[note: the following is one persons account of the Anarchist People Of Color Conference held in Detroit OCT 3-5, 2003. Angel Gonzalez is a revolutionary Puerto Rican/Spanish Anarchist living in Portland one of three persons locally who attended the Conference. Angel works with Revolutionary Anarchist People Of Color (a local APOC group), Portland Anti Capitalist Action (www.pdxaca.org) and Burning Rose Collective (part of a Northwestern federation of Anarchist-Communists currently being organized.) You can contact him directly at ]

On October 3rd through the 5th approximately 140 people of color convened, in Detroit, for the first time in U.S. history to discuss revolutionary anarchist struggle. The event was by far the single most inspiring and moving conferences in 12 years of anarchist organizing I have attended. I can’t imagine a time standing in a room with a hundred or so people committing themselves to revolutionary struggle and actually feeling it, actually believing that this is for real. That these people are not playing at games and sincerely aim to see this revolution through. Like the chant goes ‘we have nothing to lost but out chains!’.

Let me break down the dynamics that played out. I have been to several anarchist / anti authoritarian conferences and meetings, and as anyone involved with the movement can imagine, they were inundated with straight white men. The decision to create a People Of Color (POC) only space for these discussions around experiences, and around building bonds in a movement where most of us feel isolated, was brilliant and moving. People from all over the country (KS, MD, IL, MA, CT, NY, AZ, OH, LA, NC, CA,. NJ, TX, MI, PA, WA, OR, and even Canada and Brazil) attended. There was a lot of discussion of the hundreds of other comrades who could not make it. The desire to see something like this happen, was clear, and we were doing it. It was clear to everyone that not only were we making history, but we were planting the seeds towards a new revolutionary movement.

The go arounds introducing ourselves on Saturday morning illustrated another dynamic. People were for real. The vast majority in that room were down for struggle in their communities, and in their workplaces. I am used to the typical anarchist ‘I am in such and such anarchist collective and do anarchy and punk blah blah’ but the people here worked with/against/around : immigration, aids activism, co-operatives, queer/trans politics, housing, Palestinian solidarity, labor, Copwatch, prison abolition, with low income pregnant women, student organizing, working with gangs, youth, revolutionary radio, day labor, anarcho punk, Zapatista solidarity, women’s health, social services, popular education, queer youth of color, self defense, military industrial complex, senior citizen, farm workers… The cross section of work people were doing in their communities was brilliant and an inspiration in and of itself. As well the make of the group came from all walks of life young , old, queer, women, men…I thought it was interesting that maybe 20 out of 140 identified as punk/hardcore as well. A dynamic that is grossly reversed in the general anarchist movement. Which of course begs the question why? Lastly it was also clear that there were people there who come from 20 plus years of revolutionary struggle to those who had never heard the word anarchism before in attendance. There were even a few old Black Panthers there.

The organizers of the conference definitely had their hands full putting everything into place. Workshops were rearranged as presenters cancelled or showed up late. Which was a little frustrating, but the workshops were not in my mind the sole reason I was there. I would say that the workshops were either geared towards introducing those new to anti-authoritarian community organizing such as Copwatch, or Critical Resistance (prison abolition). Regardless though, the presenters were generally amazing and on point, and the perspectives were vastly different from other similar topics at other conferences I had attended.

Some notes on workshops I attended. There were of course several more which took place including Women of color only discussions, queer anarchists of color discussions, POC and anti-war work, FTAA organizing, alternatives to the NYPD, etc… a full list should be able to be viewed on www.illegalvoices.org

ANARCHISTS IN THE PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

There was obviously a clear anti-Zionist anti-white settler colonialist mentality amongst the participants. There was some group dynamic issues with a couple over bearing men. But over all the discussion led to how we can speak of and look at fighting US sponsored imperialism. How people involved with Palestinian solidarity work looks at reaching out to other communities. The discussion also led into what exactly as Anarchist people of color do we envision as an alternative. The two state idea is clearly taking a pro-imperialist stance as well as just advocating a Palestinian state goes against basic anarchist anti-statist ideas. Another question to that posed what ‘does a state give you self determination?’. How do we illustrate anti-statist ideas when building solidarity with people who have no home. Is a state a home?

We talked about influencing debate, making crucial separation between anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic bullshit. Making this in the forefront of our dialogue. A discussion around the tendency of anarchists to rewrite slogans when doing support work for other communities. That we need to come at people from where they are at, using their language and only going so far as these communities, our communities, can go. The dynamics existing in this country right now have left many in Arab / Muslim / immigrant communities terrified. We need to understand this, and using slogans like ‘Death To Israel’ is not going to be speaking to the struggles people are facing here in America when doing this work.

The recognition of Israel being a police state of US funding in the middle east, and recognizing that being in the belly of the beast, understanding and connecting the struggle of Palestinians to indigenous struggles here and around the world, and working from within is our struggle.

ORGANIZING AGAINST THE US CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Two persons from Critical Resistance an prison abolitionist group and one persons from Copwatch, a community police accountability and monitoring group spoke on how they organize and why they organize.

Abolition is believing on faith. Like Christianity its about community building, information sharing, history and practice. We need to believe, and talk, and communicate it in a real way. In NYC Critical Resistance has many projects underway including the development of dialogue as to alternatives to incarceration, corresponding with prisoners, printing a newsletter including prisoner input, implementing a visitation program, developing m8ultiple strategies, and finally holding arts and cultural workshops. The idea behind these workshops is that activism lacks a sustainable culture to keep it fueled, so thus setting up workshops incorporating daily experiences with art and revolutionary culture to fuel these fires. For example doing hip hop workshops and discussions around the mainstream idea of prison as a right of passage for young men.

The workshop broke down the three strategies of prison abolition work: -Link up with cross issues -Sustainable community building -Paying attention to needs, which includes playing into reform with the idea of building for the future.

AFRO PUNK

‘…for the longest time I used to identify as “punk” first…’

Afro-Punk is a documentary directed by James Spooner, following the stories of four African Americans within the punk rock subculture. The stories of these persons is interspersed with dialogue with many other musicians, artists, and participants within the punk community. Many performances throughout as well. The film deals with a lot of issues regarding cultural identity within punk, isolation and loneliness, inter-racial dating, and cultural backlash. The room was packed during the screening and the entire room enjoyed and in some way related to the film. As James, who fielded questions after the film said, ‘try replacing the work punk throughout the film with other white subcultures or with society’. People who knew nothing about punk rock, people who were once active in this community, and those of us who still have affiliations GOT the film. This film is highly recommended and I will be trying to attain a copy to screen in Portland soon. Check out the website at www.afropunk.com.

SATURDAY CLOSING PLENARY SESSION

The closing plenary on Saturday opened with the question “ What does a People Of Color Anarchism look like in our organizing”. The response was overwhelming as the room took the question to heart detailing the uniqueness of being POC within the anarchist movement. We talked of our passion based on experience, and looking oat our histories and cultures for guidance. We talked about not looking to white models or language to define ourselves or our work; to detach ourselves from white leadership in the movement. As throughout the entire conference, a focus on positivity, and community development. Having patience in our work and building a sustainable committed movement. We discussed out internalized oppression and having a sense of constant healing and constant growth. And in general we discussed our recognition that too often times gets overlooked amongst the general anarchist community-that we ARE the people and we need to come at our organizing understanding our communities concerns.

The discussion then went onto ‘What is needed to build this movement.’ Which led to many different means of organizing and communicating towards building a sustainable revolutionary struggle.

[Saturday night, just to mention, Trumbleplex theatre in Detroit hosted an off the hook party that was out of control till four am! All POC mosh pit included to Latino hardcore – another historic moment!]

Sunday was a shorter day and was rushed into with much enthusiasm.

LYRICS ON LOCKDOWN:SLAMMING THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

This workshop dealt with a few workshops that we can use as tools in talking about the Prison Industrial Complex in our communities. The presenter took us through these workshops step by step, drawing on peoples own interpretations of the individual words “Prison” “Industrial” and “Complex”. We developed our own definition of these words collectively as whole to define it in a meaningful way from our own language.

We then learned a few exercises in the Theatre Of The Oppressed, which were fun, educational, and thought provoking.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

The Critical Race Theory workshop had and air of tension throughout the workshop. Critical Race Theory is a hyper-intellectualized idea and was presented by members of RACE from the bay area. The language of CRT is pretty intense. The pamphlet RACE handed out was more than half definitions. The workshop went down hill primarily because of the language, and the presenters defensiveness. People questioned not the ideas but the intellectualized language. But this was miscommunicated and led to some tension. So much so that the workshop ended before it was even half way through. The presenters said they had a plane to catch and left the room at this point.

Then something that I have never seen happen before happened. Everyone in the room stayed there, and talked. We talked about what had just happened in the workshop. We analyzed the power dynamics, the miscommunications, the ideas that were said. Something that led to making this workshop another inspiring moment throughout the weekend.

BUILDING AN ANARCHIST PEOPLE OF COLOR MOVEMENT

This was the last workshop I attended. The conference was marred by tension regarding two proposals for national APOC organizations to form. It appeared as though most people at the conference while recognizing a movements birth, at best felt skeptical about forming an organization at this conference. The United Front Proposal was never brought up as its presenters withdrew from the conference (you can read the proposal at www.illegalvoices.org) and the APOC Network proposal was instead turned into a development discussion around what we need to do to create some sort of coherent movement in the future. The questions posed were ‘what can we do in our communities now?’, what do we need in terms of support/communication/and networking with non anarchists?’, and ‘where do we go from here?’.

The first question of how is our work as anarchists best suited within our communities of color. Many people brought the point of whether the label ‘anarchist’ is essential in helping people to understand their own self-empowerment. Another prominent idea was that we must approach our respective communities and cultures with respect and come at it within their frameworks, not ours; this also illustrates the need to look where people are at and go from there. We need to see ourselves as part of what’s out there and to see and support the anarchism that exists already in communities. We recognize anarchism is organic, and also that we need to show our visions in our practice. This is revolution.

Again highlighted throughout the conference the need to understand our histories, and the histories of the communities that we work within. We need to build off of our relationships and break the isolationism that traps us too often.

Five basic tenets were echoed throughout regarding networking with non-anarchists:
-find common ground and be in the community
-bring together by using each others resources together
-focus ON community
-be honest when balancing our values and other groups as a basis for building trust
-be humble -talk about how you can support, learn from mistakes and support community decisions.

The ending of this workshop closed with the formation of at least five organizing groups towards as many regional APOC conferences to be held within the next year leading to another National APOC conference, which was tentatively proposed to be held in NYC during the RNC next year. There will also be many new networking and organizing tools added to the APOC website www.illegalvoices.org/apoc

IN CLOSING

The first ever Anarchist People Of Color Conference was rushed in such a short amount of time but has definitely given birth to a new revolutionary anarchist struggle that will bear fruit in due time. The energy level, the inspiration, the support and the foundation building of solid relationships within our movement have taken hold and without a doubt our struggle will build. Again like the chant says ‘IT IS OUR DUTY TO WIN’.

Thank you to all those who helped with fundraising (although for future reference do the fundraising well ahead of the event, many people could not come even though there was money available because the funds were handed to us moments before the conference.) thank you to Russ (MO), Emily (IL), Britta and the Bloomington House (MN)and the Trumbleplex house for housing and food and good times. Also thanks to the conference organizers for taking the time to organize this event and give space for this seed to get its shit together and raise up a movement.

Love and revolution-Angel Gonzalez

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