Archive for January, 2009

Womyn and transfolk in APOC are putting a zine together that focuses on decolonizing our diets. Food is political; what we eat and how we eat affects land, animals and us.  It is also a tool that can be used for struggles. That being said here’s what we are looking for:

Confessions, recipes, testimonials, images, dilemmas, struggles and poems about food and health.
500-1,000 words
No later than March 7, 2009
Email to anixtla@yahoo.com
You must identify as a person of color.
This project is open to womyn and transfolk , but we are also looking for men to contribute through submissions.

Some of the Topics that we are looking for are listed below. They are meant to be used as a guide but definitely not inclusive so please feel free to expand and express:

1. Food and Sexism: Attitudes to consuming meat and possessing female bodies.
2. Commodification and the selling of traditional indigenous diets such as “super exotic foods”
3. Health and fast food’s genocide of people of color
4. Healthy multi-cultural recipes
5. Food traveling: local vs non local, foods that are mistaken as indigenous to a region and a people.
6. Diets people eat influenced by colonization and imperialism. Idea that western diet is superior.
7. Men’s relationship to food and their division of labor
8. Nurturing and taking care of our bodies.
9. Vegan diets and the way dairy and meat is consumed.

Recipes or entries do not need to be strictly vegetarian, but since this is about decolonizing our diets we are trying to keep it healthy and as harm free as possible. We understand that not everyone is ready to be vegetarian so we welcome recipes that include healthier ways to consume meat and dairy.

Anarchist womyn and transfolks of color, come be part of the editorial collective!! email at anixtla@yahoo.com for next meeting info.

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A poster of this statement is available here.

Dear Oakland,

The night of January 7th we were with you, you were with me, when we saw a glimpse of the future: we smiled and embraced as we lit fires, stomped in windows, destroying real estate, both big and small business as usual. We shared tips on makeshift face masks, we rested together on the sidewalk to catch a breath, we reminded ourselves to “stay calm! don’t run!” when the cops gassed us or when they did their sorry shuffle: charging a little, pushing a little, running a little. We disbanded and came back together time and time again and realized we could make the city into anything we wanted.

We flew through the night, always outrunning the twin monstrosity of police and liberal politics– both who call for passivity– staying close to familiar faces, but always defending a stranger. Here we write this letter even while we know that where our words so often fail, only our fires emerge victorious. But let this letter be a word of encouragement. Let this letter be comfort in the courtroom when you stare up back at the judge, when they call you a criminal. We do not silently watch as they disappear us into their prison dungeons, their service industries, or when they feel free to wave guns at us and shoot us. Let this word be with you.

The early morning of January 1st was no accident, just as the fire lit night of January 7th was no accident. There are those who left early on the 7th who decry destruction and only want the specificity, the precision of a planned action with a planned target. They don’t know that our plan was to rebuild our humanity and that the target was the city. They expose us to their legitimacy litmus. They are afraid of our wild ambitions, they have a smug disdain for our free humanity, they are torn between their boring critiques of capitalism and how they don’t want to think we’re mongrels– but in their hearts, they do. We see them all the time: little conquistador Napoleons who want to mastermind a charge and lead a loud megaphone chant. Don’t let them guilt or shame you– if it helps, let this word be with you.

They do not know that our power does not have to look like neighborhoods of small businesses that cater to the middle road, businesses that employ us to work unending hours for them, all the while suspecting of us one perversion or another. Not now, or not ever, but especially not now when we live in a world where no one bats an eye when they kill us, imprison us, humiliate us each day. There is no human rights delegation to our daily lives– there are only capitalist gate keeper service agencies and liberals who think they know what’s good for everyone. No flashy car, no Obama/Biden bumper sticker, no “mom and pop” can prevent us or sell us the betrayal of our own experiences. We don’t grieve for a car window, or a nail salon, or liquor store, just as we don’t grieve for a McDonalds or a bank. We grieve that we are choked each day and we celebrate that just past the tear gas we finally caught a breath of reality. We finally found humanity, together.

It’s cause to walk with a lighter step this week, to burn this memory into our histories, to remake our dreams for the future. We are reminded of what’s possible: to be tender and patient with one another, and save our rage and distrust for those who destroy us. A heartfelt congratulations to you.

No business as usual, not ever, always towards humanity,
Barbarians,
Criminals,
POC Anarchists,
the dignified.
With a friendly nod to the day to day realities in Chiapas, the anarchist and the Arab in Greece, the civilian and the militant in Gaza, the suggestion of New School, the anarchist and the radio and the barricade in Oaxaca, the prisoner in Atenco, the legacy of Watts, the day laborer in Osaka, the uprising in St. Petersburg, the Burmese anti-fascist, the uprising in Cincinnati, the dignity of Benton Harbor, the dignity of suburban France, the farmer in Afghanistan, the Chinese in Milan, the young of Ungdomshuset, the militant’s Chile, everywhere where our dignity overpowers our shame, where our strength proves itself collectively, where our emotions manifest publicly and collectively, where such basic humanity is born and breathes, where there are those who adhere to a human decency no culture can destroy– which fortunately, is everywhere. Onwards!

For those who unfortunately were arrested, we’ve heard that there is friendly legal support from the National Lawyers Guild: 415 285 1011.

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Long-time New Afrikan Anarchist Prisoner of War, Ojore Lutalo was set to max out after 26 years of imprisonment at New Jersey State Prison and had an exit interview and receiving a release date of December 25, 2008. Ojore is now being told his release date is October 23, 2009! They did two sets of calculations for his work credits/good time, going back to his earlier conviction in 1970’s., which he was paroled from but violated in 1982. Bonnie Kerness said that Ojore was really optimistic about getting out this year given that he had the release date on paper and the exit interview but that he’s a realist about the NJ DOC and how they operate. While his new release date is now October of 2009, he can continue to earn good time/work credits and get it down to an August 2009 release date.

“Here we remain, yesterday’s urban guerillas, abandoned in captivity” – Ojore Lutalo

Ojore Lutalo is locked down is prison for fighting for the people and for revolution. It’s our revolutionary duty to ensure Ojore has all the support he needs when hits the streets! We must support him and we must continue the struggle for freedom for all of oppressed and disenfranchised people of color.

Philadelphia Autonomist / Anti-Authoritarian / Anarchist People of Color (APOC) are calling on all APOC and all oppressed and disenfranchised people of color who want to be free to show our love and support (and raise a little money) for our brother Ojore Lutalo this February 2009. We’re calling for the month of February, traditionally known as “Black History Month,” to be Black Liberation “Month”. APOC and other like-minded radical people of color are encouraged to organize a month of political education, revolutionary events and benefits for Ojore Lutalo and Black Liberation in your hoods, communities and regions.

Event and benefit ideas can include but are not limited to: revolutionary poetry and music shows; political movie screenings; black liberationist speakers; banner drops, stencils, wheatpasting, graffiti in solidarity with Ojore; community potlucks and discussions; and much more.

All funds, by check or money order, payable to TIM FASNACHT, can be sent to:

Philadelphia ABCF / P.O. Box 42129 / Philadelphia, PA 19101

For more ideas on events and actions for Black Liberation “Month” and to support Ojore Lutalo email APOC-Philly [at] riseup.net

ALL POWER THROUGH THE PEOPLE

*Please Forward Widely! Please Act Now! *

From:http://abcf.net/prisoners/lutalo.htm

Ojore Lutalo is locked down in Trenton, New Jersey, for actions carried out in the fight for Black Liberation.

In Ojore’s own words, he is “serving a parole violation sentence (we received 14 to 17 years) stemming from a 1977 conviction for expropriating monies and engaging the political police in a gun battle in December 1975 in order to effect our departure from the bank, and to ensure success of the military operation…”

“After my parole violation term terminated in December 1987, I started serving a forty year sentence with a twenty year parole ineligibility (I was paroled in 1980, and I have been back in captivity since April 20, 1982) that I have received in 1982 for having a gun-fight with a drug dealer. The overall strategy of assaulting a drug dealer is to secure monies to finance one’s activities, and to rid the oppressed communities of drug dealers.”

Ojore was originally arrested with New Afrikan P.O.W. Kojo Bomani Sababu, and was struggling with comrade Andaliwa Clark up until the point that Andaliwa was killed in action within the confines of New Jersey’s infamous Trenton State Prison after he shot two prison’s security guards in the repressive Management Control Unit (M.C.U.) on January 19th, 1976 when they tried to stop him from escaping from captivity.

Ojore was a comrade of the late Kuwasi Balagoon, a New Afrikan anarchist P.O.W. “I’ve been involved in the struggle, the war against the fascist state since 1970. I’ve been an anarchist since 1975 without any regrets. Prior to my involvement in the struggle, I was just another apolitical lumpen (bandit) here in Amerika.”

“I was… influenced and highly motivated by the Black Liberation Army (B.L.A.) here in Amerika. These sisters and brothers were New Afrikans just like me from the streets of the ghettos who took the initiative militarily, to start assassinating members of the state’s security forces who were murdering black people in our communities. From the inception of all revolutions, I feel that the people need armed combat units to check state sponsored acts of terrorism by the government’s security forces. In addition, I feel that these armed combat units are necessary to show the people that fascist acts of state-sponsored terrorism… will be responded to militarily. In 1975 I became disillusioned with Marxism and became an anarchist (thanks to Kuwasi Balagoon) due to the inactiveness and ineffectiveness of Marxism in our communities along with repressive bureaucracy that comes with Marxism. People aren’t going to commit themselves to a life and death struggle just because of grand ideas someone might have floating around in their heads. I feel people will commit themselves to a struggle if they can see progress being made similar to the progress of anarchist collectives in Spain during the era of the fascist Bahamonde…”

Ojore is presently locked down in an M.C.U. in Trenton. “I’m encased in a cage of steel and concrete surrounded by by high prison walls topped with gun towers and rows of razor wire while being watched by sadistic fascist pigs. Nevertheless, I’m not complaining because I have accepted revolution, which is an armed struggle for me, and I have come to terms with the prospects of death and captivity… The vast majority of the Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners now being interned here in the concentration camps of North Amerika aren’t receiving any assistance (e.g.: being liberated, assistance in liberating ourselves, financial assistance needed to obtain food packages, winter clothing, reading material and postage stamps) from the so-called progressive revolutionary organizations, groups and individuals here in Amerika. With our talents, we have been abandoned here in the state’s numerous concentration camps and our M.C.U.s by those out there in what we call minimum custody…” We don’t need moral support because we have purpose. We don¹t need anyone to tell us to stay strong because we are going to remain stead-fast anyway, because we have come to terms with the prospects of death and captivity.”

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