This text was originally posted on the illvox About page. Elements of it now appear elsewhere on the site, but it represents some history of APOC and is preserved here.

About Anarchist People of Color

A particular anti-authoritarian, people of color-led tendency, dubbed Anarchist People of Color (APOC), rose to prominence on February 20, 2001 with the founding by Ernesto Aguilar of an email list and website focused on APOC and various theorists and activists of color. Its purpose, as noted from the old site, was to give radicals of color the tools to agitate among communities of color for anti-authoritarian solutions, and to give those who identified with anti-authoritarian political ideals a space of cultural acceptance and engagement as an avenue into the anarchist tendency. The APOC email list was controversial among anarchist circles at the time of its founding (and even today) for its rule that only people of color could be members of the list.

While there was no explicit inspiration for APOC, work by Black anarchists such as Kuwasi Balagoon and Martin Sostre, and especially Ashanti Alston and Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, has been cited as a precursor. In the early 1990s, organizing by the collectives Black Autonomy International (formerly Black Autonomy and previously the Federation of Black Community Partisans) and Black Fist has also been referenced as part of the roots from which APOC was created.

Email and web discussions evolved into street activism and collective organizing. Supporters of APOC created a dozen or so collectives in many cities; organized APOC Blocs at political demonstrations, such as the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas 2003 protests in Miami; engaged in community outreach activities and continue to build today. This article describes other actions and issues.

APOC launched its former site, illegalvoices, which housed many APOC archives, including online editions of the books Anarchism and the Black Revolution, Cuban Anarchism and African Anarchism; selections from the anarchist newspaper Onward, now defunct; writings on matters of race, culture, gender and their intersections with anarchism, autonomism, social libertarianism, revolutionary nationalism, anarchist communism, primitivism, socialism, communism and a variety of tendencies within the anti-authoritarian milieu; and notes from a national conference on APOC held in Detroit, Michigan in 2003.

In 2005, the original site was adopted by a technical collective following Aguilar’s departure from APOC. About a year later, the domain was lost to what is presumably a reselling company. Today, illvox presents virtually all the content previously featured on illegalvoices.

APOC’s Politics

Since its inception, APOC has not been a formal organization, but rather a loosely defined set of politics. Although it is difficult to generalize about the APOC approach to anarchist, anti-authoritarian or autonomous ideas, from various interviews, there are a few recurring themes. These themes include organizing and agitating with/among communities of color around relevant issues; building a revolutionary anarchist politics inspired by people of color, with respect to their voices, experiences and perspectives; advocating self-determination for people of color and confrontation of white supremacy and white privilege; and calls that a political movement must sincerely and actively serve the needs of communities of color and impart anti-authoritarian politics in the process.

Internal to APOC as well as externally, how APOC’s advocates define their relationship to the largely white anarchist movement has been the subject of intense debate. Many believe supporters of APOC must primarily struggle to serve the needs of communities of color and inject anarchist politics and vision to its organizing. Others feel APOC supporters must be active in the white-dominated anarchist movement to support other people of color and argue for greater inclusion and political advancement. Still others believe a mix of the two is best, while others bring different ideas to the table.

In addition, nearly universal demands by APOC activists, such as attention to cultural respect in the context of anti-authoritarian ideals and advocacy of people of color-only “safe spaces,” have generated much controversy in the largely white anarchist movement. NEFAC (in the piece, “My Class is My Race,” Northeastern Anarchist) echoed similar criticism of APOC supporters for focusing on racial issues. Even today, many whites in the anarchist movement regard APOC negatively. However, APOC is credited by others in the anarchist movement for bringing a more open, inclusive perspective on race, culture and politics to modern anarchism.

APOC collectives have largely analyzed many of the negative criticisms as attempts to avoid accountability for white privilege and to detract from potentially legitimate concerns over racism. Illegalvoices’ frequently asked questions was unrepentant about APOC’s positioning, citing historical white co-opting and slandering people of color-led organizing as a means of maintaining power and control. A more recent comment, by elliot, captures a different thought:

It’s always something: APOCers are always too nationalist, too authoritarian, too liberal, too color-conscious, too something for white-dominated circles–and so their struggles must be illegitimate. That is, [the] APOC movement is always doing stuff that’s too dissimilar to what [the] white-dominated movement is already doing to be acceptable to the milieu.

Over the years, there have been a few initiatives at building an inter/national APOC network or federation. At this time, there is no such group, though there are many local APOC collectives, which define group politics autonomously.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!