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Another Example Of How We Can Prepare to Stop Violent Racists

8/8/2019

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Now we have the unfortunate situation where a 13 year old child is facing significant injuries after a 39 year old man physically assaulted the child after the child did not remove his hat during the playing of the so-called U.S. "National Anthem" during a rodeo in Montana.  This was no simple push or lightweight assault.  The 13 year old suffered fractured bones from the violent assault carried out against him.  

The shoe bottom piece of filth who carried out this vicious attack was released (after being arrested) on his own recognizance e.g. based on the judge's decision, this rotten piece of horse manure was permitted to leave custody without having to post bail money.  All of this should be overwhelming to most logically thinking people.  The real kicker though is that the attorney for this idiot claimed in court during his arraignment that he has some psychological/medical condition that makes him take everything, including the U.S. president's statements, literally.  The argument being that this person, hearing that anyone who doesn't "respect" the anthem, must be confronted and that is the official reason being given for why this loser took the violent action that he did.

This last point is the point we wish to focus on here.  Obviously we don't believe anything coming from this attorney, but it is worth noting that when we discuss community defense, what we are saying is not just that we have to engage massive organizing efforts to stop drug dealing, domestic violence, police terrorism, etc., within our communities.  We certainly see community defense as an element of revolutionary organizing to achieve those objectives, but we want to make the point that community defense can also be something as simple as our communities and the people within them being prepared enough to handle people like this deranged bully.  For example, I know plenty of people who never stand for that so-called anthem.  I, myself, have not stood for it since I was 17 years old, 40 years ago.  I regularly go to sporting events, graduations, and other events that routinely play the so-called anthem and I and many others refuse to stand, remove our caps, or show any level of respect for an anthem and a country that has never respected me, my people, and any people from oppressed communities.  Often, when I'm not respecting that anthem, I am wearing (because this is just how I've always dressed) clothes that make my political positions clear.  This is true for me as well as countless other people.  Still, no one has ever made a move to seriously question me and certainly not to physically attack me.  The question we have to ask is why?  

Of course, when we are talking about a 39 year old man attacking a pre-teenager, we are obviously talking about a bully and that is a central point to realize.  Most of these people bullying colonized people, LGBTQ people, women, etc., are bullies.  Yes, there are many who are just unhinged, but the overwhelming majority of these people challenging people for speaking a language other than English, calling us n words, telling people to go back somewhere, etc.  These people are complete cowards.  Clearly, the reason these cowards don't challenge people like me in those environments is because they know that we are not cowards.  They know that challenging us will more than likely result in consequences for them and they are definitely not wrong.  

What we have to be able to do is take examples like this to a higher level.  We have to realize that what these cowards detect in people like me is a confidence because I am very capable of defending myself physically and intellectually.  Imagine if we have communities everywhere who are organized to protect themselves the same way?  If we had that, these types of attacks would subside overnight.  They would disappear because people would be forced to respect us in ways we don't currently  benefit from on a collective level.  Our objective is to take individual levels of protection and extend them to collective levels of protection.  Then to take those collective levels of protection and grow and develop them to international capacity organizing work to achieve revolutionary change.  In other words, what I want to do more than anything is help people learn how to defend themselves as I've learned to do.

If we want to see this type of terrorism stop.  If we want our children to be respected and safe.  We have to stop acting like the pathway to make those things happen is relying on racist and violent police.  Or thinking us being the most peaceful and cooperative people we can be will keep us safe.  Or, that we can convince these terrorists to see our humanism.  None of those things have been successful in 500+ years of people trying them.  What will work is us finally understanding that power concedes nothing without a demand.  When we are organized as the masses of people these cowards will leave us alone.  Even if any of them are not actually cowards, they will still leave us alone.  They will stop because they won't wish to deal with the consequences we will be prepared to inflict upon them for disrespecting us.  

We can get there, but it will require us becoming focused and committed to engaging in that level of organizing work which is an entirely different level of work than that which is being carried out by the overwhelming majority of people out here claiming to be warriors for justice.  We ask now, as we have continued to ask for quite some time, for those interested in hearing more about this to reach out and let us know of your interest.  We will win the moment we become dedicated to standing up for ourselves.
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White Supremacists are Coming For Us, But We Have Options

8/6/2019

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There are numerous examples of everyday people organizing to successfully win against the most powerful entities on Earth. Here, Mutulu Shakur and Marilyn Buck represent the efforts of the African liberation movement and accomplices within the U.S. empire to successfully liberate Assata Shakur from the Clinton Correctional Facility, New York state's largest maximum security prison. Assata lives in Cuba today and her liberation should serve as a simple reminder that when we organize we win
Currently, we are unfortunately experiencing continued gruesome realities of unnecessary loss of life, not just within the U.S., but all around the world.  Regarding recent white supremacist inspired mass shootings, people have lots to say about it on social media.  Opinions are everywhere, but the sobering truth is for the overwhelming majority of colonized Africans, Indigenous people, Asians, Arabs, LGBTQ family, women, etc., the only thing most people are prepared to do when confronted face to face with this senseless violence is call the police, pray, or appeal to the very power structure that promotes anti-human violence to stop that same violence.  

Needless to say, all of those options are complete failures.  If you truly believe the role of the police is anything besides enforcing the interests of the power structure, you are definitely reading the wrong blog.  There is so much evidence confirming that police are part of the problem, certainly not the solution, that we won't disrespect our dignity by continuing those arguments here (you can find much of that concrete evidence presented in countless articles on this very blog).  Praying, within a capitalist society, is sadly just another way of pretending everything will be OK while releasing you from taking any accountability to do anything to solve the problem.  And, pretending that the capitalist legislature is the solution is like saying the fox is the solution for guarding the chicken coop (same as the argument for "law enforcement.").  The entire legislature, including those who are supposed to be progressive e.g. the "squad", Bernie, etc., all generically support the U.S. military industrial complex, meaning none of them are working for or calling for it to be dismantled.  That military machine has been responsible for mass death and destruction and is a major part of the perpetuation of this American Exceptionalism which fuels the white supremacist ideology that these shootings evolve from.  So, proposing the legislature as a solution is dead and immoral at this point.

There are true solutions for those who really want to find them.  First, we have to abandon immediately this false concept that white supremacy is something new that has overtaken our reality with Trump's election.  White supremacy is the foundation of the capitalist world e..g the U.S, Europe, occupied Palestine (Israel), Australia, etc.  Its the ideology that drives policies against colonized and brown people all over the world.  Its the practice that defines exploitation against colonized people keeping brown people poor and powerless all over the world.  If we are going to change this backward tide, peace and justice people have to stop acting like this phenomenon is some sort of departure from what capitalism has been doing for 500+ years.  The abduction and imprisonment of Indigenous families is a continuation of the slave raids and separation and imprisonment of African people during the transatlantic slave trade.  The continuation of the separation and violence against Indigenous peoples.  The terror imposed on Palestinian people and the violent policies of colonialism in Africa and Central, South America, and the Caribbean.  None of this is new.  What's happening is the continued decline of capitalism as a system capable of providing comfort, or at least the illusion of comfort, to the masses of European working people, causes more and more of them to readily buy into the lies of the ruling classes.  When things are relatively stable, they may not listen as much, but when things are chaotic, they tune in.  They begin to listen more closely to the same thing they have been told for hundreds of years, that the people perpetuating their suffering are powerless colonized people when the people they place their faith in - the capitalist ruling classes - are the true reasons for their suffering.  Since these people cannot see this contradiction, they are continuing to serve as the shock troops for the ruling classes against the masses of colonized people, but even this isn't new.  This is no different from the role the Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens Council, Black Legion, Afrikaneer racist organizations in Azania (South Africa) and other violent white supremacist groups have played for hundreds of years in terrorizing humanity.  Those terrorists were working class white people like the shooters are today.  As my grandmother always said, "there's nothing new under the sun."

The current presidential administrations in the U.S., Britain, etc. are a clear sign of the decay of this system and people are reacting to that.  Some of them are acting out whereas before maybe they didn't feel like they had the same green light to do so, but the acting out is simply a reflection of the simmering ideology that has been the foundation of this system for hundreds of years (and for racists reading this, even violence in cities like Chicago is a manifestation of this same backward system.  Its ideologies and practices for white supremacy).  

What's critical for peace and justice loving people is how we can respond to this.  There is no longer any question for even the most militant believer in the myth that the state institutions that exist to oppress colonized people are going to now magically protect those same people.  No one can logically deny that the onus is 100% on oppressed communities to figure out how to protect ourselves and anyone who is still clinging to police, praying, and bourgeoisie politics is just someone who will possibly never accept reality over fiction.  So, for those who see the world as it actually is, we have to decide that we are going to be ready, determined, and committed to organizing to build the capacity to protect ourselves.  Since these problems are not new, we have plenty of successful models from which to build our capacities for community defense.  Everything from the Maroon slave revolts, to the Bakongo revolts in Africa, the Lumbee Indigenous revolts against the Ku Klux Klan, the Land and Freedom Movement (Mau Mau), the Palestinian Intifada, the Black Liberation Army in the U.S., Hezbollah against zionist Israel, the Cuban operations in Southern Africa in the late 80s, the list goes on and on.  We have plenty of examples of when the people came together, they were able to defeat anything the capitalist system threw at them and the fact they had no technology to compete against that of our enemies is immaterial.  As Huey P. Newton correctly stated "the man's technology will never be a match for the spirit of the people."

What we need is for that spirit to manifest itself in people ready to take action.  We don't claim to know all of the answers about how to implement community defense, but we have enough of the answers to get started.  We have a wealth of history as indicated to help us work together to figure out the rest.  And, we have the fact that we have no other choice that should serve as strong motivation for us to get cracking.  

The first step is we have to start talking about how to build communication networks.  We have to get people together who are willing to do work to set those networks up.  Then, we have to establish protocols for community work, trainings, and procedures to implement what we are learning to protect ourselves.  As Kwame Ture said "there can't be revolution without revolutionaries!" so the first step is recruitment.  Asking you to be someone who steps up in this work.  If you are ready and willing to do that, reach out here and we can start.  If we don't do this, we cannot complain when things don't change.  In fact, if we are not willing to take action to determine our own destinies, we should at least be courageous enough to log into those white supremacist sites and/or police agencies, and inform them that when they are prepared to venture to find us to brutalize that we will be efficient enough to provide them our names and addresses so that we can focus on coming to get us.  If we refuse to live for justice than we should at least have enough dignity to die for it, right?  Maybe then, we can at least make a contribution by delaying them from reaching those who are sincere and dedicated to trying to make a difference.

We don't desire that you make that type of sacrifice.  If we are to sacrifice, let it be for the positive reason of building a way for us to ensure life is the priority.  Time is of the essence and talk without action behind it is worthless at this point.  Make your choice for the type of person you want to be and the type of world you wish to live in.  




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Mass Shootings; Gun Control; & The Real Solutions to Shootings

8/4/2019

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Capitalism is such a vicious system that brown colonized people can be gunned down like wild animals on the street and the system's response to this is to blame the people who are being brutalized.  Again, within this backward capitalist society, we find ourselves immersed within a spate of violent and deadly shootings against unsuspecting everyday people going about their lives.  There's no question that these shootings are being directed at colonized people as the killers have clear and direct histories of articulating their hatred for Indigenous, African, and other colonized communities.  There's no question that the power structure of this backward country articulates a vision that encourages these people to act out their sick and anti-human visions.  There's also absolutely no question that none of this is new.  The entire history of this empire is the death and destruction of colonized people and what we are witnessing right now is simply the manifestations and desperation of a dying system - e.g. the decline of capitalism.

Since any of us exercising even the slightest cerebral capacity understand all of these undeniable facts, the question is why do so many of you continue to let apologists and protectors of this backward power structure convince you to accept phony solutions that you know are not true?  Gun control e.g. taking guns out of the hands of everyday people whenever a mass shooting occurs?  Are you serious?  Look.  I get it.  The U.S. has an estimated 120 guns in circulation for every person within the U.S.  That's obviously obscene, but for anyone to suggest that simply removing weapons from the hands of everyday people will somehow reduce the propensity of violence against colonized people in a society that has been created and maintained based on brutal violence against colonized people is the height of insanity.  This problem of mass shootings is just a symptom of the greater problem of anti-humanism, white supremacy, capitalist individualism, anti-humanism, patriarchy, anti-humanism, homophobia, and institutional anti-humanism.  This is why even though most everyday people cannot articulate it clearly enough, they will never accept that if a mass shooting occurs they should give up their weapons.  They don't believe this because they understand that the police, military, etc., are armed to the teeth and that its those institutions that create the climate of violence in the first place.  It was those institutions that facilitated the violent theft of land and murder of Indigenous peoples and the violent kidnapping and violence against Africans enslaved in this hemisphere.  So, how the hell is keeping those violent terrorist institutions in tact going to do anything to make all of us safer?  The people carrying out these shootings are imitating the violence of the institutional structures of this country.  These individual people are just too impatient for the state institutions to carry out their systemic violence so they are taking it upon themselves to carry out the acts themselves.  This is all the usual manifestations of a fascist, racist, patriarchal society folks.  So, please spare us with the insulting propositions that just getting the current idiot out of the white house will somehow change all of this.  Stop telling people that if they just vote for candidates from the other capitalist party that this will somehow stop.  The rise of the fascist right is a reflection of the decline of capitalism so whomever you elect they are going to have to cater to the same violent anti-humanist objectives that have always defined this country.  That's why your government labels African freedom fighters and anti-fascist fighters as terrorists while saying nothing about the violent white supremacists that have had free movement and actions within this society for 500+ years.  

So what can you do?  Instead of being pacified by the political mouthpieces for imperialism and white supremacy, are you really ready to do something about this?  Clearly, its time for colonized people and all true justice loving people to make the decision to get themselves organized to confront these assaults against our humanity.  And, by organization we don't mean electing more bourgeoisie apologists for capitalism from any of the bourgeoisie political parties beholden to this bourgeoisie capitalist system.  We mean organizing on a ground level.  A block to block level.  To a city to city level.  State to state level.  Country to country level.  Worldwide level.  And we mean organizing independently from this backward system through mass revolutionary organizing work to bring people together who wish to say no more.  

If you don't believe such organizing is possible, and clearly many of you don't because you refuse to engage in any work designed to contribute to that type of organizing work, then what you are saying is you are willing to bet the future of humanity on the same lies that have subjugated human existence for hundreds of years now.  For those of us not willing to play that fateful game, we implore you to turn away from bourgeoisie idealism and turn towards mass organization.  If you know that it is always only the masses of people who make history, not individuals, then we implore you to dedicate your energies and focus towards efforts to kick start that process so we can begin to organize ourselves to defend against these assaults against our very existence as human beings.  You don't have to have experience.  As comrade Fidel Castro said, the only qualification is sincerity.  If you have that, we can help you build the other components.  I often, and I mean often, write with this offer of organizing help and the only responses I receive are people telling me about their individualistic and idealistic visions for how change should take place in their idealistic minds.  Completely divorced from reality.  Television and fantasy hour is over people.  If you really want to get to work, we are here to work with you.

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A Prescription Example of Day to Day White Supremacy

8/2/2019

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As I write this there is actually a discussion taking place within the U.S. questioning whether former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was racist or not.  A script of a conversation between racist number one - Reagan, and racist number two - Richard Nixon, has surfaced where Reagan is referring to African people as monkeys.  Private comments aside, Reagan's decision to launch his 1980 presidential campaign in the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town Reagan's uninformed mind would never have known about were it not for the dubious fact that Philadelphia, MS, is the notorious town where three civil rights workers were kidnapped and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, including klan members who were the local police for the town.  Reagan clearly made his decision to start his campaign there, instead of practically anywhere else he could have chosen besides a town of 6000 in the poorest state in the U.S., because he wanted to send a clear message to white people that he was their dude.  

Reagan's racist policies while president against Grenada, Cuba, Panama, and Libya confirmed his commitment to white supremacy.  His support for racist policies against Indigenous peoples (his administration's refusal to let Native people even grow food on an abandoned former military base, turned college for Indigenous people in Northern California, U.S., despite a U.S. treaty giving them that right), as well as his consistent racist policies against African people since being governor of California in the 60s (his and the National Rifle Association's support for banning open carry of guns in California in 1967 to repress the Black Panther Party's legitimate fight against police terrorism), cemented his legacy of white supremacy.  So, the fact that this is even something people can consider debatable in 2019 is a clear sign that no matter what, white supremacy continues to be so much of the foundation of this country that separating white supremacy from the U.S. is like a human living without blood . Impossible.  The line is so thin that most people have difficulty being able to even recognize white supremacy on any level.  That's why what's clearly racist to so many of us is often undetectable to so many other untrained eyes.

This is why the experience I had on an airplane this past week is a classic textbook example of how white supremacy manifests itself within this society.  Seated on the plane in the row in front of me was a thirty something father and his approximately three or four year old year old son.  Across the aisle from them was presumably the man's wife, and approximately 15 year old daughter.  The plane was delayed on the tarmac for an hour.  About 10 minutes into the hour, the little boy started unbuckling his seat belt and demanding to do whatever he pleased in the aisle.  As the flight attendants were forced to stay prepared to take off, they had requested that everyone stay seated with seatbelts on.  This back and forth between the boy and the parents went on.  This is understandable.  The boy is young and restless and there is not much to do and little space to do it in while seated in economy.  What was interesting is sometime around the 30 minute mark of the wait, the little boy began obnoxiously demanding from his mom (he seemed to ignore the father despite the dad's infrequent and ineffective efforts to corral him) that he be permitted to do a number of things that could not be possible.  When the boy wasn't able to get his way, he conducted a temper tantrum of crying, yelling, kicking, screaming, and otherwise acting out.  The parents, embarrassed and completely overwhelmed, tried to calm him, but clearly lacked the capacity to engage and guide him under those circumstances.

The interesting part is during this entire ordeal, the people seated around me, although clearly agitated at the boy's continued screaming and otherwise disruptive behavior, continued to laugh nervously and to pretend to be entertained by the boy's clear out of line behavior.  What struck me about this entire scene is I tried to envision if the family was an African family and the boy was a young African boy behaving that way.  I tried to envision the people having that same level of patience, and even support, for the out of control behavior of the little boy.  Under no scenario, circumstances ,and/or situation could I envision an African boy being greeted with anything except contempt for behaving that way.  Possibly even more aggressive behavior from the surrounding people would have occurred.  

I don't think anyone with an objective mind could argue that a young African boy behaving the same way would not be viewed differently.  I see white children behaving that way constantly and I rarely see African children doing the same without strict interference from the adults.  The reason?  Our people understand that our youth being perceived as out of control is a fast track to the penitentiary if not death.  Even just an African baby crying is not greeted with the patience I observed on that flight for this little boy.  Even that African baby is met with impatient stares, sighs, and all around hostility whether openly expressed or not.  Our youth, even our children, are criminalized and any behavior that isn't acceptable to the dominant system is viewed automatically as disruptive and punitive against us, youth included.  Our youth are never given the pass to be youth.  They are not even given the right to be human!

By the same token, that little boy is not viewed as a threat by the surrounding European (White) people.  They don't view him as someone needing to be controlled like they would most likely view an African child.  This is indeed strange because my thoughts as I observed this little boy caused me to initially feel guilt.  I wanted to chastise myself for not protecting this little boy's humanity, despite his behavior.  I decided that any disgust I should have I would reserve for the parents, but as I detected the degree to which they were overwhelmed I found myself having empathy for them as well.  The thought that crept into my mind as I watched the little boy was that I was potentially observing the type of conditions that could breed the next mass shooter.  Someone entitled who was not accustomed to hearing the word no, something every African child is very comfortable with.  

My sincere hope is that boy will grow up to become a healthy, productive, and positive energy human being at all costs.  I know that's most likely what will happen and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Still, I can't help but think that he will grow up with all the support, second chances, and benefits of the doubt that any human being could hope for.  Meanwhile, that African child, same age, same behavior inclinations and efforts to try adults, will be constantly greeted with scorn, disciplinary energy, and the general message that whatever he/she/they do is a problem, period.  The entitlement we see in these white terrorists who are racist to their cores and believe they are justified in being that way is the same seed of entitlement I saw on that plane.  Again, I'm not saying that boy is on any type of tract to be a terrorist.  I am saying that those who do become terrorists, it has to be at least partially because of that enablement.  That privilege.  That dysfunction.  Than, at the same time, we are criminalized for being human beings.

Before anyone reacts and wants to argue, do your own introspective thinking around this.  Pay attention to how often you see white children behave like that child on the plane compared to African and other colonized children.  More importantly, pay attention to how the actions of those children is received/perceived by those around them.  What you find will tell you a lot about the invisible inequities that guide this society, every step of the way.

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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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