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Black Anarchism
Black anarchism opposes the existence of a state and subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non-hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists seek to abolish white supremacy, capitalism, and the state. Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Kuwasi Balagoon, many former members of the Black Panther Party, and Martin Sostre. Black anarchism rejects the traditional anarchist movement.
Followers of Black Anarchism have criticized both the hierarchical organization of the Black Panther party, and the anarchist movement, on the grounds that it has traditionally been European and/or white-based. They oppose the anti-racist conception, based on the universalism of the Enlightenment, which is proposed by the anarchist workers' tradition, arguing that it is not adequate enough to struggle against racism and that it disguises real inequalities by proclaiming a de jure equality. For example, Pedro Ribeiro has criticized the whole of the anarchist movement by declaring that:
"It is a white, petty-bourgeois Anarchism that cannot relate to the people. As a Black person, I am not interested in your Anarchism. I am not interested in individualistic, self-serving, selfish liberation for you and your white friends. What I care about is the liberation of my people." [1]
Black anarchists are thus influenced by the civil rights movement and black nationalism, and seek to forge their own movement that represents their own identity and tailored to their own unique situation. However, in contrast to black activism that was, in the past, based in leadership from hierarchical organizations such as the Black Panther Party, black anarchism rejects such methodology in favor of developing organically through communication and cooperation to bring about an economic and cultural revolution that does away with racist domination, capitalism, and the state. From Alston's @narchist Panther Zine:
"Panther anarchism is ready, willing and able to challenge old nationalist and revolutionary notions that have been accepted as ‘common-sense.’ It also challenges the bullshit in our lives and in the so-called movement that holds us back from building a genuine movement based on the enjoyment of life, diversity, practical self-determination and multi-faceted resistance to the Babylonian Pigocracy. This Pigocracy is in our ‘heads,’ our relationships as well as in the institutions that have a vested interest in our eternal domination." From @narchist Panther Zine, October 1999, Edition 1, Volume 1
Panther anarchism[edit]
Three major theorists of black anarchism have come out of the Black Panther Party (Ashanti Alston, Kuwasi Balagoon, and Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin), and this has confused the relationship between Panther Anarchism and Black Anarchism as a whole. However black anarchism properly describes a whole new generation of black anarchists who never had the experience of the Black Panther Party. Other outspoken black anarchists include Kai Lumumba Barrow, Greg Jackson, and Roger White.
Anarchist People Of Color is a network of non-white anarchists. Pedro Riberio expresses concern that the traditional "anarchist movement" is racist and seek to suppress the black voice. From "Reflections on APOC and the fate of Black Anarchism":
- We now call ourselves Anarchists. We say we want the end of all chains and the extermination of all oppression. Yet, in the Anarchist "movement", black folk and other folks of color are still in the senzala. We are still having to disguise ourselves, call whitey "Massa" and chain ourselves to the wall. No, don't talk about racism unless it is in that very abstract sense of we-are-all-equal-let's-sing-kumbayas-and-pretend-the-color-of-our-skin-does-not-matter" racism. While there might be nobody yelling "die, nigger, die!", you can hear a very clear “shut the fuck up, nigger, just shut the fuck up. —Pedro Ribeiro (Furious Five Revolutionary Collective)
See also[edit]
- Anarchism
- Anarchist people of color
- Anarchist Black Cross Network
- African anarchism
- Black Surrealism
