. Their people (the black community) weren’t listening them. And here I am in 1989. I felt that as a young black man in his twenties and a member of a white M-L group like the SWP, that I was invisible in the various coalitions I belonged to because there was this stamp on my head saying “Alien Intruder”. I spoke in a language that most of the peeps didn’t want to hear and tried hawking a newspaper that none of them wanted to read because it really didn’t speak to them. Of course Harold Cruse was a big time rah rah believer in Black Capitalism, so he definitely had his darts for any left leaning progressive tendencies that was home grown in the black community anyway. He really didn’t seem to like the black berets very much.

Q: Would you say you were then or are now referring to yourself and with others as someone with a particular ideology — like being an anarchist, a socialist, etc.? And how important do you think such labels are?

BL: After the YSA days, I called myself a black anarchist. But later, I began to drop the label because it was really a pain in the ass to have to explain what you are instead of simply showing what you are. I believe your actions are spoken through you politics and that’s the best way to prove you ideological standings. To be honest, I don’t quite know what I am. I believe that cops are not needed in ANY society, and being a farm boy at heart I’d love to return to the land and plant beans and shit, but I also believe that people are not inherently evil and can organize themselves as a society without oppressing each other. And therefore the advancement of technology can continue. I believe we should hold on the means of production and we can do that without continuing to poison the earth and each other.

Q: Was it tough reconciling anti-authoritarian politics with being a young Black man, especially when you came up at a time when such views weren’t exactly popular, and still aren’t in many communities of color? I know there tends to be in some circles nationalist segments that take people of color who don’t embrace nationalism as pawns of white people, but then there are so-called revolutionary white people who presume, because you’re a person of color, you’re a nationalist and try to appeal to you on that level.

BL: For me personally it wasn’t hard seeing myself as a black anti-authoritarian. If I saw that neither ruling class party was good for black people’s self interest, and my experiences with the white M-L circles was bitter as they were, anti-authoritarianism wasn’t a hard thing to embrace for me. However, how do you approach other black youth who I felt were walking targets of a system that only wants to jail or exploit them with anarchism? The terms anti-authoritarianism or anarchism don’t exactly roll off the tongue and the direction towards an anarchist revolution from the black community seemed like such an abstract road to freedom from an even more abstract road map. It was very hard trying to explain anti-authoritarian politics and make it real to black folks.

Q: You’ve written before about what you’ve seen as some patronizing attitudes generally among white anarchists, some of which might be unconsciously condescending and some which may be actively in opposition. Do you still see that? And what are ways you would suggest other people of color confront those attitudes? And how do you think white folks should struggle within themselves over such issues?

BL:I haven’t been around white anarchists in some time now so I can’t say that that condescending attitude is still as prevalent as when I encountered it. But history is history and when it comes to an inherent tendency with in some circles to be ether paternalistic or exploitative then yes I say that the attitudes are still there and people of color are going to have to take the tough position to organize amongst themselves in order to transform the rest of their people. Let the white progressives deal with themselves and they’ll come around. As for unity across the board, we need it, but not badly enough to where people of color should put up with bullshit.

Q: How did the Federation of Black Community Partisans come about?

BL: Lorenzo Komboa Ervin is the nucleus of the FBCP. And I’m a little fuzzy on who else may have been involved besides myself and Greg and Lorenzo, but Lorenzo has been the one who had the Idea of black organizers doing political work in the black community/Diaspora as anti-authoritarian thereby forming a black anti-authoritarian tendency we called black autonimism. The group consisted of three men. Us three between three states.

Q: What do you think the reaction was to the FBCP when it came out at the time, especially from white anarchists?

BL: I think Greg Jackson and Lorenzo could tell you more about that since they worked a bit closer with white anarchists than I have. They both told me stories of hostility than I seem to remember hearing stories of acceptance. I think alot of white anarchists think that anarchism as a whole is so advanced that racial dialogue shouldn’t be entered into the picture. That’s for the left who feel that blacks and Latinos should be held as sacred cows of the ‘revolution’. Race is not to be recognized or even exists in the anarchist framework of theory. So therefore, a ‘black anarchist tendency’ is moot and possibly suspect of being nationalist to a degree-and that’s where you get the hostility towards black autonomy. I think alot of anarchists who had problems with us were feeling like they were being told that they needed to feel white guilt or maybe even expected to hold black people’s needs to a higher degree or consideration than everyone else like the way the M-L and bourgeois left has been operating historically. But we never demanded anything or wanted anything from white anarchists. We weren’t asking for shit from them. This was our road to choose to say ‘Let us organize amongst ourselves as anarchists and put these ideas out to our people.’

Q: And the organization was having to create its own internal dialogue at the time, wasn’t it?

BL: Yeah, using e-mails, late-night phone calls, what have you. When you really think about it, it was kinda undemocratic the way we decided to hammer out the Points of Unity, and such just between us guys. Of course Lorenzo and I recognized this quickly.

Q: What would you say were the FBCP’s successes, and what are things you’d do differently now?

BL: We definitely made a voice for ourselves in the black community. Lorenzo and Greg made some headway and contacts. As for me in Houston I may not have worked hard enough to give us a physical presence. However, the FBCP’s written material I distributed had caused reaction from both the Nation of Islam and the RCP [Revolutionary Communist Party]. Greg’s pamphlets were great ammo putting forth a real dialogue exposing the empty promises of bourgeois black nationalism and the exploitative nature of the M-L. It was so funny the black bookstore that I distributed FBCP stuff to was getting complaints from the RCP that they shouldn’t carry our stuff because they were packed full of lies!

As for what I’d do differently now, I would’ve tried to work more with other forces in the black community. That’s why since I’ve moved to NYC, I’ve decided to work with the Black Radical Congress. There are socialist, feminist, M-Ls and I’m guessing anarchists working on issues in the black community through this broad based organization. I feel I need that kind of framework for now to network and use as platform help organize the black community especially around police brutality.

Q: Out of FBCP came BANCO, which is doing more active community organizing. That’s a term that’s tossed around a lot, but do you think there are ways anti-authoritarians of color can effectively organize for change in their neighborhoods or barrios?

BL: Try working with others in larger broad based groups. Don’t let sectarianism retard your ideas and what you stand for especially since no one in your community has ever heard of autonomism. If you’re trying to win your people over with your beliefs, the best way to do it is through your actions. Fill the void in some of these community organizations where the people listen to and follow the black bourgeoisie. Be there to have open debates with the Jesse Jacksons and political party hacks that lead our people down the same roads of empty promises. That to me is the best way to be effective

Q: What advice would you give a youth of color who might be reading this and is thinking about doing something politically to change the conditions her or his people face?

BL: Use everything at your disposal to get your ideas across. The Internet, voicemail, print, electronic media. It’s all there for you to use to educate your people. Don’t be afraid to try everything as far as tactics or strategy — from civil disobedience to street theatre to hosting community forums. Not one thing alone works, but all work. Study the history of the struggle and learn its mistakes. Use the force.

Q: What inspires you as far as music and books?

BL: As far as books, as I mentioned earlier, Malcolm’s speeches and Assata, George Jackson, but I love bell hooks’ Black Looks and Outlaw Culture, anything by Ishmael Reed, Lonely Crusade by Chester Himes, Uncovering The Sixties by Abe Peck, Claiming Earth by Haki Madhubuti, Anarchism and the Black Revolution, by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, Monster by Sanyinka Shakur, Hakim Bey, PE’s It takes a Nation.. John Coltrane, Sun Ra, John Lennon, Consolidated, Dead Kennedys, Dead Prez, Blowout Comb by Digable Planets. I think that’s the best Hip-hop album ever. Sean Lennon, Jazzy Phat Nasties, Shudder To Think, and Roni Size…..to name a few.

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