This is doctored together from an incomplete a-infos page [https://www.ainfos.ca/02/jun/ainfos00023.html] and a zine with 4 missing pages on the internet. [https://azinelibrary.org/approved/black-liberation-and-anarchism-1.pdf] (Incomplete PDF by ABC Ghent) This peice was supposedly meant to be part of a book published by the so-called-canadian publisher, Solidarity that summer [https://web.archive.org/web/20030625160616/http://www.tao.ca/~solidarity/] it sadly never came out….
Black Liberation and Anarchism
Ali Khallid Abdullah
The Black Struggle For Liberation
Today we find more and more people standing up for their rights. They are standing up from all sectors and stations of life. Nowhere is this more prevalent than within the Black communities across Amerikkka who’ve always had to fight for everything, including the right to exist in this country.
The Afrikan man and woman who were captured, chained, and suffered the indignity and torturous journey across the Atlantic Ocean have endured every imaginable inhumane treatment thrust upon a human being. From being in shackles and chains, stripped naked and sold on auction blocks, forced to be multiple breeders, working long strenuous hours under the threat of a whip, raped, psychologically, physically and emotionally traumatized, Blacks in America have had to endure. Yet in all of this the will to survive, the will to fight for liberation has never lost its flame. That flame, which began the very moment Afrikans were forcefully removed from their homelands on the continent of Afrika to the wilderness of North Amerikkka, Europe and the Caribbean Islands, continues to burn brightly today, just as the fight for liberation continues to be the focal point of the Black experience. It still illuminates the present darkness because it has not been realized. However, we must point out that Black Liberation is more than a mere call. It is more than mere words spoken. It is a deeply rooted passion that continues to seethe and simmer in a land filled with racism, indifference and hypocrisy.
The call for Black liberation is real and so is the need for all anarchists to realize this call. Anarchists the world over can no longer bury its head, or act as if the issues Blacks raise are “single issues” unworthy of support, or are “reformist” issues and thus goes against the grain of anarchism. Whether or not one wishes to believe or accept the fact, there can be no real social revolution if it isn’t concentrated on Black liberation. Amerikkka’s Black people have always been the touchstone of Amerikan civilization which has an ever expanding frontier but without a unifying ideology or philosophy to propel the struggles forward where lasting results are actualized.
The very nature of Black revolt implies the negation of Amerikkka in practice and its implementations. Blacks have always hated being subjugated to others power and control over them. Any rebellion that opposes domination is an act of anarchy in motion and cannot be dismissed, even if that action isn’t neatly placed in a category or given definitive title to distinguish itself ideologically or philosophically. We have only to look at some of the things that have happened in the struggle for Black liberation to see the reality of Blacks fighting for independence to bare this out. For example, the fight against slavery, segregation, deprivation, denial or equal and fair employment, housing and other services that Whites have enjoyed, to point out the realities of revolution in motion that’s beyond the base of blending into the kapitalist system per se, but to have the right to live without oppression or suffer repressions of any kind. This struggle is not just for Blacks in Amerikkka but throughout the world where Whites are in of Black lives and their land.
The struggle for liberation by Blacks is a continuous one. It continues because there was never any mutual cooperation with this government or its system in terms of our labor (under slavery), nor was there any acceptance of it. Labor’s mutual cooperation is, in and of itself, a productive power. A power of social labor by a people. However, under the tyranny of forced slavery and under kapitalist control, this labor force, of Blacks, was never allowed to develop independence even when chattel slavery ended as we know it.
White anarchists who are sincere about fighting oppression must not only join in the struggle for Black liberation, but take lessons from the rich revolutionary actions that Blacks have encountered and listen to the concerns of the most oppressed and understand those concerns. Anarchists must truly stop and realize that there has been no other people on earth who’ve been denied every aspect of their lives, such as, their historical culture, language, or even had their very names stolen from them as Black people in Amerikkka. Thus, when we approach the subject of Blacks fighting for liberation, many White anarchists have a tendency to believe that Black people are fighting for the continuation of this Amerikkkan system… kapitalism.
They believe that Blacks (as a whole) want to enjoy the fruits of kapitalism and thus do not bother to investigate what Black people are calling for. They look at the outer layer of issues and go no further, and because of that anarchism in North Amerikkka and Europe has remained a predominately white element. A white element that claims to be against racism, but the mere fact of being predominately white displays a distorted picture to Blacks who may be interested in what anarchists have to say about anarchism, but feel no place within since they find no people within the anarchist circles to represent Black peoples unique circumstances.
White anarchists must also be literate to the whole of the Black experience from an historical perspective and not simply found using Eurocentric concepts and experiences, or draw upon their own experiences based on a life of “white skin privilege” where the standards applied to whites were/are drastically different from that applied to Blacks and other peoples of color, when approaching the subject of Black issues. We must realize that Whites’s experiences aren’t hampered with centuries of chattel slavery and holocaustic terrorism and therefore, must approach this situation differently.
George Jackson, a Black revolutionary and Field Marshal for the Black Panther Party and who was murdered in San Quentin prison on August 21, 1971 at the hands of San Quentin guards, made the following comment:
“Building consciousness and revolutionary culture against the repressive, natural defensive reflexes of the system means realistic day-to-day issues like hunger, the need for clothing and housing, joblessness. It involves provoking repression…feeding on it.” from Blood in My Eye
What Are Blacks Fighting For?
Black People are not merely fighting to end “racism or fascist vanguard elements such as Nazis, or the Klan”, as Black Autonomous organizer Lorenzo Komboa Ervin has pointed out. Our fight is rooted in the need to uproot the system. A system which has negated Blacks, subjugated Blacks, denied Blacks humanity and the right to be sovereign. We have no illusions that Amerikkka was built off the backs of Afrikan labor.. Nor are we blind to the fact that Amerikkka and all of Europe continues to prosper as a result of centuries of our enslavement and colonization.
Blacks and Leadership
We must examine the Black experience from new eyes and from a deeper historical perspective than allow the bias thinking to pervade our thinking in terms of leadership and what it represents. For the idea or concept of “leadership” has one meaning or is viewed in one sense among Whites which isn’t necessarily the same view that Blacks, in general, view the idea or concept of leadership, and thus we must give this some thought.
When we discuss the issue of leadership, coming from a white perspective, the view is going to have a very specific and clear picture of this meaning. Yet, when we look at Blacks’s perspective of leadership, we must view it from a macro (larger) context different from Whites because it is multi-layered within other issues. Issues dealing with economic deprivation, under-development, material absence and the complete denial of human equality that is primarily the cause for most Blacks wanting to have materialistic gain which gives the white anarchists the perception that all Blacks are seeking reformist issues for economic prosperity.
One cannot assume that all Blacks have bought into the ideals of the “Amerikkkan Dream.” Nor can we say many have not tried to obtain this dream. Nor can we say many Blacks have assimilated into the kapitalist system, or aren’t materialistically oriented, because that would be untrue. However, there are reasons for the latter and those reasons are primarily linked to and derived from being denied the same access as Whites. The issue of Blacks being denied economic parity and their wanting to “gain” economically and the belief in the Amerikkkan dream is largely attributable to being denied any and all forms of material and economic sovereignty. What was actualized was the stench of forced poverty and every conceivable manner of oppressiveness.
We must also look at how psychological terrorism played a major role in keeping Blacks from being assertive (during slavery) under the threat of being whipped half-to-death or outright lynched if it was perceived that they “stepped out of line”, which was often carried out in public display. Thus the idea of “leadership” and the need for leadership among the Black community was real. For it was the “leader”, for the most part, who possessed the ability to mobilize the people and remove their fears in such a way where they would act supportively and overcome the real threat of being whipped or lynched, to commit some action against the oppressors.
Unfortunately, this concept of Blacks looking towards a “leader” still persists today, which is why we find many Black community organizations and functions, including movements, “leader oriented.” Even Black preachers are looked upon as leaders in the in the Black community, but again, to understand this phenomenon properly, one must be able to understand the total Black experience and be able to comprehend the multi-layered Black experience in Amerikkka and not draw instant conclusions from a white perspective.
What white anarchists should do is try to understand this issue of leadership among Blacks and then let’s work to change this perception in a manner that would gain ones understanding so they can see how vanguardism or leadership (in the classic sense of the terms) aren’t needed to move forward in ones lives. As a Black man this is my goal. To reach my people and get them to step away from the concept of needing a leader and exposing those who claim to be leaders, but who are actually Black capitalists bleeding the poor and keeping them in poverty and oppression. For whether one is a Black or white leader, the intended goal of these leaders usually result in the people being controlled, their real interests not being addressed and manipulation.
However, if we talk of organizing and organization and having someone in position best suited to articulate the issues, or one who has more experience than another taking the lead, not as authoritarian, it shouldn’t be automatically assumed that this type of leading is inherently wrong or corrupt. This is another aspect that white anarchists need to understand fully and stop believing that any discussion or any person who heads something is inherently evil. This is incorrect thinking and it stops us from being able to build ties with others. As comrade Ernesto Aguilar stated in his article, The Dragon Reborn: The Need For A Revolutionary Anarchist Federation stated:
“Our networking, sharing resources, information and ideas, and the growth of such national organizing puts some context to vague anarchist ideals and takes us from being simply those anarchists to being a pole in the struggle. Local campaigns can be linked to national campaigns for broader effect and to educate people about our common ground.”
What Is Misunderstood
Often white anarchists do not fully understand that Europeans come from a culture of writing things, whereas Afrikan, and Indigenous people (aka Native Amerikans) come from a more oral culture where things were passed down from one generation to another orally. What we like to call “teach-ins” or “each one teach one” type of culture. Undoubtedly, what is needed is for anarchists to be able to remove themselves from the sterile rigidness they’ve allowed themselves to be consumed by, and walk broader paths and look beyond the writings of long-dead anarchist thinkers and writers (over 100 years ago) who continue to believe that all they had written for their time is applicable for today, rather than learning from their writings and experiences and applying them to fit the conditions we face in the 21st century.
We also have a serious issue with individuals claiming to be anarchists purists. The moment one accepts such an idea is the moment they have become poisoned to any new ideas or approach to a problem. Many actions that are being waged by Blacks in the struggle for liberation are ignored outright by this element of anarchists believing they are purists and thus refuse to “taint” themselves with Black peoples’ issues.
If we are to approach the concepts of Black liberation it must be approached without skepticism but genuinely. In order to understand Blacks fighting for liberation one has to understand that the actions Blacks take may be anarchist in nature though it may not be perceived by Blacks or anarchists themselves as being anarchist.
Anarchism stresses the ideal of a society where freedom prevails and people associate with each other on the basis of individual independence, mutual aid and cooperation. If anarchists cannot see the inherent necessity in defending and helping Blacks fight for liberation, which involves many multi-layered issues simultaneously, what we have then, is nothing short of words.
Black’s, Land and Compensation For Their Labor
The European and North Amerikkkan concept of anarchy and anarchism has a limited view in terms of being able to understand and fully appreciate the thinking, methodologies, and concepts of Black people and their fight for liberation. The New Black Autonomous politics, as Lorenzo Komboa Ervin has pointed out “differs from European anarchism in that we know that we are oppressed both as a distinct people and as workers.” (from Anarchism and The Black Revolution)
The fact that we are oppressed because of our race and skin color has relegated us to contend with this issue 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. We, unfortunately, do not get a reprieve from racism and this racism has been incorporated in every society where Whites dominate either numerically or economically. The Black man/woman must do battle with his reality constantly. We further understand that the thing which continues to fuel this racism is the white skin privilege myth that remains in tact largely because it hasn’t been fully examined nor adequately acknowledged by Whites, including anarchists, who, for the most part, continue to reap benefits that no Black man, regardless of how much kapital or material things they have, and in spite of any argument a fellow anarchist may present. This is reality. The prime motivator which continues to feed racism is kapitalism and the exploitation of workers. To have us divided as a united group of people racially and economically. It is worthy to note the critique of Karl Marx in his description of kapitalism:
“The discovery of gold and silver [in Amerikkka], the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the Fat Indies, the turning of [Afrika] into a warren for the commercial hunting of Black skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the [kapitalist] production.” Capital, Vol. 1, p. 832, Kerr Edition
For Blacks, the Civil war continues to emerge itself over 130 years after it’s last cannon was fired as Blacks continue to struggle for liberation and self-determination/autonomy. Blacks in Afrika and in Amerikkka have continued to fight against oppression by any and all means available. Some of those means are not understood even among anarchists because they have not been under the same conditions as Blacks, and thus, approach the subject of economics and Blacks calling for reparations from a different perspective.
There are three components of betrayal, or unfinished business resulting from the Civil War that Blacks have continued to seek and been denied, which are; 1) the freedman did not get the “40 acres and a mule” they were promised at the end of slavery; 2) the old slave-owners got back their plantations and thus the power to institute a mode of production to suit their cotton cultures; and 3) the crop lien system was introduced with “new labor” – sharecropping.
Those who fail to see the dynamic of this are blinded by their bias to historical accounts, or do not fully have an understanding of historical accounts. Nor understand one of the aspects for Black liberation in Amerikkka, which is the right to have compensation for centuries of unpaid labor and developing Amerikkka to its prosperity. The root cause for slavery, of course, was kapitalism, and slavery would not have lasted without the economic advantages of slavery and what it produced. For Whites to say that Blacks have no right to demand reparations is not only ludicrous but an insult on human dignity, not to mention, supports the old system of slavery and the concept that Blacks ought not to be paid for their labor and for the economic development of this country.
Land is the very basis in which one is able to have full independence and freedom. Without land one is subject to the whims of others’ control and manipulation. This is what we see today with kapitalist attempts to globalize the world under one economic structure. However, when you have a people that have never had the opportunity to have any portion of land or benefit from that land yet they have contributed their lives to that land as slaves, then they have a right to demand rights for the accumulative labor in the development of that land. With autonomy comes the free choice to do as one pleases and to have the means in which to do so. Not the opposite. Thus, Blacks face the crisis of homelessness, inadequate health care, food, etc., as a direct result of economic deprivation and disenfranchisement. This allows the continuation of racial exploitation and biasness to manifest in every sector of society, ie. institutional racism and the division of labor which resulted in class structures. There can be no autonomy unless one has the means to develop themselves unhindered and it should not be an issue for white anarchists to object to Blacks wanting to be paid for their labor. Nor is such a demand in any way suggesting one is supportive of this government or its system.
The labor Blacks were forced to provide under kapitalism as slaves robed them as positive free workers, of individuality, and reduced them to being a negative component of labor, in general. A negative component of labor because that labor was not given with a free will or with a free effort, but was discharged under the negativity of being a slave and owned as property. Also, that negative labor being supplied by Afrikan slaves was viewed by whites as “subhuman” in terms of their treatment overall condition.
The question that stands before us, which has never been given real consideration in this country and sharply opposed by many who claim to be anarchist, is that of Black labor and the land issue in the form of repayment., We can talk all day about “property ownership”, the “horrors of having control over anything” and more, but such rhetoric is hallow because it drips from the lucid tongues of those who’ve already benefited from, in some form or another, the economic advantages and prosperity Afrikan slaves produced with their labor and who have never gained anything from that labor.
The Fight For Autonomy
When we discuss anarchy and anarchism it is usually discussed one sided. That is, its principles, concepts, and the way we view situations have largely been from a Eurocentric/North Amerikan point of view. However, this way of looking at anarchism has restricted Blacks and other peoples of color from having full access in the discussions, because its concepts are limited in terms of being able to understand and fully appreciate the thinking, methodology, and concepts Blacks may have in terms of fighting oppression. When, in fact, there is no one specific way in which to overthrow kapitalist oppression and exploitation. There are also many ways to deal with the day-to-day issues in the lives of the people, and these issues should not be viewed as unimportant or non-universal. This type of thinking negates the real struggle of a people who’ve been struggling all their lives, and who have “no skin privilege clause. But as a Black people, as New Afrikan people and people of color, we have an obligation to not allow anyone to define or make our case for us. This is one of the problems we have. To make this point I will quote something the late New Afrikan anarchist Kuwasi Balagoon pointed out when he said:
“We permit people of other ideologies to define Anarchy rather than bring our own views to the masses and provide models to show the contrary. We permit corporations to not only lay off workers and to threaten the balance of workers while cutting their salaries, but to poison the air and the water to boot. We permit the police, the Klan and the Nazis to terrorize whatever sector of the population they wish without repaying them back in any kind. In short, by not engaging in mass organizing and delivering war to the oppressors we become anarchists in name only. ..As revolutionaries we must support the will of the masses. It is not only racism but compliance with the enemy to stand outside of the social arena and permit Amerikkka to continue to practice genocide against Third World captive colonies because although they resist, they don’t agree with us. ..To expect people to accept this, while they are being wiped out as a nation without allies ready to put on the line what they already have on the line is crazy.” From Kuwasi Balagoon, A Soldier’s Story
A struggle must be all consuming and not stagnated to the point where we refuse to challenge the immediate threat over the masses, or help in sustaining the essential needs of the people like food, clothing, shelter and medicine.
We cannot simply ignore the suffering masses and cast our sights solely on kapitalist attempts to monopolize the world while we have people starving, beaten and brutalized by racist police, or an out-of-control judiciary that are locking up more New Akrikan Blacks and other people of color disproportionate to their numerical population size, or be out in the wilderness saving a tree or an animal at the expense and negation of wanting to stop HUMANS from first being killed off be variant tactics. If we don’t tend to the pressing needs of the people then all else is fruitless. However, if we tend to the day-to-day and emergent issues you win the peoples’ overall support and ability to listen to what you’re saying. No one will listen to someone talking of saving a tree or an animal when they are hungry or when they are barely able to survive in a land of plenty, or when they are constantly worried about some police officer killing them under a false pretense. These are real issues that White anarchists, in general, are not facing on a daily basis, if at all.
There are elements who wish to remain blind to these facts as if what they see around them does not exist or have no real priority and yet want to come and define how one should fight for their freedom, their liberation, their autonomy and right to self-determination. There are elements who act as if New Afrikan people are standing up and fighting the cancer of this country have no need of anarchist support, when the fact of the matter is, they do need such support. They need this support because they are fighting in principle for the same end as those who claim to be anarchist. To have the right to be free to live their lives unhindered and without any manner of oppression and the right, the full right to determine in what manner they wish to live their lives whether or not we (anarchists) wish to agree with a lifestyle or not, as long as that lifestyle doesn’t create or harm others or the environment in which we all live and share. That is mutual cooperation, which does not mean we all think, act, and feel the same way about a given thing.
The fight for self-determination, and autonomy is an issue for all people of color and it is an issue for all people of color and it is an issue that white anarchists need to pay more attention to rather than find petty excuses not to engage in the struggle of Blacks claiming Blacks are fighting for reforms. When one takes that attitude and stands back and allows police brutality; allows racism; allows this system to continuously oppress and repress on all fronts, then what this says is that we are supporting the system rather than being against the system, that we pick and choose what social repressions are worthy of our engagement. If we are against the system, as it is, then we would join in with others fighting this system which brings what we love to call “solidarity” and an alliance with others based on mutual cooperation.
What I am proposing here is that the anarchists collectively look at what Black people and all people of color are and have been fighting for – AUTONOMY! The right to govern and control our own lives which is a fight Black people and the Native Amerikan (aka First Nations) have been waging since the first White settler came to this land. However, I am not suggesting that Whites must run into the ghettos and the barrios and the reservations to take over and defend our rights, but rather, to join in the struggle and ask the relevant questions as to how to best aid and assist in this struggle that we’re engaged in and let anarchism pave a path for the resistance with clear anarchist ideology and principles. This, to me, would begin a broader interaction and begin the process of White anarchists fully understanding the actual struggles of Blacks and other people of color.
Basic Elements Of Autonomy
One of the basic elements of anarchism is the recognition of the pre-eminence of individuals. Without the individual there is no humanity and there would be no cause. When we refuse to acknowledge the human suffering of others in their day-to-day living then we negate the fundamentals of humanity and thus all rhetoric claiming to be against all forms of oppressive and repressive actions against individuals – who make up the community – are contradictions, if one overlooks the social conditions and relations of individuals in every setting, i.e., singularly or collectively. Only by dealing with the total social conditions of the suffering masses are we able to recognize the social stratifications, i.e., class composition within a given community or population. In other words, for the white anarchists to not appreciate the consistent battles waged by Blacks for actual liberation and choose to take the attitude of wait-and-see methodologies that end up paralyzing not just the anarchist movement, but the proletarian struggles in which anarchists can plan a role is inconsistent to the fundamental principles of anarchism.
Each individual, each community of ethnic variance has a distinct life conditioning in which they operate within the framework of Amerikkka’s kapitalist system, and we must be cognizant to the fact that some individual relations within their communities are on an uneven parity, which is in place by this system, purposefully, which explains why there are conflicts between components of a social body. And also, why we each view issues (that are apparent) from a different standpoint. What is happening in the White community and how they are able to socially interact within the framework of their community is very different from how Blacks socially interact within their communities, because of the macro (larger) social conditioning and manipulations laid down within the framework of the Amerikkkan government. The key to changing the system where it benefits all people is to not allow ourselves to be alienated from the other, but to jointly struggle together in a revolutionary sense to defeat the overall system.
Anarchism and the fight for autonomy means to place oneself in the revolutionary struggle in whole, and fight with the oppressed and underprivileged bearing in mind that this basic revolutionary action is intended not just as an end, but as a method, an ethic. Therefore, the fight for absolute freedom of every individual