Archive for category Anarchist People of Color

APOCs build it from below: Anarchist people of color host regional gatherings

By Marlena Gangi
Editor, The Portland Alliance

Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon were the sites of the NE and NW Regional Conference and Gathering for anarchist people of color (APOC) that occurred this August.

The Philadelphia Conference took place at the Rotunda on August 8 and 9. Portland’s Gathering was held on August 16 and 17 at Liberty Hall in North Portland. Other APOC gatherings are scheduled to take place later this fall in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. A national conference is scheduled to take place sometime next year.

The NE shout-out called on APOC activists to “build a new vision for the future, and a new plan of action for today. We want to expand our understanding of race, class, gender, autonomy, and freedom – while attacking white supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, and ALL borders, boundaries, and barriers.”

Northwest APOCs narrowed their goal to focus on building connections in the region and to begin conversations towards building a national anti-authoritarian / autonomous movement of people of color. The Portland gathering fluctuated between 20 to 30 people for the weekend while the NE fluctuated between 30 to 50.

APOC roots run deep

What is now known as APOC began in 2001 as an anarchist-poc email list and website created by Ernesto Aguilar. Now defunct, the www.illegalvoices.org site was the first broad collection of writings and dialogue by anarchists of color and pivotal in increasing focus on issues of race in the anarchist movement as well as increasing political space for people of color. At present illvox.org is the only active APOC website. The first national APOC conference was held in Detroit in 2003. Thereafter, collectives sprout up all over the country. After Detroit came regional conferences in Washington DC in 2004 and Asheville North Carolina, Berkley and Houston in 2005. The Second National conference was called for in New Orleans in 2005 but was cancelled because of Hurricane Katrina.

APOC is not a centrally organized organization, but a loosely organized network of groups and individuals. While the current APOC movement is relatively new, itís roots can be traced from Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon and the Baja Magonista Revolt of 1911, the revolutionary Chicana/Native/Black American Lucy Parsons Gonzalez (1853-1942) and later to Afro Rican anarchist/activist Martin Sostre (framed on drug possession charges and unjustly imprisoned for nearly a decade in the early sixties), the late anarchist and former member of the Black Liberation Army Kuwasi Balagoon, and former Black Panthers Ashanti Alston and Lorenzo Komboa Ervin.

Alston was on hand at the NE Regional to deliver the workshop The Ballot is a Bullet, with a focus on discussion of utilizing grassroots energy during the 2008 election to counter white supremacist Republican and Democratic politics as usual. Some other workshops included APOC-Alypse Now And Later, At War – taking stock on the 500-year war on Blackness, Class Barriers, The City is Killing Me – strategies for the revolutionary act of keeping ourselves healthy and Buy Black, economic freedom and controlling the conditions of our labor.

The Portland gathering proceeded with workshops that addressed the questions:
*What is APOC? How do we define it?
*What should an APOC politic encompass?
*What might an APOC organization look like? Strategy? Structure? Politics?
*What workshops/discussions would we want to see happen at the 2009 National APOC Conference?

Both gatherings concluded with resolutions to put talk into action in respective communities. Specifically, a NE resolution called for stronger support of APOC prisoners. Out of the NW regional came a resolution for a twice-yearly publication that will include interviews, essays, art work and calendar section with a focus on APOC activism, ideology and culture.

APOC ideology not monolithic

Dialog occurred at both gatherings regarding ethnic and political identity, working with white allies and accountability within APOC.

In attendance at the NE conference was an older Black woman active in prisoner support who had never heard the word anarchist applied to people of color. Concerned by mainstream media images of white, anarchist black clad youth rioting in the streets, she was surprised and somewhat relieved to learn that not all APOCs mirror the ideology or actions of white anarchists. She later spoke of finding it enlightening to see in attendance APOCs ranging in age from late teens to late adulthood who were also quite eloquent and impassioned when speaking of their personal experiences and how those experiences led to self identify as anarchists.

Voices at both the NE and NW gatherings spoke to Native and Indigenous identity and how this intertwines with anarchist ideology, as original Native culture is a culture of sovereignty, autonomy, self determination, land based economy rather than capitalist economy and non-hierarchal with no exploitation of the earth or the human or animal life that walk the earth.

Native tribalism also carries warrior societies, and this conversation included observations drawing from these societies in ways manifested by APOCs today. With this, observations were made to conclude that anarchist warrior activism could range from militant direct action to lifestyle anarchism, with these and areas in between qualifying as revolutionary acts simply because the very nature of these acts by APOCs counter white supremacist ideology.

There was much to say when touching on the subject of working with white allies and the failures and successes contained therein. Much criticism has been leveled at APOC because much of its organization calls for POCs only. With the conversation about white allies sliding into opinions about ethnic identity and use of the term “people of color” the variety of statements made included:

“[We] have to build up a thick skin when entering into their [white majority] spaces in trying to get your voice out and educate white allies at the same time.”

“Part of what draws me to APOC is not having to do Racism 101 with white folks, having a place to do work that does not involve that task.”

“I have encountered so much cultural and racist assumption in the radical white community. To be honest, I am just tired of having to deal with it and mostly have no interest in organizing with white people. It can be exhausting.”

“We have to find connections with other folks, and white people, because we can do things in our community but to deal with larger issues we have to unite with others.”

“We all probably have different ideas of what the “A” in APOC is. Saying people of color also generalizes and erases differences and individual identities.”

“It’s interesting that some POCs see the “A” as a symbol for autonomy or anti-authoritarian.”

“I don’t like the term ‘people of color’ and think we should move away from that. I don’t think we should identify as POC only because of our relationship to white supremacy. We should find strategic alliances, find issues to unite around.”

“Another difference is the issue of national liberation struggles and the history with that. White anarchism dismisses and turns their back on this.”

“We can try to change the ‘APOC’ term, but it has been a flashpoint, people are drawn to it, and we can have the discussions trying to change it, but it is drawing folks to it. It’s not just about folks coming from the white movement or punk movement, people come into it from the community.”

This discussion closed with the commitment that, while points of view vary on building solidarity with white comrades and also vary with the use of the term “APOC,” these varying opinions are to be respected and should never be allowed as a tool for the oppressor to use in creating splits or fractures within the APOC movement.

Other conversations at the gatherings addressed accountability within APOC in relation to calling out negative behaviors such as homophobia, male body privilege, and sexism as well as classist and elitist behavior. All told, both gatherings have created a new energy in a time when it is most needed in regard to the creeping fascism and police state that we exist in here in the U.S. Other regional conferences scheduled to take place throughout the country before the 2009 National APOC Conference are sure to throw a monkey wrench in the works where and when it is most needed; right here, right now.

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August 8th-9th in Philadelphia, PA

“La gente fuerte no necesita un lider, ellos por si mismos son lideres” – Emiliano Zapata

Autonomous/Anti-Authoritarian/ Anarchist People Of Color from across the Northeast (and beyond) are gathering in Philly this summer to build a new vision for the future, and a new plan of action for today. We want to expand our understanding of race, class, gender, autonomy, and freedom – while attacking white supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, and ALL borders, boundaries, and barriers.

Please join us Friday and Saturday, August 8th-9th for the APOC Northeast Regional Conference in Philadelphia!

WHAT: APOC Northeast Regional Conference
WHEN: Friday and Saturday, August 8th-9th
WHERE: The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA

Friday evening will feature films related to APOC movement.
Saturday will feature a full day of talks, panels, and workshops.
Saturday night will culminate with an APOC Rocks! hip hop, punk rock, and poetry concert.

There will also be free (and cheap) food available as well as APOC ‘zines, books, t-Shirts y mas for the masses.

MORE INFO:
http://profile.myspace.com/apocconference
northeastapoc@yahoo.com

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Something big is in the air! Five years ago 150 Anarchist and anti-authoritarians people of color from all walks of life gathered in Detroit to begin the process of interconnecting struggle and passion towards building a new world empowered from below. Five years on, and many struggles later this movement is being rejuvenated by many old and new comrades internationally!

The one goal of the Northwest APOC Gathering is to build connections in our region and to begin conversations towards building a national anti-authoritarian / autonomous movement of people of color.

The Gathering will be split up into sessions lasting two hours each, with breaks in between. Facilitated discussions will include but are not limited to the following areas:

1. What is APOC? How do we define it? What should an APOC politic encompass?

2. What might an APOC organization look like? Strategy? Structure? Politics?

3. What workshops/discussions would we want to see happen at the 2009 National APOC Conference?

Questions, ideas, suggested pre-gathering readings, expansions of the above questions, additional questions, etc… please get in touch!

Additionally if you can provide or need housing, need any special considerations, can help with facilitation, or can provide rideshares to the Gathering PLEASE GET IN TOUCH ASAP!

Northwest APOC Regional Gathering
Portland, OR, August 16-17th
northwestapoc@yahoo.com

THE SCHEDULE

Friday (8/15):
7pm-10pm: dinner/movies/meet/greet APOC ONLY.

Saturday (8/16) at Gathering site:

10am-11am: Vegetarian/Vegan breakfast (all meals will be Vegetarian/Vegan friendly) at the site
-Sign up board for Break Out sessions going on from 3-5pm

I. 11am-1pm: “WHAT IS APOC?”
-history
-what does the “A” mean to people?
-what does an APOC politic look like?

II. 1pm-3pm: “WHAT WOULD AN APOC ORGANIZATION LOOK LIKE?”

-what kind of organizing would we do?
-what has or hasn’t worked in the past?
-what do we need?
- APOC Media: What we have, what we need, how to be more effective

2:30pm-3:30pm lunch on site

III. 3pm-5pm: BREAK OUT GROUPS! At breakfast we will have a big sign up board for folks to list a topic and others to sign up to participate in that discussion during this slot, folks can sign up more and review it at lunch and we can break out from there. This could be gender based, queer based, specific identity based, maybe something on national liberation struggle or anti prison industrial complex organizing, whatever folks feel the need to get together with others to talk about for a couple hours.

SATURDAY NIGHT: benefit event open to APOC and allies with DJ /spoken word

Sunday (8/17): at gathering site
11am-12pm: brunch

IV. 12pm-2pm: “NORTHWEST APOC” A discussion specifically about the Northwest,
-where are we from?
-what struggles exist there?
-what social movements exist?
-what might strategies for organizing look like in the future?
* Coalition work with white allies?

V. 2pm-4pm: “APOC NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2009″
-what do we want to see happen there? –
-brainstorm topics, locations,
-what can we do to make it happen?

4pm-5pm: snacks, reflect, and end.

@@What we need from you@@

Donations- Although you won’t be turned away for lack of funds we are asking for a $10 donation to offset costs of food, site and local transportation. Any left over funds to marked for future NW APOC projects including 2009 National APOC Gathering. There will also be opportunities for fundraising at Saturday night’s benefit event.

Facilitators: we have approx 6 facilitators and could use 2-3 more
-please pick your topics (1st and 2nd choice please)
-2 facilitators per session
-facilitation still needed for sessions I, III, IV, V
-respond to the list or northwestapoc@yahoo.com by Aug 10th puh-lease

Guiding questions: these are questions facilitators will use to move discussions forward.
- please submit ideas for guiding questions for any of the topics
- please submit ideas for reading suggestions related to topics

Note-takers: we need folks with note-taking skills in each session. A report back will be posted to various lists as well as a possible NW APOC Gathering Zine.

Photographers: Nothing fancy, just a couple folks to take pics for posterity and future use in a zine or online.

Important**
Contact nortwestapoc@yahoo.com ASAP if you did not receive the pre-gathering invite because you must be vouched for (either thru the invite or other APOC folks) in order to attend this gathering.

Particular needs? – if there are any particular needs you have regarding housing, food, transportation please contact nortwestapoc@yahoo.com ASAP.

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August 8th-9th in Philadelphia, PA

“La gente fuerte no necesita un lider, ellos por si mismos son lideres” – Emiliano Zapata

Autonomous/ Anti-Authoritarian/ Anarchist People Of Color from across the Northeast (and beyond) are gathering in Philly this summer to build a new vision for the future, and a new plan of action for today. We want to expand our understanding of race, class, gender, autonomy, and freedom – while attacking white supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, and ALL borders, boundaries, and barriers.

Please join us Friday and Saturday, August 8th-9th for the APOC Northeast Regional Conference in Philadelphia!

WHAT: APOC Northeast Regional Conference
WHEN: Friday and Saturday, August 8th-9th
WHERE: The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA

Friday evening will feature films related to APOC movement.
Saturday will feature a full day of talks, panels, and workshops.
Saturday night will culminate with an APOC Rocks! hip hop, punk rock, and poetry concert.

There will also be free (and cheap) food available as well as APOC ‘zines, books, t-Shirts y mas for the masses.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

FRIDAY EVENING, AUG 8TH • 6PM – 12AM

Film screenings all night (at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St)

Born In Flames • 1983 (6:30PM): Documentary-style feminist science fiction film by anarchist of color Lizzie Borden, that explores racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism in an alternative United States Socialist Democracy.

Notes on A Paper Plane! • 2008 (8:15PM): Short fictional film about a black girl from Harlem who tries to sell an anarchist newspaper in the ‘hood.

Frame Up • 1974 (8:45PM): A documentary examining the case of Afro Rican anarchist/activist and book store owner Martin Sostre, framed on drug possession charges and unjustly imprisoned for nearly a decade.

MACHETERO • 2007 (9:30PM): A French journalist interviews a so called Puerto Rican “terrorist” about his decision to use violence as a means of liberation. A Q&A with vagabond the writer and director of MACHETERO will take place after the screening.

SCREENINGS ARE OPEN TO ALLIES OF ANY COLOR

MOVE DOCUMENTARY @ 7PM
Also screening on the same evening at 7PM (at Clark Park, 43rd & 45th Sts, Between Chester & Woodland Ave) will be MOVE: A documentary on the MOVE Organization and the ongoing repression suffered at the hands of the Philadelphia police department and the US justice system

***SATURDAY, AUG 9TH •10AM – 8PM***

A day of talks/ panels/ discussions related to APOC movement and people of color.

THESE APOC TALKS/WORKSHOPS/PANELS
ARE RESERVED FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR

10AM – 10:45AM

APOC-ALYPSE NOW… AND LATER
What were the trials and tribulations facing APOC regionally following the 2003 conference in Detroit? What lessons have people learned about APOC organizing since then, and what can this tell us about moving forward?

11:00 – 11:45AM

THE BALLOT IS A BULLET
A lot of political discussion and mobilization in the U.S. is currently focused on the Obama campaign. How can we make best use of the energy coming up from the grassroots during the 2008 election, with an eye for local action, responsibility and substantive change instead of politicians and party politics?

12PM – 12:45PM

SEIZE THE TIME
This is an OPEN time allotted for networking, exchanging info, and building together.

12:45M – 1:45PM

BREAK FOR LUNCH

2PM – 2:45PM

PLANNING FOR WHEN THE SHIT GOES DOWN:
What you need to do and what you should know.

How is communication in our movements shaped, directed, and in some cases limited by technology? How can we communicate in spite of and beyond technology, and why is this necessary?

3PM – 3:45PM

AT WAR
Let’s take stock of the continuing (500 years and counting) war on blackness. We are at war)!

4PM – 4:45PM

CLASS BARRIERS
Many people currently involved in APOC movement have moved through a university setting at some point, and sometimes this is a significant part of people’s politicization. But while we examine how APOC relates to already-existing movements of people of color, we also ask: how can people relate to APOC movement and plug in if they do not come from an institutionalized educational background?

5PM – 5:45PM

THE CITY IS KILLING ME
Ever wonder why there are so many Mc Donald’s in the ‘hood, but organic milk is like the holy grail? This workshop will look at how city planning and zoning don’t just affect where we live, but how we live. By looking at epidemics that disproportionately affect communities of color, we can see how a complex network of factors, from farming practices to marketing to health insurance, come together to literally make us sick. We’ll also talk some strategy for the revolutionary act of keeping ourselves healthy without relying on the food and medical systems that are designed to keep people of color in check.

6PM – 6:45PM

By / Buy Black
What are some practical steps toward economic freedom—not just improving your credit report, but controlling the conditions of your labor? What fissures in the power structure exist today that folks can exploit to live freer lives, from getting off the grid to forming collective workplaces?

7PM – 7:45PM

Self Defense For APOCs
You have a right to defend yourself. The question is do you know how? This class will focus on basic physical skills at a beginner level. If you’ve never taken a self defense class or want to check out a new style, this is for you. You won’t leave the class a ninja (if you want that, you might want to take the 45 minute “Ninja 101″ class). Come!

THESE APOC TALKS/WORKSHOPS/PANELS
ARE RESERVED FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR

MUMIA TOWN HALL MEETING @ 12 Noon

Also on the same afternoon at 12 noon, the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition will hold a Town hall meeting to Free Mumia at AFSCME 1199 Union Hall, located at 1319 Locust St. (near Juniper). (OPEN TO EVERYONE)

SATURDAY NITE CONCERT • 8PM – LATE

The Mighty Paradocs www.myspace.com/themightyparadocs

X-Vandals www.myspace.com/xvandalsboricuas

Amerikas Least Wanted www.myspace.com/amerikasleastwanted

MUSIC CONCERT IS OPEN TO ALL ALLIES OF ANY COLOR

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This is a call to all Autonomous / Anti-authoritarian / Anarchist People Of Color across North America to begin assembling APOC formations in your hoods, communities and regions!

A small but nationwide listserv is in the early stages of planning a national APOC gathering in the coming year. APOCistas on the conference list are encouraged by APOC gatherings that have taken place recently at anarchist bookfairs, conferences and convergences across the country, which have been spurred in part by conversations occurring on a national level.

For APOC to grow and thrive as a viable force for folks of color in the so-called United States, more base-building needs to take place. More input from people across the country is needed to shape what APOC movement will look like, and what it will achieve in the coming years.

Folks on the conference listserv encourage you to start bringing together APOC formations in your hoods, communities and regions, and to develop sustained APOC projects that will help contribute to broad radical struggle, and a national APOC conference too.

These projects could be anything, really. For instance:

• An APOC listserv in your area, if there isn’t one already
• A virtual collective, e.g. print and editorial groups producing and distributing APOC content
• A regular APOC social gathering in your area, at which APOCers can come together, make connections, and spin off projects and ideas
• A specifically APOC collective, meeting regularly in your city/town and developing its own actions
• A community space or social center managed by and for folks of color

The possibilities are really endless. We strongly encourage all Autonomous / Anti-authoritarian / Anarchist People of Color to build from the connections and conversations taking place at APOC gatherings across the country, and develop more sustained APOC movement in their areas. Here are a few gatherings that are coming up in the next few months:

APOC Caucuses at Earth First! Round River Rendezvous
Athens, OH, July 4th at 12pm, July 5th at lunch

www.roundriverrondy.info

Northeast APOC Regional Gathering
Philadelphia, PA, August 8th-9th
northeastapoc@yahoo.com

Northwest APOC Regional Gathering
Portland, OR, August 16-17th
northwestapoc@yahoo.com

Southwest APOC Regional Gathering
Los Angeles, CA, Dates TBA

All Power Through The People!
APOC Conference List

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By Lorenzo Komboa Ervin

[illvox.org note: this week's edition of our Tuesday polemic was originally released in the 1990s. In it, former Black Panther and author of Anarchism and the Black Revolution Lorenzo Komboa Ervin offers insights familiar enough to make the piece relevant for today.]

This is the first issue of the Journal of Anarchy and the Black Revolution, and although I do not think it will be the last, I do not know what form and shape it will take from here on out. This is very much dependent on the nature of the anti-authoritarian Black struggle which is developing and fermenting in our communities. We do not know precisely what our relationship with the North American Anarchist movement will be — one of fraternal relations, hostility or wary support.

Clearly, a movement which is all White, middle-class, self-absorbed, and naive about our struggle is not one we can unite with. In addition, it is a movement which can do very little for itself, let alone for our struggle. So it is time for some frank talk with Anarchists if we are to move forward from here toward the realistic possibility of a social revolution.

For over 15 years, since I have been in the so-called North American Anarchist movement, I have been at war with it. I have continually pointed out in my letters, articles in Anarchist publications, speeches, and personal conversations that the North American Anarchist scene is not what it must be if it is to be taken seriously. I even doubt that it is a social movement at all, but rather a White youth counter-cultural scene.

I am not the first one to have recognized this. Many other Black and non-white Anarchists I have spoken to like Juliana in Minneapolis, Greg in Seattle, Barbara in New York, Ojore in New Jersey, Shawn in Massachusetts, and others have recognized this. Also many black radical and community activists who I might be interested in Anarchism are turned off by an all-White middle-class scene. Who can blame them? The Anarchist movement has some of-the worst politics on the question of class and race in this society, and do not even pretend to be concerned with the plight of the super-oppressed Black masses.

Whenever I have attempted to call for reforms within the Anarchist movement itself, such as racial and cultural diversity, recruiting more Blacks and Third world peoples into the movement, building an anti-racist movement of a new type to challenge the white identity as well as the oppression of non-White peoples, I have been resisted at every turn by Anarchist “purists” and White radicals within the scene. I fought with the IWW, Social Revolutionary Anarchist Federation and other United States Anarchist groups in the 1970s, when I first came into the Anarchist scene. I most recently went through such a struggle with a group called the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, which has its headquarters in New York. So it is not just a matter of this being a new issue — this has gone on for years!

Anarchist Purism and White Supremacy

The question then arises: are the Anarchists consciously building a white movement, for what I call ‘white rights” issues that only the radical chic middle class are interested in? This is the case even when many of them live in cities which are majority-Black population centers, such as Detroit, Oakland, Atlanta, Philadelphia and others. They live in the Anarchist ghetto and look at the Black community which surrounds them with suspicion and muted hostility. Can this type of movement work toward a social revolution when, by the end of the decade it is predicted that half of this nation will be non-white peoples? I don’t think so!

Even the Republican Party recognizes that it cannot raise any hell or hope to build a capitalist governing coalition without the participation of non-white peoples, so what the hell is wrong with these Anarchists?

Anarchist purism is a form of ideological conformity, a method of keeping Anarchist ideals “pure” and to prevent any new movements from arising which violate cardinal principles of traditional European Anarchist thought and practice. This also works to ensure only white people will define, and will continue to dominate Anarchist theory, and that only white people will make up the ranks of the movement in the main.

Movements arising in the Black or Hispanic communities, which are influenced by revolutionary nationalism and the anti-authoritarian core of Anarchism, would be denounced as “not being truly Anarchist,” and thus denied support. I have seen this done historically — to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s; Martin Sostre (and myself) in the 1970s; MOVE in the 1980s, and to this very day. Without fail, this is a way of keeping the movement “right” [and white]. But it also keeps it in an ideological straitjacket which separates it from the social events outside the white radical community, which is where the real world is; so it helps of marginalize Anarchists when one demands conformity to the catechism that Bakunin or Kropotkin wrote over 100 years ago. How is this any different from the Marxists?

There is also the question of elitism and racism from those Anarchists like the Love and Rage group who feel they can think and speak for Black revolutionaries and the communities they are from. These people are from privileged households, have left home to play the big bad revolutionary and fake being poor. The truth is a pair of combat boots, ripped jeans, and a dirty t-shirt does not make one a poor person or an expert on American racial politics. This is nothing but missionary work to these people. They may have changed attitudes; they are arrogant, doctrinaire and condescending to the max. They feel they have the answer, and that everyone, especially Blacks, should follow them to the Promised Land. Only they are qualified to speak on questions of race and class. They know everything!

White radicals like this really irk me. This is why only an arrogant, self-centered movement will surface with this kind of prevailing social ethic at the core of the group.

But there is another kind of white radical within the Anarchist movement which needs to be taken to task. This is the type that claims not to know any difference between the conditions of Black and White workers, and argues we “are all in the same boat.” This type pretends not to see any racial oppression in U.S. society at all, and Blacks and other non-whites do not deserve any “special treatment.” This type of person is usually to be found in the Anarcho-Syndicalist movement in the United States. This is in fact an old line, an economist position, which sacrifices the struggle against racism to that of class peace among the Black and white workers. We are to unite around economic issues, and avoid “contentious” and “divisive” issues of race. But, as I will expose, this is in itself really a racist and escapist position, and shows one to have no moral backbone at all.

It is really a cop-out to try to claim that the “working class” is’ being oppressed without pointing out that there is no monolithic working class in America, and never has been. There has always been a brutalized and exploited African-American working class, beginning with slavery, through both agrarian and industrial periods of the economy, down to the so-called information age. Black labor has always been subjected to racial oppression in addition to that of the struggle as workers fighting the rule of capital.

It is reductionism of the worst sort to claim there are no differences in the social position of the Black working class, no special oppression, as a group like Workers Solidarity Alliance does. In an article published in Ideas and Action, the WSA political journal, one writer stated that he saw no difference or “nothing special” as he put it between left-handed persons and the plight of African-Americans. But the most infamous issue of the publication was in a full page article in issue #13, printed in 1990, called “White Workers and Racism” in response to the racist murder of Yusuf Hawkins in New York.

In the most sickening fashion possible, the article tries to equate “attacks against innocent whites by minority youth” with Hawkins’ racist murder. Neil Farber (a pseudonym for an unidentified member of WSA) talks about “racists and demagogues on both sides,” a classic white middle-class cop-out. He denied there is such a thing as white skin privilege, saying that it was just the creation of a number of left-wing sects in the 1960s. We must assume he was talking about the Black Panther Party or the revolutionary syndicalist League of Revolutionary Black Workers, although he tries to say he’s talking about white radicals.

He says that the relatively higher standard of living is due to “workers’ struggles”, as if the white workers had “earned” their booty by fighting the boss. Not true. The white middle class standard of living is only possible because of the super-exploitation of colonial countries and enslavement, and continued super-exploitation of African-American and other non-white workers.

This nonsense by Farber is crowned by a statement that the Anarcho-Syndicalist movement has “always” supported the struggles of oppressed workers. This is a lie. The Anarchist movement generally has never supported the Black struggle or engaged in-anti-racist movements. The WSA is no exception. They are just now doing it.

The denial of white skin privilege is a type of obscurantism that the white Left in general, and the Anarchists, in particular, are guilty of. This obscurantism, or obscuring of the truth of Black oppression, has also been called the “white blind spot” by radicals like Noel Ignatiev, the longtime radical organizer and theorist on race and class issues.

But in addition to hiding behind economic issues, there is the kind of eclectic escapism within North American Anarchism which pretends that gender oppression, gay oppression, class exploitation other oppression, or some other contradiction among the white nationality is on a par with or even more important than white supremacy. This individual are usually people who also subscribe to compartmentalization, or attempts to neatly confine the dynamics of racism to a side issue or single issue politics, as just another “ism.”

This is reflected in their movements — almost all-white movements against “fascism” or what they call racism, usually crude KKK/Nazi organizing. They never deal with institutional racism or the white supremacy differential in the quality of life in this country. It’s all sophomoric, idealistic and emotional, and it certainly doesn’t do Blacks and other non-whites any real good. We are no safer from fascism because of these white radical do-gooders. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Who knows if it will be possible for the U.S. anarchist scene to coexist with, let alone work with a newly emerging Black anti-authoritarian movement? One thing that White Anarchists must understand it that is not merely a question of getting Blacks and other non-whites to join Anarchist associations, just to say they have a Black face. We must work to build a non-racist society and we must have principled unity.

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I am a light-skinned non-Arab descended from indigenous North Africans—a Berber. Unlike my parents, who were desperate to become Americans in every possible way—the typical children of immigrants—I am proud of my North African heritage. I had to learn about it from speaking to my increasingly forgetful grandfather. My parents had Arabic names that were changed to Anglo names, either just before or just after their families came to the U.S. I got my American name at birth, my legal name. My grandfather told me my Arabic name when I was 15. My real name is Berber, but I had to wait until I was 20 to learn that. By then I was already an anarchist, an anti-nationalist internationalist, so the fact that I had three names, each one describing a smaller community, meant little.

It wasn’t until about ten years ago that I heard about something called Anarchist People of Color. This APOC thing sounded good. My experiences among anarchists had been that virtually nobody looked that different from each other, sounded different from each other, or talked about different things. If there were any other People of Color at the meetings, demonstrations, or events organized by anarchists, they were keeping quiet. There were a few dark-skinned folks, but they wore the same clothing and had the same tattoo styles as the rest of the (presumably) white anarchists. They were invisible as POC. If anyone brought up the issue of racism, almost everyone else started getting nervous and defensive. “But we’re anarchists,” they’d say, as if that was enough to address the different ways racism works, the way it flows into just about all interactions between white people and POC in the U.S. It’s amazing how guilt works on people.

So I happily supported APOC and eagerly awaited some of them to come to my area. By the time I went to a few workshops, I no longer felt so supportive. I thought that APOC was a caucus within a larger anarchist/activist framework, working to bring an awareness of the particular problems that face POC within American culture, to help anarchists and activists to deal with their unconscious racist assumptions about POC, to bring more sensitivity to white anarchists. My understanding was that this would make the anarchist/activist scene stronger and more attractive to POC. When I sat in the meetings of APOC and listened to their presentations, however, I got the feeling that:

1. they were promoting the beginnings of a separatist agenda, perhaps one day working in coalition with white anarchists/activists—if the whites were “worthy,”
2. that they had a definition of POC based on racist American assumptions—the One-Drop Rule and the strictly visual cue of skin-tone, which marginalizes or ignores mixed-race people,
3. that they seemed very interested in making white anarchists/activists feel bad about not having POC in their groups and not having their particular POC agenda as a priority,
4. that to overcome this racism inherent (!) in anarchism, it was necessary for APOC to “take the lead” in anarchist/activist organizing.

Class got trumped. Almost nobody among current APOC wants to talk about it. After all, in America, class is not visually marked, and it’s not usually marked by speech. In other words, class is hard to detect. But being a POC is easy to see—except when it’s not.

American APOC completely ignore the ways that race is enforced in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean—let alone anywhere else in the world. Although they probably won’t like hearing it, this makes them typically American: isolationist, inward-looking, believing their own experiences to be unique but then, ironically, extending those attitudes onto all other cultures, acting as if they are always right. American APOC view their oppression only in terms of white supremacy, and they insist that this is the main enemy of all POC, American or not. In this way American APOC attempt to colonize—that’s right, colonize!—the race-based oppression of all POC internationally, not acknowledging that nothing recognizable as “white supremacy” exists among the majority of the world’s people. White supremacy doesn’t exist anywhere in Africa or Asia (with the exception of Australia and New Zealand—maybe), is barely hanging on in some enclaves in South America (but even there, racial politics don’t take place only in terms of “whiteness”), and is expressed very differently in Europe than it is in the U.S. The Middle East has its own set of racialized conflicts, because not all residents there are ethnically Arab, not all Arabs are Muslim (most Muslims are Asian), and Muslims are split along religious (not racial) lines. Then there’s the “Jewish Question,” which makes American APOC really uncomfortable. I voted with my feet, distancing myself from APOC.

The American APOC discussions are an example of either/or logic (either white or not), rejecting distinctions (all POC are essentially the same, or at least should have the same agenda, and if they don’t, they aren’t “real POC”), and a colonizing of other POC experiences to fit in with their own easy answers. Mostly people don’t talk about the logic of capitalism except maybe for the way it influences how race and white supremacy are supposed to operate. Class is off the table—all oppressions are reduced to race (and maybe a combination of race with gender). Racial markers that are not visual are ignored—a particularly American way of looking at race.

The American APOC discourse leaves no place for me, an educated, light-skinned Berber; for the majority of American APOC I am invisible—even privileged because of my economic and educational background, but especially due to my light skin. Ironically (I guess?), I am more invisible among them than I am among supposedly racist white anarchists. Not because I can “pass” as white, but because I don’t have to prove that I am anything other than an anarchist. American APOC demand some kind of “authenticity” from their comrades, some kind of blood quantum. Usually all that takes is a high melanin content, regardless of how anarchist the comrade is.

So why am I writing this now? APOC discussions are all over the web again. People are being called “racist” for daring to criticize an APOC declaration or manifesto, regardless of its anarchist content. Now I’m not just disappointed, I’m offended.

What does that “A” stand for again? Are we anarchists or not? That’s the distinction that’s interesting to me, not how many of our grandparents weren’t white. Enough is enough.

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Are you interested in founding an organization of people of color united around anti-authoritarian politics?

Over time, many collectives self-identified with APOC (Anarchist People Of Color) have come and gone. New autonomous people of color are getting involved. Interest in seeing something more consistent is a common refrain. What could be needed is an organization that helps strengthen and build collectives, supports activists and puts out a coherent vision for the present and future as autonomous people of color.

This is a call out for anarchists of color interested in organizing or supporting a broad autonomous group. It is reasonable to expect such a group would be built over a year, with much involvement from the greater APOC community, local activists and others,  into a meeting, possibly at a future APOC gathering.

If you are interested email send an email to the contact below with some information to help start the conversation.

…………….

A short personal introduction (you, where you are located).

In your opinion…

* How should an APOC organization be structured?
* What kinds of projects should an APOC organization do?
* what three central principles would you choose for this group?
* What do you think about individual memberships? Dues?
* What questions should we be asking each other?

…………..

On June 1, the collected answers of all persons will be forwarded to members and discussions will begin.

If you are interested in this proposal, contact blackliberationarmy@gmail.com.

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illvox.org is excited to launch its new Join the Movement page, which compiles resources for those interested in getting active in the Anarchist People of Color movement.

The page is viewable at illvox.org/join/ and is the only web resource for those interested in forming APOC collectives, a list of APOC collectives and ways for supporters to help the APOC movement to grow.

The published page is an initial draft that compiles many of the resources currently available on illvox.org as well as adds new materials to the mix. Suggestions, additions and ideas are welcomed. Please pass the word about illvox.org/join/ for building new APOC collectives and more.

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Illvox.org Preface Notes: The piece below, published here under a pseudonym by permission of the author, raises an important dialog as more anarchists of color seek solutions for critical questions.

What advantage is there in calling ourselves anarchists?

Not so long ago, “Six Reasons Why People of Color Need Anarchism” was posted to illvox.org, advocating anarchism as a viable option. This view gives a different perspective on anarchism’s impact on revolutionary, people of color-led tendencies.

To be frank, such discussions as the piece below puts forward have been happening internally among anarchists of color for some time. Many of us quietly as well as openly wonder why we remain supportive of an anarchist movement that seems so deeply opposed to people of color and invested in defending white power and privilege among its adherents. Another recently posted piece, “An Open Letter to White Progressives/Radicals,” called out a number of white supremacist habits and was, as the piece predicted, furiously refuted by whites. While there are no doubt some white anarchists who ‘get it,’ many anarchists of color are happy to tell you that it’s not our job to teach the far larger number of reactionary white anarchists about racial justice and why global white supremacy matters.

This piece is brief by author’s admission, as a means of starting a conversation.

10 Reasons for APOC as “Autonomous People of Color” as Opposed to Anything Else

By Negro Mankno

10. Both the Marxist and anarchist tendencies in the U.S. consistently exhibit white supremacist chauvinism, organizational cultism, leadership cultism, and historical revisionism; especially as it relates to workers of color.

9. Workers of color are the MAJORITY in the world. Here in AmeriKKKa we still think and act as a “minority.” This is one of the reasons we get what we get: crumbs and/or crucified.

8. Only we can save ourselves. If others decide to add-on and assist, that’s great. But to expect their help is bourgeois ideology. “Affirmative action” is NOT the same as “reparations.” Only our brains (and our bullets) can grant us and guarantee us our collective freedom.

7. We still spend entirely too much time spinning our wheels dealing with white anarchists and white progressives, rather than reaching out to our brothers and sisters who look like us and live like us.

6. All knowledge can trace its roots to the various cultures we originate from. The first strike for better wages and working conditions in recorded history occurred in 1170 BC in Egypt. Marxism and Bakuninist anarchism comes out of Freemasonry, which was the product of the Egyptian Mystery System. Both Marx and Bakunin were 32nd degree Masons, as was Lenin’s father and Mao’s #2, Lin Bao.

5. J. Sakai’s Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat outlines clearly the truth of the worker’s movement. Few of us have read or digested these lessons. The real proletariat is non-white and the real proletariat is not the radicalized intelligentsia. The natural result of allowing a radicalized intelligentsia to seize state power is Stalinism, dictatorship of the party over the people. And all of us can bear witness to this dynamic in our activism; even amongst so-called “anarchists” and “anti-authoritarians.”

4. Autonomy shows our solidarity with the international working class, and our break with classic anarchism and Marxism, even as we may share some common ideas, concepts, and goals with both; like anti-KKKapitalism. True self-determination begins with answering the question: “do I have ideas…or do ideas have me?”

3. “Autonomy” demands and demonstrates a new orientation and socio/political platform for active class struggle from a non-white perspective.

2. The main reason we see clashes between communities of color, like Mexicans versus Blacks for example, is due to the interference of outside reactionary forces working in concert with reactionary forces within our communities. The reactionaries within our communities (regardless of actual economic status) who enable the larger power structure to do what it does must be singled out, neutralized, and/or ruthlessly destroyed; otherwise the revolution will never see the light of day. We must have the total support of the majority of our respective peoples or we will fail. This is what we need to focus on.

1. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So why do we seek to imitate those who routinely oppress us?

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Scant info on this, but worth checking out…

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Early this summer, organizers of illvox.org want to launch a monthly audio project/podcast to share the untold stories of people of color organizing from the grassroots and fighting for a new world. We need your help!

Why do this? The voices of people of color have been historically marginalized in large and small political movements. This sort of project gives a chance to agitate around, educate about and preserve our ideas, vision and history. Youth and those not exposed to these ideas are out there checking out podcasts and other forms of new media, and it is time for us to be out there too.

To make this project happen, much help from you is needed!

• Do you have recordings that might be of use? Illvox.org is seeking audio from actions, lectures, events, etc. that cover issues of relevance to people of color and matters related to anti-authoritarian social/political perspectives.
• Would you record stuff in your area for use? Using a basic recorder and microphone, you can capture the sound of a movement and help us tell our own stories instead of having the mainstream media try to do it for us.
• Do you have skills in the area of audio production? Editing, voicing and creativity are all needed.
• Got any ideas for a name?

This will be a once-a-month project, so it does not need to take up lots of your time. This project will be completely free, so unfortunately contributors of content won’t be paid. This project will not happen without you. Please visit www.illvox.org/contact/ to get in touch and help.

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Important discussions about race, appropriation and anarchism going on over use of images of people of color. The full statement by the area APOC crew about the primitivist zine and images of people of color, as well as a pretty ignorant response from the zine’s editor, are posted. An excerpt of Harjit Singh Gill’s reply back:

One of the issues is that there is a constant exploitation of images of people of color without their necessary consent (unless I am unaware of this) and that violates the basic idea of consent-based relationships. It’s very clear; are those groups of people in support of what your purporting them to be in support of, or did you take photos of “anti-civilazationists” (aka people in their customary ways who probably don’t attach a huge ideological framework to it) out of an anthropology book or journal article and then propel them into the face of your organization?

Isn’t that sorta like putting people of color on your group’s website’s front page so that when people look at it, racism issues are disarmed because ‘there is a black guy on the front page of our site!”

…I’m also not sure how it is that the only organized group of people of color anarchists (already a vastly underrepresented group within anarchism in this US movement) get together, talk, discuss, and put out a statement, and white anarchists start beating the attack drum. I’m now just waiting for a call of “reverse racism” to complete the deal. Think, just think about why we feel APOC is necessary, and about our position as unfortunate watchers of umpteen thousand racist or insensitive actions yearly and that really; anarchism is a smidge better than the rest of the world at not being racist…

Keep an eye out for an upcoming piece on racism and the radical enviro movement. Should be up in a few days.

Via Media Dissent (anyone want to buy us some of that fly gear, holla!)

EDIT: Forgot to share the infoshop fuckery that originated this to some degree. Enjoy.

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The Anarchist People of Color Conference scheduled for October 7-9, 2005 in Houston, Texas has been postponed due to a myriad of urgent circumstances and the need for local organizers to turn their attention to community efforts in this demanding time in our region. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the addition of over 100, 000 new and temporary residents from the Gulf coast, Houston is short on help from the radical community.

We need to focus priorities on helping grassroots efforts for hurricane survivors who have been intentionally left behind and set-up by an arrogant capitalist state. It is easy to say that we should continue with the conference as scheduled, but our reality is the reality of most radical communities in this country. We are in the process of building strength as the world around us falls apart.

Houston is the epicenter of many struggles right now and it needs its own community members to figure out what is needed here before we move forward with a national conference within a month. There are many community efforts going on in Houston and not enough being done by the larger radical community in terms of support. We need educators, food, supplies and especially money for community organizations that are supporting Katrina evacuees. A clearinghouse is in the works of community centers, churches and shelters that are housing people.

Additionally, Houston is preparing itself for the coming of the racist border vigilante group, the Minutemen. Various community organizers have been readying themselves for direct actions, community patrols, and poster campaigns. Not to mention the impending state lynching of Frances Newton this Wednesday September 14th. While our hearts are heavy and the mind overburdened-we must ready the fight. Houston’s gonna pop. With all of this going on in our community, we realize that having additional people is not conducive to the needs that we have of building our foundations and preparing ourselves adequately for what’s to come. We need some extra time, we need to prioritize and focus. With the date postponed, this conference can only be bigger and stronger than our last.

Concessions for the APOC 2005 conference have been put into place. Space is confirmed, we have the fundraising in motion, we have the schedules, we have the vision and ultimately we have the will and the strength to put it together. We are simply asking for solidarity and support in our decision to move it back to March. As we move forward, we ask for more input and debate, for more voices to be involved in the planning of the event. We have a great need for discussions to happen at our event. What is our direction? We have a need to figure out how to build solid networks, foundations and goals; engage in a critical analysis, create strategies and define common visions, goals. In the coming weeks, we will be setting up a conference specific website with discussion forums, room for debate, and more information about what is going on in the Belly of the Beast.

New and established community organizations are creating mechanisms for support where people can plug in. Right now, give your support in various ways. If you had in your plans to come to Houston already, come. There will be ways to plug in and be a resource. Let us talk about the format of the conference and how we can use the coming months to have a solid foundation.

There is also work at home, now. Build parallel institutions that foster self-determination, self-definition, unity, courage and hope. People in our communities know what is going on, now more than ever. How do we serve their needs and unite them across cultural and economic lines to take this system down by creating the alternative? Get together with other people of color in your cities, communities and regions. Build for March. If you can come help before, let us know and we will set you up. We look forward to seeing you in March!

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