Min 75 – Summary of the Shinmin Prefecture

Posted on 08/11/2024 by muntjac

A short historical summary of the forgotten Korean project known as Shinmin Prefecture and Korean People’s Association in Manchuria. This was a self-governing region of around two million people from 1929 to 1931.

1. Inception

Many Koreans gathered in Manchuria to avoid oppression from the Japanese Empire, following the Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula, forming their own society there. Kim Jong-jin, inspired by anarchism under Yi Hoe-yeong, aspired to “create a society in which all were equal without privilege and discrimination, free to develop and improve as they pleased”. He believed that in order to achieve a revolutionary movement it was necessary to maintain a long struggle with a detailed plan and robust organization and that Manchuria was an appropriate spot for a base. He divided and surveyed the region before reporting the results to Kim Jwa-jin, suggesting a reformation of the Shinmin prefecture in order to prevent invasion by Marxist-Leninists. His aim was to defeat those who espoused “scientific socialism,” and hold a long struggle against Japanese imperialism.

Meanwhile, in Manchuria, Korean anarchists created an organization called “Freedom Youth Organization”(FYO, 자유청년회) whose members were working throughout. Kim Jong-jin, along with Yi Dal and Kim Ya-bong, gathered all members and formed “Black Friend League”(BFL, 흑우연맹) focusing on propagating anarchism. More youth organizations converged under the activities of “Black Friend League” and formed “North Manchuria Korean Youth League”(NMKYL, 북만한인청년연맹) which also studied anarchism with a focus on enlightenment of the population. Kim Jong-jin and Yi Eul-gyu subsequently established the Korean Anarchist Federation in Manchuria (재만조선무정부주의자연맹) using “North Manchuria Korean Youth League” as a base.

Meanwhile, nationalists in Manchuria failed to unify the factions of three prefectures, and their innovative congress disbanded without making much progress. As a result of their expropriating resources from the populace while reigning over them, the nationalists were losing support and the populace was leaning towards the Marxist-Leninists. Feeling threatened by this development, the nationalists and anarchists joined forces to create the Korean People’s Association in Manchuria (KPAM; 한족총연합회).

2. Management

“North Manchuria Korean Youth League”, through their Announcement(<선언>), exposed Japanese ambitions to invade Manchuria and made clear of their opposition to political struggle as they were too reformist. They also opposed capitalism and foreign rule and they sought to respect the will of the individual. They established the rule of free association, thus rejecting centralised governance.

The programme of the Korean Anarchist Federation in Manchuria had proposed a society without rulers, advancing free development via mutual aid and free association, work according to one’s ability, and consumumption based on one’s needs. They sought to revolutionize the minds and lives of the peasants and build an ideal society in order to advance the liberation efforts. Their immediate platform was as follows:

1. We strive to reform the lives of Korean-Chinese people and to cultivate their anti-Japanese, anti Marxist-Leninist ideology.

2. We strive to foster the organization of our fellow compatriots through the self-governing cooperative structures to promote the economic/cultural improvement of Korean-Chinese people

3. We strive with all our might for the education of the youth in order to strengthen the anti-Japanese force and the cultural development of young people.

4. We, as one farmer, run our own lives with our own strength through collective labor with the farmer population and, at the same time, focus on the improvement of the lives of farmers and farming methods as well as cultivation of ideologies.

5. We carry a responsibility to research our own affairs and to regularly report self-criticism.

6. We have the obligation of friendly cooperation and common operation with ethnic nationalists on the anti-Japanese liberation front.

According to the rules of the KPAM, its members were comprised of revolutionary Koreans (Article 2). Those living in the region for longer than three months had rights and obligations including donation of funds, enlisting in the military, voting and passive suffrage (Article 19). As its central institution, they installed the representative, executive, conference agencies (Article 6) and military, farming, education, and economy committees (Article 5). The representative agency was the top resolution agency (Article 7) which was held every January by those gathered by the executive agency (Article 13) and the head was picked by the executive agency to chair the meeting (Article 12). The executive agency was composed of between 15–21 members (Article 11) and handled the affairs decided at the meeting (Article 8). Their terms lasted for only one year (Article 18). The conference agency, composed of members from each committee, handled connections between committees and PR decided by executives (Article 9).

Each regional division of the KPAM was the agriculture association and therefore served as a regional administration handling matters ranging from executive, judicial, finance, to education, security, picking between 5 and 9 members to carry out each task. They also installed the associations of education and security to handle the matters respectively.

The KPAM sought maintenance of the region in order to cement organizational foundation. Meanwhile, they focused on building elementary (소학교) and middle schools (중등학교). They also built rice mills in order to protect the Korean peasants from the trickery of Chinese merchants.

3. The Fall

The prefecture began to disintegrate following the assassination of Kim Jwa-jin by a 화요파 (“Hwa yo pa”) Communist Party member, Gong Do-jin, when the Marxist-Leninists attempted to dismantle the nationalist organization as the conflict between both factions escalated. KPAM blamed and executed figures like Kim Bong-hwan and Yi Ju-hong which brought further condemnation and more assassination attempts from Marxist-Leninists.

The association moved its headquarters to Jilin and sought to unite the ethnic organizations against the Communist Party once more and subjugate the Marxist-Leninists. They also tried to calm the local population by addressing a range of structural problems. They quickly ran out of funds, however, so were forced to request money during a meeting in Beijing (무정부주의자동양대회). They got the money and planned to use it to rebuild the commune, however, ten members were arrested by the Chinese police who were collaborating with the Japanese embassy. Police immediately confiscated the funds. China-based Korean anarchists quickly gathered around Manchuria to reconvene and rebuild Shinmin efforts.

After gathering, anarchists tried to restructure and enlighten the population once more but their efforts remained in vain for two reasons. There was an internal division in the association and a conflict between nationalists and anarchists. Anarchists soon found themselves rejected from the main positions of the association as the conflict worsened. The nationalists assassinated Yi Jun-geun, Kim Ya-un, and Kim Jong-jin, thus, finally closing the chapter of the Shinmin prefecture as the anarchists fled from Manchuria.

4. Why It Failed

The KPAM did indeed operate in an anarchistic manner. It was structured in accordance with anarchist principles of bottom-up organization, based on free association. Each region would send their share of delegates who would manage the main issues of the association, and the general association would take care of all paperwork, decide on foreign affairs, and public relations. Each region would hold a meeting to choose delegates and write proposals to the main branch. However, due to the situation in Manchuria, the lacking state of the Shinmin prefecture forced the association to adopt a top-down approach whereby they would select a couple of candidates for each structure and hold elections respectively.

However, the KPAM had a fundamental flaw. Whilst it was operated and structured by anarchist principles, it was not unified by anarchism nor did every member agree with anarchism. For example, one phrase of their programme says, “[w]e strive for the complete independence of the nation and thorough liberation of the people”. This meant they did not deny the state but rather that they acknowledged it. Despite the state being one of the top authoritarian oppressors of the people according to anarchists, anarchists in Shinmin deviated from their principles. They recognised the state in order to collaborate with the nationalists because they needed the regional base from them. This “non-anarchistic” element eventually led to internal divisions within the association, but also between the anarchists and nationalists. Despite nationalist ideology having fundamental differences with anarchism, anarchists cooperated with nationalists. This was a self-contradiction. The anarchists carried a risk by sharing a regional base with the nationalists instead of establishing their own and, unfortunately, this collaboration ultimately led to their defeat.

5. Aftermath

After anarchists fled from Manchuria to mainland China, they resumed their focus on terrorist activities. Unlike in Korea and Japan, there was no Korean populace with whom to rally the movement and because the efforts to build a base for liberation movement were shattered, the only remaining option for Korean anarchists at the time (this being the early- to mid- 1930s) was direct terrorism.
They were heavily discouraged by the failures of Shinmin and having to live abroad, this encouraged them towards nihilist terrorism. The remaining anarchists began collaborating with nationalists like Kim Koo as both groups had a common objective — to achieve liberation through terrorism. Kim Koo and nationalists possessed the funds whilst the anarchists had the people to carry out assassinations. The anarchists also had prior experience of cooperating with nationalists in Shinmin. The anarchists loathed the Marxist-Leninists after they killed Kim Jwa-jin and this was a key factor in the fall of Shinmin, which ultimately led to anti-ML activities.

Source

Dr. Yi Horyong (이호룡), 한국의 아나키즘 – 운동편 (지식산업사, 2015), 332-360.

Adam K. – Anarchist Orientalism and the Muslim Community in Britain [2007]

Posted on 06/11/2024 - 06/11/2024 by muntjac

Taken from the APOC website; https://web.archive.org/web/20100603234052/http://illvox.org/2007/06/anarchist-orientalism-and-the-muslim-community-in-britain/

Most Muslims in Britain are from South Asia being either Pakistani or Bangladeshi and concentrated in areas such as East London, Slough, Luton and the North of England. Many are also asylum seekers and immigrants from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. After September 11th governments have found it easy to justify immigration and asylum laws thereby linking it to terrorism. Many Muslims in both Britain since S11 have also been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the authorities under suspected charges of terrorism and with little proof. It seems that the law has decided that all Pakistanis and Arabs are potential terrorists just as they view all Afro-Caribbean people as potential muggers and drug dealers.

This new anti-Muslim racism has also led to an increase in racist attacks and violence; there have been reports in Britain after 9/11 of Muslim women having their hijab (headscarves) forcefully removed in public. In particular there has been racist anti-Muslim violence in East London and also Slough, which is being under-reported. In Slough for example, one week after 9/11 the Pakistani community was subjected to a National Front rally in the town centre and later that night received attacks on Asian homes. It is this situation that led many of the Asian Muslim youth to rise up last summer expressing their frustration with their marginalized situation caused by racism and poverty. It seems that there is a failure in understanding Islam properly and indeed the situation which Muslims face. For example the media has associated many of these frustrated Asian youth with fundamentalist politics and fundamentalist groups such as the exiled Syrian Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammed’s Al Muhajiroun group. Alongside the New Labour government’s demand that immigrants should “integrate” and learn English, one can see clearly that this situation creates an atmosphere of ignorance and blame on these undesirable elements of society. As Mubshir Hussein, a young Pakistani once said to me, “things are really fucked for us at the moment”, but how can anarchists help to make sure that things are not so “fucked”.

The reality reflects that the anarchist movement in Britain is very eurocentric and very white. Its hegemonistic class purist outlook makes it clear that class homogeneity is superior to all other variables in society therefore the existence of any cultural homogeneity goes out of the window and is ignored as being undesirable. The anarchist movement in Britain has an especially ignorant and hegemonistic attitude and perception of the Muslim community, and this is no doubt linked to the eurocentric nature of the movement. The London based Anarchist Federation produced an article in their resistance magazine in December 2001 stating, “Islam is an enemy of all freedom loving people”. Such statements after the tragedy of September 11th are indeed something, which Muslim minorities in the West have had to get used to. The only problem I have with the above quote is that it is no different to the bigoted rhetoric of George Bush or even Nick Giffen the leader of the far right British Nationalist Party which has in recent years focused its attack specifically on Muslims instead of all coloured people. The BNP itself is very active in the North of England and has been standing in local elections with substantial support in areas such as Leeds, Burnley, Oldham and Bradford, in fact it was in these areas that the last summer’s riots occurred with the exception of Leeds. The far right in these areas are much stronger then the left, and have been involved in racist anti-Muslim violence. In Bradford, the BNP is cleverly attempting to divide the Asian community and has been leafleting Hindus and Sikhs about the evils of Islamic fundamentalism in the hope that they would vote for them by attempting to fuel inter-religious hatred. In Bradford also the anarchist movement is quite active but has little connection to the Muslim community and therefore remains dumbfounded as to how to counter the BNP. In addition to the anarchists, the tactics of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party and the Anti-Nazi League mainly involves plastering posters on walls, giving out leaflets, expanding membership lists and then buggering off into the sunset. This approach is unwise as the South Asian Muslim community in the North of England is in a very marginalized situation and what is needed is a radical anti-racist movement, which organises within the community. The bigotry towards Muslims, their culture, their religion and identity is therefore universal and is reflected in the media, academia, the right and left, they all seem to sing the same chorus using fundamentalist groups such as Al-Muhajiroun, as there example and thereby portraying Muslims as being monolithically reactionary, homophobic and oppressive towards women. If the left, anarchist and anti-capitalist movement claim to be progressive then something is seriously has to be addressed.

I once came across a white anarchist who was extremely ignorant with regards to his perceptions of Muslims. What was disturbing was the fact that he was attacking not only Islam, with the primitive and simplistic knowledge he had of the religion; but also Muslims in general, namely their culture, way of life, beliefs and showed a complete conviction in the media and right wing stereotypes. This was also reflected at a “No War but Class War” meeting, a UK coalition of anarchists against the War on Terror. I seemed to be the only coloured face in the whole room of at least 50 anarchists. The discussion seemed to show an acceptance of Muslims monolithically being fundamentalist, reactionary and oppressive towards women. It is clear that patriarchy, homophobia and conservatism exists in Muslim societies but do not these tendencies also exist in white, European and non-Muslim societies? Patriarchy, homophobia and conservatism are universal because capitalism is universal. With regards to women, the left and the anarchist movement accepts the stereotype of Muslim women who wear the Hijab, as being oppressed and docile creatures. The anarchists have therefore fallen into the trap of believing that Western women are liberated whilst Muslim women are not. Implying that Muslim women are only free if they remove the Hijab and don the mini-skirt is as ridiculous as the Taleban imposing the Hijab (and indeed the Burqa) whilst abolishing the mini-skirt. As the Morrocan Feminist Fatima Mernissi once said “a size 6 is the Western woman’s harem”. A universal patriarchal system is clearly the problem here, not the exclusive evils of a puritan Muslim culture.

One can say that this is an example of Edward Said’s “Orientalism”, thus it is the West who dictates to the Muslim what Islam is despite it’s immense diversity as a culture, religion and way of life. As descendents of an orientalist culture, the British anarchist movement’s phobia of religion is merely an added variable to their extreme eurocentrism, therefore South Asian Muslims are judged in accordance to the concept of modernity and thus they must change in accordance to Western society. It is this pressure, which drives many of the alienated Muslim Asian youth to join groups such as Al-Muhajiroun as a reaction, and yet I have come across anarchists who refer to such people as “twats” which is disturbing as they have no knowledge whatsoever with regards to their experiences. Al-Muhajiroun has won an almost celebrity status in the UK thanks to the media which constantly portrays them as mainstream Islam thereby helping governments in their racist “war on terror”. What is needed is a movement, which not only organises within Muslim and Asian communities, but also presents ideologically progressive alternatives to Al-Muhajiroun thereby reclaiming our identity from the perversions by the media, politicians and white radicals and leftists.

It is clear that the anarchist phobia of religion within the framework of an anti-religious secular culture is indeed another reason to attack Muslims as being reactionary. On April 13th 2002, a pro-Palestine demo mobilised up to 50-100,000 people on the streets of London. What was different about this demo was that it was mainly composed of Muslims, Asians, Arabs and refugees. There was only a small contingent from the usual anti-war leftists, anti-capitalists and an even smaller contingent of anarchists. Some hard left newspapers have referred to the demonstration as being reactionary because it was supposedly composed of hard-core religious elements, this view was also reflected by some anarchists. The reality reflects that the demonstration was most definitely not reactionary rather it was a mobilisation of ordinary people expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada. It is both racist Islamaphobic and ridiculous to assert such a view. Just because the demonstration was not composed of the usual Trotskyist and anarchist elements, does not mean that it was reactionary.

Religion is a part of many people’s cultures not only in Muslim countries but also for example in Latin America and especially in the indigenous communities. The reality reflects that Islam, Muslim societies and individuals can be both reactionary and progressive thereby reflecting the dialectics of capitalist society. This dichotomy exists in all contexts therefore Anglo-Saxon and European culture can also be both reactionary and progressive with its secular traditions. Thus it is not an issue of being nice to Muslims and Islam, on the contrary it is one of finding an intelligent sociological analysis of society which seeks truth and is based on the reality, namely that we are all human and humans are complicated. Cultural reifications can lead to hegemonism, and the anarchist movement must do away with their hegemonistic application of modernity. Hegemony must be abolished within any anti-capitalist and revolutionary praxis so that people can be free to be what they want to be.

Hadotso – Maroons: Guardians of the flag of liberation

Posted on 03/11/2024 - 28/04/2025 by muntjac

Green Anarchy, #25 P58-61, 2008.

This piece was published in the final issue of Green Anarchy, a magazine that ran from 2000 to 2008, starting as an environmentalist anarchist publication and slowly evolving under new editorship into an anti-civilization anarchist magazine from the 5th issue onwards. It came out two years before Russel “Maroon” Shoatz’s famous article on the Maroons and since this magazine was given to prisoners perhaps it was an influence, but we’ll never know for sure.

The magazine is avalible as a OCR’d PDF here

Maroons: Guardians of the flag of liberation

Wage Slavery

Wage-based economic systems are nothing short of slavery. The plantations have been replaced largely by the industrial-urban centers. Strip-malls and service jobs. Modern techno-industrial society, or the misleading label “post” industrial, is only the most recent manifestation of mass production with gadgets, widgets, and information replacing sugarcane and cotton as the commodity of choice. The master’s bullwhip has been perfectly replaced by the instrument of law. The use of violence, or more overtly the threat of use, keeps the wage-slaves in check thereby transforming spontaneous, creative individuals into diligent worker-bees. The owner’s brand has been replaced by the name brand: the corporate logo. However instead of holding a child down to sear a glowing iron into her shoulder to symbolize ownership, they are chained to assembly lines forcing them to sew on designer labels for 13 hours a day. “The Nike Swoosh is nothing more than a whip in mid-swing.”

One is compelled to work because s/he knows that if s/he doesn’t they will be forcefully removed from their home. They will be unable to buy groceries. And yet those that cringe at the mention of plantation-slavery, no doubt thinking it some relic of a bygone era and not a reality in present-day society, are on their knees, hands outstretched begging to accept the conditions of wage-slavery. But not every slave ran into the burning house to save their master; some ran away, others added fuel. What exactly happened to those who ran away? His-story does not tell us, because in doing so, it would be forced to admit it’s illegitimateness: That while some accepted the terms, others refused. That many resisted and had to be crushed. That civilization is not the natural climax of human evolution it proudly proclaims itself to be. It would be forced to confess it’s biggest fear: That all civilizations fall. Out of fear some slaves voluntarily elected to stay on the plantations. Believing the few scraps thrown at their feet sufficient enough to ‘survive.’ Positing that being given a discarded ceramic plate by the slave-owner demonstrated an actual improvement of their condition.

Believing that purchasing a luxury SUV confirms an actual improvement of their condition. But by accepting either the dish or the SUV, the slave accepts the circumstances, despite the fact that, in reality, they are contributing to their own demise. Those who stayed on the plantations survived just long enough to work themselves to an early death. Can anyone imagine a group of slaves ever desiring to “collectively-oversee” their own bondage? Why would an individual wish to self-manage the chains of syndicalism’s servitude? Those that did not desire to braid the very rope that was to eventually hang them escaped. Those who ran away survived. They ran into the bushes of Brazil. They ran into the mountains of Venezuela. They ran into the swamps of Carolina. They ran into the forests of Mexico. They ran into the open arms of their Indian brothers and sisters: the natives. Fugitives and Savages. And it was here, among the howling wilderness out of civilization’s reach, that they formed their alliances. Alliances that welcomed all who fought against the colonial megamachine. New tribes were founded. (In America alone, over 200 tri-racial isolate communities existed). New cultures were created. Cultures of resistence.

Injuns, Niggas, and Feral Cattle

The word Maroon is derived from the Spanish Cimarron, which originally referred to domestic cattle that had taken to the hills. Later, it was pejoratively used for Indians who, knowing the terrain better than the Africans, were the earliest to escape. Ultimately, the term became almost exclusively a label for Africans, although Maroon communities consisted of natives, Africans, Europeans, and possibly slaves brought over to the Americas from India and the Middle East among others. Michael Kolhoff gives a brief overview of their connection: …that fugitives would band together for survival isn’t unusual. The runaways would have a common enemy, the colonial governments of the coast and the slave masters of the plantations. The plantation fields of the early colonial period also incorporated a wide diversity of forced labor. There would have been Native Americans of the coastal tribes, kidnaped Africans, Gypsies (who were transported to the “New World” by all the colonial powers), and British and Irish prisoners working out their sentences. It’s not hard to imagine that all the individuals interested in escaping would have been drawn to the Native Americans, who knew the land and had contacts in the wild [Kolhoff]. Describing the historical Maroon in Brazil, Roger Bastide hints at the parallel to our present situation, when he states, “The basic maroon context is the struggle of an exploited group against the ruling class” [Bastide].

Studying the weather patterns and natural cycles of this strange, foreign land, slaves waited weeks, months, even years for the right moment to escape. When they did, they opted to give themselves fully to the wilderness, rather than face another day of enslavement. They abandoned the guarantee of slave quarters, tattered clothes, and measly food choosing the possibility of dying free in the unknown jungle. Will we desert our square apartments, sweatshop denim, and bio-engineered food for even a brief taste of feral freedom? Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin, who has lived and studied among contemporary descendants of these early Maroons, characterizes the observation a few Slaves undoubtedly made prior to their escape, “Hey, this is Equatorial Rainforest….we’ll see you white boys later!” [Plotkin]. Sometimes the opportunity for slaves to escape arose purely by chance. During the early 16th century the region of Esmeraldas in Ecuador became a Maroon haven by accident when, “Spanish ships carrying slaves from Panama to Guayaquil and Lima were wrecked along the equatorial coast amidst strong currents and shifting sandbars. A number of slave castaways consequently dashed to freedom in the unconquered interior, where they allied with indigenous groups and a handful of Spanish renegades” [Romero].

What opportunity will we take advantage of for our chance to race towards freedom? Slaveships are no longer our carrying vessel, so a shipwreck will present us with little opportunity to be sure. Nevertheless, although ships no longer crash (except when they are transporting oil, then they appear to tip over with alarming frequency), stock markets certainly do. Lines of communication crash. (One of the most effective and certainly one of the easiest forms of resistance among Native Americans was the chopping down of telegraph poles). Information superhighways crash. (12 yr old kids have cost multinational corporations millions of dollars with just a few minutes of hacking). Structures crash. (With a simple shrug of an earthquake entire cities have disappeared). And not just the linear metal and concrete type either, but social structures, too. Networks of importing natural resources crash. (In recent years sporadic blackouts throughout the country have left millions without electricity). Financial institutions crash. Foundations of exploitation crash. Civilizations crash. Who will be the next generation of Maroons when Western Civilization capsizes?

Quilombos: The Original Autonomous Zones

North America

Fighting between colonial powers oftentimes led to a power vacancy that was exploited by the Maroons in order to establish independent, self-sufficient communities. Three regions in North America stand out for both their longevity and their determination: The Great Dismal Swamp (along the North Carolina and Virginia border), The Neutral Strip (a 500 square mile expanse of impenetrable wilderness among the backwaters of Louisiana), and the Florida Everglades (which were interspersed with villages populated [both separately and together] by Native Americans and Africans). The Great Dismal Swamp and the Neutral Strip were both claimed by competing colonial powers but in the absence of permanently stationed imperial authority, were in actuality governed by neither. The Neutral Strip emerged in 1806 when the American and Spanish governments could not agree on the definite borders. When the British arrived to develop North Carolina as a commercial plantation, “…the Maroons retreated to the depths of the Great Dismal Swamp and from their sanctuary waged a 160-year guerilla war against slavery” [Koehnline]. In the years prior to the Civil War the Great Dismal Swamp also, “became a major stop on the underground railroad….No doubt many of the runaway slaves decided to remain in the swamp. During the war the Great Dismal Swamp was an area that the Confederate forces stayed clear of” [Kolhoff]. Similarly, it is reported that amongst the “swamp and canebrakes (of the Neutral Strip) that many who went in uninvited never came out again” [Kolhoff]. Largely due to their astounding inaccessibility, these three regions were immune to colonial, governmental, and state interference and provided inspiration to those who consequently revolted. The relationship between free slaves and plantation slaves continued to induce leading citizens to complain that their, “….slaves are becoming almost uncontrollable. They go and come when and where they please, and if an attempt is made to correct them they immediately fly into the woods and there continue for months and years committing grievous depredations on our cattle, hogs, and sheep” [Price].

So long as there was only the infrequent runaway, the outlaw villages were small, and raiding of plantations was a rarity, the Great Dismal Swamp could be tolerated, albeit grudgingly. When more and more slaves began to taste freedom however, slave rebellions multiplied, threatening the economic progress of the colonial government. The Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp could no longer be ignored, eventually leading to, “such a prominent figure as George Washington to recommend its draining and conversion to farmland” [Kolhoff]. Fortunately the task proved too much even for the noble father of this great nation. No form of punishment was ever considered too “cruel and unusual” for recaptured slaves. In July, 1837 a Maroon leader named Squire, whose tribe had lasted over three years conducting raids on plantations and killing slave owners, was tragically killed in the swamps. His body was fished out and exhibited in the public square of New Orleans for several days [Price]. Locals in South Carolina took it a step further when, after a Maroon was captured near Pineville, he was subsequently “….decapitated, and his head stuck on a pole and publicly exposed as ‘a warning to vicious slaves’” [Price]. Despite the occasional death and all governmental attempts to eradicate their settlements, the roving Maroons within these swamps continued to survive, the descendants of which are still there today. In North Carolina, breaking their backs working on farms owned by multinational corporations. In rural towns of Virginia eking out a meager existence as day laborers. They are the Melungeons of North Carolina. The Redbones of Louisiana. The Seminoles of Florida. Beautiful blends of African, European, and Indian features, each with a faint trace of revolution still burning in their eye.

South America

Like their counterparts up north, the Maroon communities that endured in South America were the ones that were the most isolated and the most exhausting to reach. In this respect, South America had a definite advantage in the sheer amount of jungle, mountains, and rainforest. Successful Maroon communities learned quickly to turn the harshness of their immediate surroundings to their own advantage for purposes of concealment and defense. Paths leading to villages were carefully disguised, and much use was made of false trails replete with deadly booby traps. In the Guianas, villages set in the swamps were approachable only by an underwater path, with other false paths carefully mined with pointed spikes or leading only to fatal quagmires or quicksand [Price]. The Maroon villages of the Caribbean and South America were referred to variously as Quilombos (free towns), Palenques (slang for the palisades surrounding most Maroon encampments), or Mocambos (a variation of Mu-kambo which means ‘hideout’ in Ambundu). Unquestionably the largest Quilombo was the triumphant village of Palmares, “a federation of Maroon communities whose population was estimated by contemporary sources, variously, to be 11,000, 16,000, 20, 000, and even 30,000 people” [Reis].

The saga of Palmares are still celebrated today in song and folklore. In addition to Brazil, other countries including Peru, Colombia, Suriname, Venezuela, French Guiana can boast a strong tradition of Maroon havens. In Bolivia “communities of Tupinamba Indians and escaped slaves…existed in Jaguaripe for over forty years” [Schwartz]. In Colombia the community of Sombrerillo numbered over 200 inhabitants including Maroons, free blacks, whites, Mulattos, and Zambos (Afro-Indians) [Romero]. Unlike their fugitive brothers and sisters in North America, who were subject to a full onslaught of Empire demanding acculturation and assimilation, a large number of Central and South American slaves were able to survive thanks to the same challenging terrain that helped them escape. Today along the Amazon remains several villages which originated as Quilombos, whose “inhabitants managed for generations to pass on the secrets of the rivers and jungle, from which they had been collecting fish, wood, wild fruits, medicinal leaves, and so on” [Reis]. Tragically as the rainforest around them disappears, these tri-racial communities are being systematically exposed and re-colonized. Individuals whose ancestors were bought and sold in the market are finding their own lives bought and sold in the free market. They are also finding new battles to fight: cultural survival, globalization, genocide. They are discovering that they are viewed as pawns in the game played between both leftist and rightist governments where the grand prize is their natural resources. The sugar plantation owner is reincarnated in the CEO. The master’s house is re-established in the hydro-electric dams. Likewise the fierce fighting spirit of their ancestors is being rediscovered, as well. In the late 80’s, when the great-grand-children of slaves were clashing against the government of Suriname, medicine bundles from Africa that had lain buried for 200 years were unearthed and carried into battle [Price].

Slave Rebellions: The Earliest Resistance to Globalization

America. In honor of Amerigo Vespucci, who, upon arriving in South Carolina in 1497, began routine enslavement of the Native Americans to transport back to Spain. Ultimately this was abandoned, “for they chose to die rather than work as slaves” [Sivad]. What is it that causes a person to make that decision? What is it that urges one to fight for absolute freedom; especially when outnumbered and up against superior firepower (advanced technology) and against a mentality that manifests it’s destiny via domestication, enslavement, oppression, rape, and unmatched brutality? Could it be generations of communal, egalitarian upbringings immersed in unadulterated wildness that compelled Indian mothers to suffocate their own newborns rather than have them grow up in bondage? [Sivad] Indians, Africans, and poor whites that did manage to escape returned to help free others. Fugitives, in collaboration with plantation slaves and freed slaves working in urban centers, constantly organized revolts and uprisings throughout history. While acknowledging that slave rebellions “were contemporaneous with the beginning of the slave trade”, Richard Price traces back the first major insurrection to December 26, 1522 in Santo Domingo [Price]. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that tens of thousands of years earlier, the first attempts made by an individual to exercise authority over other tribal members was met with the same fierce opposition. Maroons engaged in various forms of resistance ranging from property damage: -In 1692 a group of runaway slaves began to plunder farmlands near the town of Camamu. When their Mocambo finally fell their battle cry was, “Death to the whites and long live liberty” [Price]

to direct action:

– In 1876, in the village of Viana runaways came down from a Quilombo and occupied several nearby, demanding the end of slavery [Reis]

to insurgency:

-In the forests and hills on the outskirts of Salvador, the region of Bahia “hid numerous small Quilombos that served as temporary respite for the large urban slave population, which from time to time became involved in slave conspiracies and insurrections.” [Reis]

Interestingly enough, there exists no evidence that slaves ever achieved freedom through signing a petition, participating in letter-writing campaigns, or holding candlelight vigils. Perhaps these illiterate, unlearned savages were wise enough to see the futility of it all. They fully understood the context of their bondage. It was not a condition that could be eradicated through reform. Nothing short of insurrection would suffice.

“One of the most violent of the uprisings occurred in Tado in 1728. The rebels, made up mostly of African-born slaves, but also some Creoles, killed 14 white mine owners and administrators before retreating into the forest. Two of the principal leaders, remained at large…seeking refuge in neighboring free communities” [Romero]. In North America the Seminole were an out-standing Maroon force, due to geographic and political reasons, and were a major impediment on the colonial governments march toward global imperialism. Troop after troop of U.S. soldiers were defeated amidst the swamps and waterways of the Everglades. On September 11, 1812, a train carrying troops under the command of Captain Williams thrust deep into the region known as Florida. Williams was headed to support Colonel Smith whose own battalion was taking a beating. Along the route Seminole sprang forth from bushes, trees, and undergrowth charging the iron beast that stole upon their land, tearing through their mothers’ flesh and belching blackened clouds of slow death into their father’s skies. Inside the belly of this iron beast sat dozens of colonial soldiers, pale and deranged, determined to kill every Seminole brother, rape every sister, burn every village, steal every item, and finally to kidnap every last child (the ones not killed for sport that is) and convert them to the dignified ways of Christianity. The Seminoles had seen these actions before firsthand; indeed it was this psychotic civilized mentality that had originally pushed the Creeks into Florida, passing rows of plantations along the way. They were forced into a corner and, listening to instinct and not pleas for “moral purity,” they lashed out. The train was attacked and routed. A number of invading soldiers perished at the spear point, including Captain Williams himself [Price].

Cultures of Resistance

Over several decades of creating free societies, the Maroon community became an amalgamation of African, European, and Native American cultures. These new cultures, birthed amidst a continuous outlaw environment, became suffused with varying characteristics and traits of fugitive lifestyle. Rebellion and resistence defined every aspect of their life. This tradition continues to the present Maroons in Jamaica today, notes Kenneth Bibly, continue to possess their own religious beliefs, pharmacopeia, oral historical traditions, music, dance, esoteric languages, and other distinct forms of expressive cultures [Bibly].

Perhaps the best description of what characterizes their defiant culture, in this case the Maroon communities throughout the PacificLowlands, is that their music, religion, poetry, etc. “reflects not a shared sense of past or present subjugation, but rather of past and present autonomy” [Romero]. Immediately following a slaveships arrival,the cargo was quickly divided and separated so as to more effectively exercise control over them. Subjected to such an atrocity as enslavement, a transatlantic voyage covered in urine, feces and vomit, all so one could see their family members dragged away screaming, individuals attempted every method to try to maintain some stable social coherence. Fictitious kinship ties and their associated rituals provided one means of making sense of the world, or at least maintaining spiritual well-being, despite the omnipresence of slavery [Romero].

The extension of family links between both plantation-based and free slaves also served the purpose of solidifying unity “so tight that slaveowners could never break it”[Romero]. These newly-formed ties strengthened the fabric of relationship passed on generation after generation. If our children are to survive in a post-collapse world, egalitarian tribes based upon invented kinship ties need to be established. Then our children can look back upon us as the Maroons of the 1960’s looked upon theirmforebears and, “felt tremendous pride in the accomplishments of their heroic ancestors and, on the whole, remained masters of the forest” [Price]. In Alagoas, Brazil rural poor blacks still celebrate the indomitable Maroon fortress Palmares in folklore through poetry and songs:

Enjoy yourself, Negro

The white man doesn’t come here

And if he does

The devil will carry him off

[Bastide]

Solidarity extended beyond racial and ethnic boundaries to include class-based perspectives of insurgence. During the Balaiada Revolt, slaves joined forces with Brazilian peasants“against an oppressive and economic order” of both state and national governments, and were aided by bandits and political dissidents [Schwartz]. Maroon historian Mario Diego Romero divulges an effective argument for analyzing Maroon cultures to further advance ideas for a post-collapse community when he states that the Maroon forms of social organizations, “though sometimes dismissed as chaotic – constitute peaceful enclaves of mutual respect. Certainly they could serve as models for other societies” [Romero].

Allies

The temporary coalitions of oppressed (African/Native/European) were invaluable for the magnitude of armed struggle undertaken and resultant degree of liberation achieved. Equally crucial was the collaboration with the fortunate, privileged individuals within civilized society. Citizens aiding and abetting ex-slaves via food, clothing, or ammunition. They are the towns folk covertly supplying weapons. The merchants secretly re-supplying caches. They are the villagers providing underground shelter. They are the Culture traitors. Near Dover, North Carolina a citizens militia searching for runaways came across a child playing in the woods who confessed that his mother provided food rations for half a dozen runaways daily. After investigating the womyn’s house the militia found additional stores of meat, as well as arms and ammunition for the Maroon insurrectionists [Price]. Also in North Carolina, a 1864 newspaper article mentions the fact that, “white deserters from the Confederate Army were fighting shoulder to shoulder with the self-emancipated Negroes” [Price]. Worth noting here is the story of a particular Ex-Confederate soldier who married a descendant of the Yanga people (the “Black Mexicans”) whose ancestors were rebel slaves that established a Maroon community in Veracruz on the Gulf Coast in 1609. After receiving one too many death threats based on their interracial union, Lucy and Albert Parsons moved to Chicago where they became prominent anarchist organizers. Unquestionably there were thousands of instances where individual residents assisted escapees; clearly there existed entire villages that supported fugitives.

These “free towns” or autonomous zones were built alongside governed ones “with the express purpose of assaulting their structures of domination” [Romero]. During the 18th century in the upper Patia Valley a “Maroon aid society” developed, acting as a passageway to freedom among the Andean mountains. Through associations such as this, it was capable of protecting and absorbing slaves escaping both highland haciendas and lowland mines whose descendants are still found there today practicing small-scale agriculture [Romero]. In his account of the Maroons from the Great Dismal Swamp, James Koehnline ventures to say that, “perhaps, four hundred years ago, these Maroons of four continents held a big pow-wow, dedicating themselves to fight against slavery even then” [Koehnline]. It’s time for another pow-wow; this time dedicated to attacking not just (wage) slavery,but the very source of alienation, domestication, and domination.

Conclusion

In a society where the very air we breathe is polluted, the water we drink is poisoned, and the soil we dig is contaminated there can be few options other than to escape to outside of the ever-expanding suicidal techno-industrial apparatus, and since it must “expand or die” any life forged on the periphery must be nomadic. When our existence is threatened by the very system that is designed to protect us our only hope lies in a life outside that system. Physically, spiritually, and mentally. And as the indigenous populations dealt with the encroachment of the techno-industrial empire of standardization by an organic ebbing and flowing tactic that embraced African slaves and lower class Europeans into a unified fight, they have left us a legacy of resistance. We can honor that legacy by continuing and expanding their struggle. Both inside and outside of civilization.

Bibliography

Bastide, Roger “The Other Quilombos”
Bibly, Kenneth M. “Maroon Autonomy in Jamaica” Cultural Survival Quarterly. Winter 2002
Koenline, James “Legend of the Great Dismal Maroons: Swamp Rats of the World Unite! A Secret History of ‘The Other America’”
Kolhoff, Michael “Fugitive Nation”. Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. Fall/Winter 2001-2002 Plotkin, Mark “Tales of a Shamans Apprentice”. Bullfrog Video.
Price, Richard (ed.) “Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas”
Price, Richard and Sally Price “Maroons Under Assault in Suriname and french Guiana”
Reis, Joao Jose and Flavio dos Santos Gomes “Quilombo: Brazilian Maroons During Slavery”
Romero, Mario Diego and Kris Lane “Miners & Maroons: Freedom on the Pacific Coast of Colombia and Ecuador”
Sakolsky, Ron and James Koehnline (ed.) “Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture”
Schwartz, Stuart B. “The Mocambo: Slave Resistance in Colonial Bahia”
Sivad, Doug “African Seminoles”

Audio/Video

Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice (Bullfrog Films)
Black Indians: An American Story (Rich-Heape Films)
Quilombo (New Yorker Films)
Drums of Defiance: Maroon Music from the Earliest Free Black Communities of Jamaica (Smithsonian/Folkways)

Anon – Fight, No Compromise!

Posted on 26/10/2024 - 26/10/2024 by muntjac

Taken from an A6 Flyer handed out by a Global Majority anarchist at todays annual A-to-B procession hosted by the United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC)

Fight, No Compromise!

Today people are gathering to once again demand ‘justice’ for loved ones slain and brutalised at the hands of the British state. Many people will speak with pain and passion as they grieve together and desperately seek some form of accountability for their loss. Families and supporters will walk respectfully from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street where a delegation of members of members of the United Friends and Families Campaign (UFFC) will hand in a petition / letter through the gates for the attention of the Prime Minister. The route is carefully managed and choreographed.

Each year there are speeches which focus on condemning the ‘rogue’ elements within the police and other state agencies which lead to the killings that are remembered here. “If only the police and others did what they’re supposed to do and didn’t go rogue”….

This week Martyn Blake, a metropolitan police officer, was acquitted of the murder of Chris Kaba. Another fatal police shooting with no apparent consequences for the assassin, and and another family devastated by state violence.

The actions of these monsters are outrageous who anyone who conscience of their own. But martin Blake and those like him are trained killers. They did not ‘go rogue’. He did exactly what he was trained to do.

We need to take a very critical look at the causes of these atrocities. The power of the British state has been built on devastation and destruction, here and around the world. It relies on using authority to oppress and further humiliate people. The ‘Justice System’ exists solely to keep this power and control in place.

A conviction would be seen by some as a ‘victory’. But if we are interested in dignity and freedom then the state is out enemy. And we mut never be satisfied by any form of recognition, apology or compensation granted to us or decided by those who inflicted the brutality in the first place.

No kind of ‘justice’ can ever be gained form any dialogue with the state. No letter, petition or negotiation can ever bring any oppressed person closer to freedom. If we want to show solidarity in the face of injustice, we must fight and act without compromising.

We each have a personal responsibility. We cannot delegate this to anyone else – whether it be the state, community leaders, elders, anyone.

Look around you today and there is an accepted and agreed peace with the police. This is intolerable. They, and the system they protect, are in conflict with us. We must remember this and ensure our words and actions are aligned. One without the other can only perpetuate the status quo.

ActForFreedomNow – France June-July 2023, Chronicle Of Attacks After The Murder Of Nahel M.

Posted on 22/10/2024 - 16/11/2024 by muntjac

PDF Pandaemonium (screen)

Here is a great youtube video on the topic; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvTUWFjpiXQ

In metropolitan Paris, in the suburb of Nanterre, on the morning of 27th June 2023 another French young person of Algerian origin, 17-year-old Nahel, is shot dead at close range in his car by a cop.

The official narrative would be failure to comply witha traffic stop and self-defence by the cop on duty. But the existence ofa video froma bystander left no room fortheparrots in the system to once again spew their racist filth abouta dangerous criminal. Not of course that they do not attempt this through thevoices of the media, the interior minister or the “independent citizens” who give the necessary social legitimacy to the escalation of repressive brutality and nationalist politics.

The violence, racism, humiliation and killings by the cops especially towards the residents of the working class, poor and racialised neighbourhoods of Paris/ Ïle-de-France are daily and normalised.

The state assassination is immediately responded to with wild clashes in the streets, which go on fordays. The streets of towns and cities all over France are filled with the anger of the demonstrators who don’t stick to the script of civic protests. Burning ofstate buildings, and armed attacks on cop5, infrastructure and vehicles are the reality of the next several nights, despite the curfews. The state’s response: brutal repression, arrests, chemicals, plastic bullets. Nothing surprises us anymore. The police are loyal to the state and are ready to kill to defend their bosses.

The murder ofNahel is not an isolated incident, it is not a ‘French disease’ it is the tangible expression of the racist state, the nationalist social imaginary and the entrenched chauvinism in all corners of the globe. No matter how many kilometres separate us on the map, ourhearts burn with those who fight for the ultimate dignity, to walk freely. Our hearts clench intoa fist sendinga tiny signal of solidarity. Everybody to the streets…

State, cops, judges, bosses are murderers.

Let’s not let another murder slip through the cracks. In memory ofNahel and all those who have perished too soon.

MerriCatherine and Kiksuya Khola – An introduction to the 4th world: Does ‘working class’ mean the same thing for all races?

Posted on 20/10/2024 - 26/12/2024 by muntjac

[Stolen from; https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/merricatherine-and-kiksuya-khola-an-introduction-to-the-4th-world ]

An introduction to the 4th world

Does ‘working class’ mean the same thing for all races?

Introduction to the 4th World

First is first, we need to talk about the 4th world because without the understanding of this term, the whole point will be lost and skewed. “Fourth world” is an extension of the three world model, and can be defined as “Subpopulations existing in a First World country, but with the living standards of those in a third world, or developing country.” While following the three world models classification of nation-state status, the fourth world is not spatially bound. The term itself even screams “unity,” as it was first coined by a Tanzanian diplomat on a trip to Canada Mbuto Milando, referring to the treatment and living conditions of the First Nations. Milando stated that “When native peoples come into their own, on the basis of their own cultures and traditions, that will be the fourth world.” Dr. M. P. Parameswaran, takes this idea a little further in his book “The Fourth World” where he envisions a world based on decentralized democracy and economic production that is detached from consumerism (these ideas earned him a boot from the local Marxist society he was a member of for 33 years). Of course, this term was coined to describe conditions of Indigenous peoples of America, but it can also easily describe that of the conditions that black Americans live in today as well. For example, project housing, income inequality, lack of adequate resources be they educational or for furthering careers, rampant unemployment, hardline policing, and redlining that lead to the segregation of whole neighborhoods.

Black Lives in the 4th World

Black people in the West have been rendered placeless through systemic violence that destroyed entire ethnicities, completely erased sovereignty, prevented access to geopolitics and the politics of ethics. — for even the ghetto is moved from place to place with gentrification. Black people are directly tied to biopolitical oppressions, as evident through the disproportional percentage of the Black population making under a living wage. The American market, and therefore the interests of the capitalists who in turn heavily influence or are directly involved in the American politician ecosystem, determines the placement of the Black ghetto. The Black ghetto, ranging from brown bricks stacked church-high in the Bronx, to flats no taller than the town churches in Tuskeegee surrounded by rubble called “sidewalks”, to the ghastly Victorian-style “homes” of Newburgh, New York is a cesspool of allostatic load that murders: emotional and physical illness, poverty, drug addiction, and violence stemming from the need to survive are consistently enforced even as nearby neighbourhoods of white people enjoy the spoils of chattel slavery and colonialism; resources Black people need are made scarce, usually permanently tied to a working-class existence by their very ontology and further enforced by anti-black pogroms led by non-Black murderers— politicians, their protection, the white betrayers of the “working class”, and of course, the bourgeoisie. We can walk north from Soundview to Co-op City in the Bronx and smell the difference, or take the ferry from Newburgh to Beacon and taste it. Regardless, Black immigrants and natives thrive in their own cultural superstructure: music, food, and the “cool” within these third world conditions are distinctive enough to render the ghetto a nation of its own. But being that the ghetto is placeless, like Black people, the Fourth World is the only nominal representation these societies can have; third-worldists often times hold disdain for these Fourth World societies, having never visited, believing everyone has running water and a home, completely ignoring the police state that arrests many urban Black people who dare to find themselves past the red line and in a green, grassy neighbourhood in Riverdale, or walking through the mansion-zoos in the corners of Newburgh. Neither does the Fourth World fit into the liberation theology of Marx’ development theory where centralized “dictatorship of the proletariat” is essential due to the inherent differences between communities in New Orleans ghettos and that of The Bronx. Because Black people are not monolithic, our liberation calls for a consensual confederate democracy, not a single state of unified ideals. The narrative is simple: Black people are oppressed because of things Black people can not change about themselves: abstractions based upon phenotypes. Black people are also often oppressed through economic disparity, evident in the allostatic load in Black lives. Whether Black people live in a First World country like America or a Third World country like Dominica, there are ghettos to avoid and drive past— for many, they are unable to be avoided because they live there. “There” is the Fourth World— juxtaposed against the bourgeoise and nonblacks of the American first world, and the bourgeoise and nonblacks of the Third World. To be more accurate: there are Fourth Worlds within these oppressed populations where the systemic hatred of ostracized identities acts as prototypical pogrom to the homogenizing nature of fascism. These words are made of people with disabilities, people who are not straight, people who do not conform to gender roles that enforce gender-specific oppressions, the very young, and the elderly. It must, therefore, be said that the Fourth World isn’t a single nationalized entity, but a compass that directs our liberation strategies toward permanently bettering the existence of the subaltern of subaltern populations. It is the science behind bottom-up liberation theory that centers those who need liberation most desperately and permanently, and thus, with the liberation of these groups, frees us all.

Indigenous Lives in the 4th World

The life of an indigenous person in the Americas is rather similar to that of his black cousins, while holding different but also the same oppressions. The country’s 310 Indian reservations have violent crime rates that are more than two and a half times higher than the national average, according to data compiled by the Justice Department, while at the same time unemployment rates have skyrocketed to be around 50 percent of the reservation populations. These “open-air prisons” may offer isolation from the rest of the world, but the hells inside them tell us a story of cyclical poverty and utter hopelessness. We see this manifest in the number of suicides now happening in these communities, where it has now reached an even higher point at 27%, that means 1 in 4 indigenous males between the age of 15 to 24 will commit suicide. These problems haven’t just manifested themselves over the last ten years at the fault of “community planning” or “bad personal investments,” this is completely intentional and by the design of our colonial conquerors, to prevent the revitalization of the indigenous world. But how can we be expected to recover from this when our women and daughters are murdered or kidnapped, and our sons are either locked in prison or murdered on the streets? Why is it that even the minimal programs and benefits we do have, are so decrepit and obsolete that many can’t even gain access to them? This is the essence of the 4th world, living in the systems and places designated and designed to oppress, to keep us down and to keep us out. From the trail of tears to the marches of round valley, we have been whipped shot and starved so that our relocation would go smoother. Even after slavery was officially outlawed, we saw indigenous peoples from all over being subject to those the same conditions time and time again, at the whim of private enterprise as well as colonial government as evident with the Pomo peoples forced servitude at the hands of cattle ranchers. We see this same gate-keeping towards investment etc that we see in the black communities, where when we move in, whites move out, or when we ask for loans we are almost always denied. Native peoples aren’t a monolith and our languages and cultures have fared much better than our bodies, leading to a strong sense of tradition in said communities that has led to the shunning of advancement. But why not, when advancement has always been at the cost of our ways of our bodies and of our minds. Yes, you can say we are “working class” but look at these major differences between the white working class and that of the brown. Not only do we make significantly less and are employed less, but our businesses are subject to intense scrutiny and oversight. In some instances, legal marijuana grows on reservations have been raided by feds multiple times in a single year while just outside the reservation white grows remain untouched and profitable. Yet the eradication and enslavement of native peoples has directly lead to their inclusion in the 4th world with their black cousins, as they were denied (and still are) the ability to set up any basic structures for their future generations, thus not allowing the cycles of poverty to be broken.

A Call For Understanding and Unity

The only logical conclusion of these statistics is that “working class” doesn’t mean the same thing for black and brown bodies as it does white ones. The evidence shows us that even with the same jobs, we are more likely to be homeless, and on the way home, there is a good chance we will be killed just for existing. Because of the intentional segregation by the government, our cultural, spiritual, and economic lives have diverged dramatically in comparison with that of the white American. The 4th world is where we live every day, the 4th world is unique and separate from the “working class” and therefore we cannot simply be deemed “working class.” This may come to be a thorn in the ideas of “no war but class war” but in reality, it needs to be a sign of needed solidarity. Accomplices need to use their privilege to help us remove ourselves from these cycles, as well as understand and center our messages. The black and indigenous peoples of the Americas unite as well, as 4th world peoples, and challenge the notion of “working class v bourgeoisie,” as the exclusive white and colonial concept that it is. Reality shows us the truth, reality shows us its not “rich vs poor” its “black and indigenous poor vs white poor vs white rich,” and unfortunately if the understanding doesn’t come, if the minds don’t change, there is a good chance “working class” will always and forever, be white.

Anon – An Incomplete Chronology Of The August [2011] Riots

Posted on 14/10/2024 - 14/10/2024 by muntjac

PDF FOR PRINTING AUGUST 2011 Deco-booklet SCREEN READING PDF AUGUST 2011 Deco

“Books don’t make revolutionaries. I contend that the Black people who burned down Watts and Detroit don’t have to read. These cats have lived more than the intellectual has read. So they are political by having learned from their existence. Oppression made these cats political.” – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin

This chronology of the riots that followed the police murder of Mark Duggan, a Black man living in London, was first produced by a French anarchist publication ravage editions and later translated by English insurrectionary anarchist project Dark Nights.

ravageeditions.noblogs.org // darknights.noblogs.org

Before August.

In the months before august, small groups of masked rioters caused extensive damage in central London during the protests against budget cuts. During the November 10 (2010) demonstration against education fees an active minority of anarchists and other combative marchers moved in to attack the Conservative Party Headquarters, and many from the formerly passive march occupied and trashed the Milbank building in scenes of joyous destruction broadcast around Britain. From this point on demonstrations in London (such as the ones on November 25 and December 9) got markedly wilder and more riotous and drew in youth from London’s ghettos whose boiling rage was a sign of things to come. Again, on the March 26 (2011) trade union demonstration a large and fast-moving ‘Black Bloc’ roamed around the posh West End, attacking and outmanoeuvring police, smashing and paintbombing banks, shops, a car showroom and luxury hotels including the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly. In July (2011) the City of Westminster police’s “counter terrorist focus desk” called for businesses and members of the public to take part in anti- anarchist repression stating: “Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police.”

How much the scenes of carnage in London contributed to the August insurrection can only be guessed at.

Thursday, August 4.

29-year old Mark Duggan is executed by armed police in Tottenham, London. Police then tamper with evidence, including planting a gun on their victim, shooting a police radio to suggest their victim had fired on police, and moving the vehicle from which they dragged their target. Police then boast of their killing of the Broadwater Farm estate resident in the media.

Saturday, August 6.

– In the afternoon, around a hundred residents of Broadwater Farm march to and demonstrate outside of Tottenham police station calling for “justice” for Mark Duggan

– 20:00 BST, a 16-year-old girl approached them and may have thrown a leaflet or a stone. Police swarmed the girl with shields and batons, causing head injuries. At about 20:20 BST, members of the waiting crowd attacked two nearby police cars, setting them on fire.

– A double-decker bus and several vehicles are burned, shops looted, smashed ATMs, and many shops are devastated by fire.

– A BBC vehicle is targeted.

– A photographer from the Mail on Sunday is beaten and several teams of journalists have to escape the Violence.

– The cops are attacked with stones and petrol bombs – 26 are injured and 8 are hospitalised that night.

– 71 people are arrested.

Sunday, August 7.

Around 3 am, hundreds of people loot the shopping centre in Tottenham Hale, located less than 1km from the epicentre of the riots which began a few hours earlier.

– Fire-fighters are called to 49 arsons between Saturday night and Sunday in this area. In mid-morning the police still face a mob.

– Members of the family of Mark Duggan call for calm but seemingly go unheard.

– In the early evening, incidents break out in other parts of London, including Brixton (where 3 policemen are injured), Waltham Forest, Walthamstow, Islington, Ponders End, Chingford Mount, Oxford Circus (in downtown) and Dalston and Enfield (north), where shops are vandalized and looted, and a police car is destroyed.

– 9 policemen are injured, including 3 hit by a car.

– In Brixton a large sporting goods store is destroyed by fire and looters rob another store. The windows of McDonald’s and KFC restaurants are smashed and graffitied.

– In Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, rioters attack 2 police cars and 2 jewellers in Waltham Cross High Street at around 21:50. A specialist public order unit is sent to the area, along with sections of the

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Police Dog Unit.

– In Morlanwelz, Belgium, two luxury cars are set on fire and politicians and the media say the arsons were inspired by the riots in England.

Monday, August 8

– In the late afternoon, the riots have spread throughout the capital, including Hackney (near the site of the Olympic Games of 2012), as well as Notting Hill and Clapham and Peckham (south), Lewisham, Camden, Newham, Bethnal Green, East Dulwich, Croydon (where a Sky News satellite truck is attacked, and several journalists are beaten), Woolwich, Ealing and the periphery (where police vehicles are destroyed, and a supermarket is burned down), and other cities. Many shops and vehicles are looted and burned, and several underground stations are closed in London.

– In Bristol some 150 rioters attack shops.

– There is rioting in Leeds and Liverpool and arson attacks in Luton and Oxfordshire.

– In Nottingham a police station is attacked by rioters and a barricade of car tyres is ignited in the St Ann’s area

– In Medway rioters burn cars and confront the police in Gillingham and Chatham.

– In the posh neighbourhood of Notting Hill, London, a luxury two Michelin-starred restaurant and its customers are attacked. A horrified wealthy tourist later reported:

“Around the fourth dish of the tasting course, there were loud bangs outside. The restaurant staff was yelling at us to get away from the windows. Before I knew it, the front door, a solid piece of glass shattered and people came crashing in with hoodies, masks, and random weapons.” The rioters relieve the rich bastards of cash, jewellery and mobile phones.

– A restaurant in Birmingham belonging to Jamie Oliver, media chef, was also ransacked.

– Downing Street announces that David Cameron is cutting short his vacation in Italy and returning to London in a military plane.

– The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announces that he will also cut short his vacation and return as soon as possible.

– 6000 extra cops are deployed in London.

– RIM, the manufacturer of BlackBerry phones, announces that they will fully cooperate with British police if anything is asked of them.

– 334 people have been arrested since the beginning of the riots.

– In Denver, Colorado, USA, a cop car is smashed and the action is claimed in solidarity with the riots in England.

Tuesday, August 9.

– In the early hours, a massive Sony media corporation warehouse in Enfield is looted and torched.

– “It was like a war zone. It was total anarchy” according to a resident of Ealing (a green residential area of West London) commenting on the events of the day. A rioter in Hackney says: “It’s us versus them, the police, the system. They call it looting and criminality. It’s not that. There’s a real hatred against the system.”

– Early in the morning, a riot van is set on fire at a police station in Bristol. The action was claimed by anarchists in a statement.

“We rejoice the uprising of many State-brutalised, marginalised youths as they establish a new relationship to their surroundings, and whatever other insurgents who have chosen revolt across England. To all the disgusted ‘citizens’ who can only see the daily class violence, inherent in this society, when the tables are turned – what did you expect? We see a new decade of urban war forged anew by various shades of social combatants within that our role as revolutionaries and anarchists being to constantly push forward our trajectory and ideas, spread destructive attacks to new areas and levels of engagement, find accomplices through the clashes (where and when our desires correlate), and maintain and expand an international informal network of comrades.

Making this action, in our minds was everyone killed by the cops, arrested in the rioting, the anti-fascists imprisoned in this country.”

– In the morning, the London police arrest 3 people suspected of “attempted murder” of a cop. They allegedly tried to run over a police officer who tried to stop their car on the night of Sunday to Monday,

suspecting them of involvement in looting a store nearby.

– Emergency meeting of the Government, after which David Cameron announces a meeting of Parliament on Thursday and more police on Tuesday night. He promises he will do “everything necessary” to restore order in a strategy of zero tolerance for rioters, after four nights of looting and arson throughout England.

– Since the beginning of the riots, more than 450 people have been arrested in London.

– The friendly football match England – Netherlands scheduled Wednesday, August 10 at Wembley Stadium in London is cancelled.

– A 26 year old man, shot in a car Monday night during the riots in Croydon (London), dies of his wounds.

– In Salford (Greater Manchester), rioters attack police with stones, many shops are looted and burned. A BBC cameraman is assaulted. 46 people are arrested.

– In Nottingham, several police stations, including those of Canning Circus, Meadows, Oxclose Lane, Bulwell and St Ann’s are attacked. A police car parked outside the Meadows police station is set on fire. Police cars patrolling the streets are hit with bricks and other projectiles.

– In West Bromwich and Wolverhampton many vehicles are burned and shops are looted, while some form barricades.

– In Toxteth, Liverpool, 2 fire trucks and police cars are burned. About 200 people face the police and ransack shops. The police arrest 37 rioters.

– In Gloucester an abandoned building (a former art college!) is set on fire. Vehicles and bins are torched and youths attack police with stones and bottles.

– More riots in Birmingham, Luton, Cambridge, Birkenhead, Leicester, Milton Keynes… In Cambridge youths gather to loot the shopping centre and attack police – 2 cops are injured and 5 rioters arrested.

– On Canvey Island, in the Thames estuary, eleven arson attacks are reported with the targets ranging from rubbish bins to vehicles.

– 80 people confront police at Salford Precinct. A library is set alight and there is looting. A mob of up to 200 youths raid an off-licence and the main shopping precinct in Salford. The Lidl supermarket on nearby Fitzwarren Street is looted, trashed and set alight by rioters.

– In Derby, over 20 cars and a local shop are damaged in a series of overnight disturbances in the Campbell Street, Allenton and Brighton Road, lvaston areas. A pair of 15 year olds were arrested afterwards, according to the police.

– An event described as an “incident of disobedience” is reported at a young offenders’ institution in Ashfield, Bristol.

– During the riots in Bristol a van of the energy company Eon and a BMW are set on fire in the St Pauls neighbourhood by ‘Informal Anarchist Federation / Eco-anarchist Insurrectionaries’ “for Eons total disregard for the natural ecosystems” and in solidarity with those arrested that night by the police.

Wednesday, August 10.

– In Birmingham, 3 vigilantes patrolling to protect shops are hit by a car and die soon after. Three suspects are questioned on Friday by police in connection with the homicide investigation.

– New clashes between police and rioters in Eltham (South London).

– During the day, the Metropolitan Police announce that 768 arrests have been made in London and reported 111 injuries in its ranks.

– PM Cameron gives police authorisation to use rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the rioters.

– In Enfield, Eltham and Southall, citizens and traders form vigilante groups to stop the spread of rioting. Members of the nationalist ‘English Defence League’ are involved. Police say that these groups “hinder its operations.”

– In Madrid, Spain, two trucks of the company GDF-SUEZ are burned. A communiqué claiming the action says:

“the attacks will continue against all that which enslaves us; also for our sisters in England who, having understood that the misery in your lives is caused by the world of commodities, have fiercely launched yourselves to destroy them — from here, strength in your struggle, and may the insurrection that these days ravages England spread everywhere. FREEDOM FOR BILLY, SILVIA, COSTA AND MARCO! FREEDOM FOR THE ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN PRISONERS INCARCERATED BY THE GREEK STATE! To Mark Duggan, never forget, never forgive”

Thursday, August 11.

– In Bristol, the local newspaper the Evening Post is targeted by anarchists. Office windows are smashed and the facade is paintbombed resulting in damage estimated as £20,000. The communiqué that is later released states:

“The media demonises those who choose to resist and fight back, opening the way for more repression again us all. They attempt to divert our attention away from the real everyday thugs and looters – the cops and capitalists, who routinely get away with large-scale theft and murder. This is part of the divisive strategy of rulers to get us fearing and fighting each other and taking sides with authority against rebels. This action was made by people who are not fooled. They do not understand our anger as an unstoppable force that will not be stopped by batons or bullets – we fight with all means for a future of complete liberty we have yet to know. When the gloves come off and the social war has never been clearer, the class enemy reply on corporate media to be used as just another weapon against us all who want something better for our own lives and those yet to come. Let’s see the bosses and politicians scrabble to be seen with Brooms on the streets – it’s their mess come back to bite them, the lines are drawn: this is what Big Fucked Society looks like.”

A man’s DNA is found at the crime scene later leading to a raid on a Bristol squat by ven-loads of police (plus Bristol Evening Post journalists!). The wanted man, Huw “Badger” Norfolk, is not found by the cops, but the police seize material (including computers and phones) to continue their investigation.

– The police open a murder investigation after the death of a 68 year old London man, who was hospitalised by rioters after attempting to put out flames in industrial bins on August 8.

– In the evening, incidents break out in Banbury (Oxford) and Dunstable (Bedfordshire), where shop are burned.

– Shorty after midnight, a transmitting antenna of the BBC is set on fire in Bedminster, Bristol. The action is later claimed by ‘International ELF-FAI’ dedicating the action to those captured and in prison and those fighting the cops in the streets.

– David Cameron announces the 30 million pounds will be made available to help traders to repair the damage. He mentions the possibility of a curfew and deployment of the army if the riots continue.

– The presence of at least 16,000 cops on the streets of London until the weekend is confirmed.

– 922 people have been arrested in London alone, 401 charged.

– 50 photographs of suspects captured by surveillance cameras, are exposed to plain view on a giant screen mounted on a van, which from 7 am to 9 pm will drive around the centre of Birmingham.

– Faced with the unexpected influx of defendants, judges of the courts of the capital and other major English cities sit up all night to try and imprison the rebels.

– In Zurich, Switzerland, eight windows of a bank are broken and the messages “Londres partout” (London everywhere) and “Liberté” are spray-painted.

Friday, August 12.

– Courts in London, Birmingham and Manchester remain open for the second consecutive night to deal with those captured by the State.

– The Prime Minister and the Mayor of London propose to evict tenants of social housing in the event of direct or indirect participation in the riots.

– The Metropolitan Police announce that 1051 arrests have been made and that there have been 591 indictments in London in the wake of the riots and looting of recent days.

– In total, authorities say that more than 1,500 people have been arrested in connection with the riots throughout Britain.

Saturday, August 13.

– Cameron mentions the possibility of installing William Bratton (former chief of police in the American cities of New York, Boston and Los Angeles) as special advisor.

– A communiqué is published anonymously claiming the attack with bricks in the early evening (7:30pm) on 3 unmarked police cars at Trinity Road police station in Bristol, and the smashing of windows at two banks several days earlier (the night of Tuesday 9 to Wednesday 10, August) on White Ladies Road in Bristol as well. The claim says: “both actions were in solidarity the uk’s latest resistance. keep the flames burning till the cites turn to ash”

Sunday, August 14.

– Scotland Yard estimate that there have been 2140 arrests since the beginning of the revolt, and about 1000 people charged.

– In Battersea, London, a group of people attack an RBS bank with stones, and spray the messages “SOLIDARITY TO THE REBELS” and “FIRE TO THE PRISON”, claiming the action in solidarity with rioters and the Antifa England prisoners.

– In Berlin, Germany, the windows of the Sparkasse bank in Heinrich-Heine Straße are broken and “brennt UK” (UK burns) is spray-painted on the bank. A communiqué claims the action in solidarity with the UK riots.

Tuesday, August 16.

– In Portland, Oregon, USA, the Police Station 47th & SE Hawthorne Street has its windows broken. The action is later claimed in solidarity with the UK rioters and is signed “a few anarchists.”

Thursday, August 18.

– In Fresno, California, USA, petrol bombs are thrown into the underground parking lot of a police station where police department vehicles and cops’ personal cars are parked. Two cars burn, a communiqué claims the action in solidarity with the UK rioters.

Saturday, August 20.

– RIM, maker of BlackBerry phones, complain of cyber attacks on its site and its databases. A hacker group, ‘TeaMp0isoN’ claim responsibility and threaten to publicly release sensitive information stolen from the company if RIM continue to disclose information to the police about the rioters.

– West Midlands Police release pictures of rioters shooting at police officers in both Birmingham and Wolverhampton. A police helicopter was shot at in the Newton part of Birmingham.

Sunday, August 21.

– About 30 people march from a police station to Brixton prison against the cops and in solidarity with those arrested during the riots. At the prison the anarchist demonstration exchange shouts with the prison the anarchist demonstration exchange shouts with the prisoners including “Freedom Now!” “The passion for freedom is stronger than any prison”, “Cops, pigs, murderers”, “no justice, no peace, fuck the police”.

Thursday, August 25.

– Following Facebook and RIM (BlackBerry), the social networking business Twitter is will the meet with the Home Secretary Teresa May about the riots.

Monday, September 12.

– In Athens, Greece, two incendiary devices made of gas cylinders explode in the entrances to a Marks & Spencer and a Benetton store, avoiding danger to passersby. This action is claimed in solidarity with the UK rioters, as well as Chilean anarchist combatants, and criticises the leftist-anarcshit group. ‘North London Solidarity Federation’ for collaborating with the police-media language of repression.

Monday, September 19.

– In Bristol, a Tesco and Lloyds are attacked, their windows broken and ATMs sabotaged. The action was claimed a few days later, in solidarity with those arrested during the riots.

Saturday, September 24.

– In Hoveton, a small Norfolk village, a local authority 4 x 4 vehicle is set on fire outside the police station.

– In Bristol, 2-3 unmarked vehicles are hit with paint-stripper at the CID’s Serious Crime HQ for the South West. A communiqué by ‘(Thorn in your side) Splinter division’ states: “Why not look at the frustration caused by poverty, when the only vision is bleakness, mickey mouse crimes being trumped up to heavy charges an no way out of the ghetto, sure we disobey and do it for the kicks, what else is there? Window shopping and crack, and they leave us feeling hollow. We are never going to make it in your fairytale world [Chief Inspector] William [White], so we’ve chose to back a dead cert, the one your having difficulty catching, the odds are in our favour, he runs fast, the evening post smasher.” This is a reference to the anarchist attack on the Bristol Evening Post and the Bristol police’s inability to catch those responsible.

Sunday, September 25.

– New series of raids in London, forty suspects are arrested following investigations by Scotland Yard on virtual “social networks”.

– The City of London is on standby and more than 10,000 policemen are mobilised in anticipation of possible rioting before the new Notting Hill Carnival after the petrol bomb attack by masked men on a police van (with cops in) in Edmonton in the north of the capital. The cops were not injured.

– A subsidiary of Lloyds TSB in Fishponds, Bristol, is attacked, all its windows broken. Action claimed in solidarity with the rioters and looters who face judicial repression, and those who escaped its clutches.

Inquilab – Muhammad Kamran Ashiq Lives Forever

Posted on 08/10/2024 - 08/10/2024 by muntjac

Repost from: https://inquilab.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/30/muhammad-kamran-ashiq-lives-forever/

On September 18th Muhammad Ashiq was detained by Greek police for resisting arrest and property damage. What the media tells us about Muhammad Ashiq are the basic tick box statistics about his life – He was 37 years old. He was a delivery rider born in Pakistan. He’d been in Greece for more than 20 years, he’d arrived as a teenager. The reality of his life – what he loved, what motivated him, what went on in his dreams – the statistics have no interest in. The reason we know his name is because he went down fighting, defending himself constantly over a period of several days until his body could no longer sustain the injuries being inflicted and his spirit escaped to fight on.

Muhammad Ashiq’s body was found in Agios Panteleimonas police station on September 21st and identified on medical records as deceased, in circumstances to be investigated. As news of the circumstances of his passing and photographs of his injuries, evidence of torture spread around Athens, the spirit of resistance has been growing among the masses. Delivery riders unions have gone on strike, the student movement has come out in force and in Exarcheia fires blaze. Muhammad Ashiq went down fighting against a system that has no right or need to exist, through our actions his ability to fight back is carried on.

In July the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture said that during a visit to Greece in 2023, it “again received several credible and consistent allegations of deliberate physical ill-treatment of detained foreign nationals by police officers in certain police stations in Athens”. Agios Panteleimonas police station has a long history of abuse and collaboration with far-right groups.

These accounts, coupled with the European Court of Human Rights’ repeated condemnation of Greece for its failure to address ill-treatment by police underscore the need for action. Across Athens and worldwide resistance to the fascists on the street and the fascists in uniform is spreading like wildfire.

In London comrades from the Anti-Racist Defendants and Prisoners Solidarity Network held a vigil for Muhammad Ashiq and a banner drop outside the Greek Embassy last Saturday. We gathered in support of the uprising in Athens and to demonstrate against police brutality and racism across Greece. But we also gathered in London because the British ruling class hold their share of the responsibility. They dress in suits and keep their hands clean while trying to hide their connections to the police and street fascists who throw the punches, this is what we are exposing and mobilising to resist.

The British government fund Frontex and Fortress Europe in the billions, from paying for tear gas shells fired by the CRS at refugee children in Calais, to push backs by coast guards and drowning of migrants off the shores of Greece. If a wealthy thief was to rob all your wealth that you needed to survive, and take it into his mansion, you would be breaking down his door to take it back, and this is exactly what is happening right now. Money provided by the British government fuels the hostile environment which migrants in Greece face. The fascist street thugs, the police, the border guards and racist politicians work together for the same interests.

As natural resources are extracted and looted and the working class are exploited for profit across the Global South, wealth is drained to centres of finance capital in the Global North. Migrants follow the flow of capital to survive, to support our families and to take back what’s being stolen. Our countries are not poor, our cultures and our eco-systems are rich and the land is rich in natural resources. We are being made financially poor through neo-colonial economic robbery, our migration to the Global North is one way we take back what’s being stolen from us. Reparations aren’t to be asked for or begged for because the ruling class will never let go of their wealth and power freely, reparations must be snatched out of their hands.

The British East India Company and then the British Empire first colonised the countries today known as India and Pakistan. In 1857 the people rose up in rebellion and fought the first war of Independence. Among the leaders were Bahadur Shah and the Rani of Jhansi, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs rose up in unity. Eventually the uprising was defeated with the help of collaborators. In response the British Empire put in place a system of divide and rule, buying the support of selected princes and leaders and turning people against each other on lines of religious faith. This system was modelled on sectarianism stirred up in Ireland and Scotland by the British aristocracy to divide and control the working class.

The British Empire has been overthrown but it’s legacy remains for us to dismantle. Today the British government, City of London corporations and the trilateral commission work closely with Bill Gates to buy up land in Panjab. The agenda here is to replace diverse ecosystems with mono-culture, cash crops, genetic modification and terminator seeds. Short term profit is persued without regard for long term desertification, when the farmers rise up in rebellion they come under attack from police and drones sent by Narendra Modi’s fascist government. The BJP claim to be nationalist, but Hindutva politics represents the continuation of the colonial game of divide and rule, the BJP’s support for the buying up of land stands testament to their role as collaborators in neo-colonialism. Muhammad Ashiq was in Greece because his homeland continues to be impoverished and colonised, responsibility lies with the ruling class in London so we’re taking the resistance to them.

In London we live away from the land, out of touch with nature and in a metropolis built for the sole purpose of sustaining the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of the ruling class, exploiting and draining energy from the rest of us in the process. Our location in close proximity to the centre of global capital provides us with the capability to target cracks and weaknesses in the belly of the beast.

Beyond our physical bodies, wherever we are thought about, spoken about or the effects of our actions are felt, how we come to exist in the collective consciousness represent extensions of who we are. Material bodies have a limited time span on this planet, but ideas, memories, legacies and the consequences of actions live forever, we make the spirits of all those whose actions live on in their name immortal.

Anarchist anti-racist comrades are among those calling for a sustained escalation of resistance to accelerate the collapse of capitalism, the dispersal of power and energy from the ruling class and the taking back of land by the people who live off and on the land in harmony with nature.

We need to be using a diversity of tactics to halt the rise of fascism and to bring down the fragile fascist structures already in existence. Fascism is a deadly system of total war, designed to keep the ruling class and the capitalist system alive through it’s dying breaths, breaking the natural bonds that exist between people through race hate and division and infecting minds with false pretences of patriotic glory and anti-globalism.

The planetary eco-system is in crisis, while never ending growth, space colonialism and imagining artificial intelligence and not ourselves to be our saviours, are the fantasies of the super rich. For the rest of us the stars are the realm of our dreams and Mother Earth is the realm of our waking lives to be preserved for future generations. The future isn’t promised but it can be fought for and won, we are all free in every moment we strike.

Comrades from the Anti-Racist Defendants and Prisoners Solidarity Network are calling for abolitionists and anti-racists across London to gather again at the Greek Embassy, this Saturday 5th October 6pm, for a vigil and banner drop.

1A Holland Park

W11 3TP

London, England

Inquilab – Carni Afterz

Posted on 29/09/2024 - 22/11/2024 by muntjac

Carni Afterz MJ-1- [Imposed] Carni Afterz MJ-1 [Screen-Read]

^Now avalible as a zine!

Reposted with permission from; https://inquilab.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/25/carni-afterz/

This peice is by Inquilab and may not reflect the politics of Muntjac collective.

Carni Afterz

On the evening of Sunday 25th August around 400 people gained entry into a massive and beautiful empty building round the back of Sainsbury’s on Camden Road. What then took place, against all the odds, was perhaps the biggest and certainly the best squat party of the summer. Held in collaboration with three different soundsystem crews, the benefit fundraiser ended up turning into a launch party of sorts for Cable Street Beat 2.0

The event was deeply rooted in folk history and held against the backdrop of racist riots and pogroms across Britain and Ireland. Fires started by lost souls, twisted and controlled by misplaced rage, fuelled by the lies of the corporate media, well funded algorithms and the New Labour government were quelled by the love and resistance of the tens of thousands nationwide who took to the streets in defence of our communities and our dreams.

Ravers gathered at the redirection point, Camden Town Station from 10pm and were brought to the building. Within 2 hours of the infoline going out, Around 40 TSG and 20 regular cops mobilised and laid siege to the venue. They quickly attempted to force entry but were unable to gain access, around 400 ravers had already been brought inside and the party continued in full swing.

Around 100 people continued to gather outside and came under attack from truncheons. Yet despite the numbers and brutality of the TSG, people climbed over fences, trees and scaffolds and carried on gaining entry into the venue throughout the night.

For those who made it inside it was a dance of healing and recovery, of the celebration and joy of survival and victory, the tunes and energy played out through massive speakers without concern for licence or legality fuelled strength and unity.

In such moments of collective madness and through the force of our collective will and defiance, the paradigm of the universe shifts a little and the whole world changes.

Out of the original lineup planned only Coby Sey and Nowt made it into the party and onto the decks, holding down rooms one and two through the night. GawdX, Shadobeni, Iyaalu, sadqueersclub, Basura and Jody Simms didn’t cancel, but were unable to get passed the lines of racist pigs and get into the venue. Tash LC & Fat lip weren’t feeling well and couldn’t make it, Mother Nature had other plans for them but we are confident that they will set fire to dubplates at our parties in the future.

DJ Big D from local movements turned up with two USBs in his pocket and was overheard talking about how he’d been looking for an afterparty to DJ at and wished he could play at one like this. It turned out we were in need of a replacement DJ as well, and he ended up headlining on the main rig, playing a legendary set of 90s and Y2K dancehall anthems.

At 2am riot police gained entry into the car park, but it took them another hour to break through multiple levels of barricades and the party carried on. Eventually they made it in and switched the music off leaving the people to party and carry on the celebration in the streets. Police seized half the soundsystem and refused to return it until Tuesday, stating their belief that if they returned the rig we would re-enter the venue and hold another afterparty on Monday night. Their control and repression of our lives and our dreams is slipping away by the day.

Nothing truly belongs to anyone in reality except for our memories and our connections, but in the world of legal fiction and in a time of homelessness crisis, billionaire James Sellar holds claim on paper to own the ghost structure that was taken back as a site of liberation. He also owns the Shard, commonly known by Londoners as Isengard 2.0, previously owned by his deceased dad Irvine Seller. We came across photographic evidence in the building of James and Irvine fraternising with the dead Queen and other cold blooded lizards and billionaire villains. James Sellar intends to knock down the disused dancefloor and build luxury flats and hipster boutique stores as part of the Camden multi-purpose redevelopment initiative. The streets have found better uses for the debris capitalism leaves in its wake. Gentrification tears away at Camden’s character as a refuge for all varieties of subcultures and misfits. Camden’s hipsters are our enemy as much as Camden’s fascists and Camden’s millionaire elite.

Why Carni Afterz?

Kelso Cochrane, a 32 year old carpenter and aspiring lawyer from Antigua was stabbed to death by a gang of racist white youth in Notting Hill in 1959. White gangs known as Teddy Boys ran Notting Hill at the time. They carried out racist attacks while the police sympathised with them and turned a blind eye, as Notting Hill’s Black and Irish populations grew, with many people coming from the Caribbean as part of the Windrush Generation, chasing back the stolen wealth the British Empire was and still is looting from peoples homelands and ancestral lands.

Rhaune Laslett, Claudia Jones and Amy Ashwood Garvey were among the trailblazers who led the establishment of what became the Notting Hill Carnival. They recognised the power of music to bring mass numbers of people together in unity, resistance and celebration. Ultimately the Teddy Boys either started moving to the music and changed their attitude and purpose, or they were run out of the area by the masses the carnival had helped to mobilise.

The mixing of communities and the gathering together of large numbers of Black migrants in particular frightened the establishment, and Notting Hill’s white middle class, and politicians at first declared the carnival to be illegal, sending in riot police who violently tried and failed to shut carnival down. Year after year the people fought back and defended Carnival until eventually the politicians and police were forced to cave in and allow Carnival to happen.

Attempts to take away peoples culture and collective memory by breaking the links of ancestral knowledge passed and sung down from time immemorial, and moulding people’s minds into an inferior image of their masters has always been a central tenant of colonialism. Carnival culture is rooted in the culture of survival and the failure to break peoples spirit, journeys across oceans and journeys of escape, fighting moves hidden into dance moves and ancient stories and knowledge remembered in the position of stars. Lord Shorty first blended Indo-Caribbean folk music with Black calypso to produce Soca, today Soca floats control the road and the movements of people. Static Jamaican Dub soundsystems, rooted in African spirituality smuggled into subverted forms of Christianity blast resistance rhythms and soul healing from strategic locations.

Today Notting Hill Carnival is the biggest street festival in Europe, yet unlike Carnival in Abya Yala and the Caribbean, and the Berlin carnival, Notting Hill Carnival continues to be repressed by the government, who fear the power of people coming together, the strength of global majority cultures and the ability of displaced peoples to take back what’s ours.

Instead of allowing the Carnival Zone to expand north of the Westway and into Kensal Rise and Kilburn, the growing numbers of revellers attending are overcrowded and contained into a limited space not fit for purpose. Under the hot Caribbean sun, carnival is celebrated in the cooler hours of the early morning and the evening. In London, the floats and soundsystems are required to switch off at 7pm, though the soundsystems keep up the tradition of rebellion and play music for a little longer each year.

Disregarding the time limits imposed people continue carnival into the evening by holding after parties. The establishment and police fear the power of resistance and celebration continuing into the shadows of the night. A special squad of TSG and high ranking commanders are sent out every year to shut down after parties as part of the political elite’s strategy of repression. Meeting resistance at the gate, the high ranking commanders left and went to shut down other afterparties before returning to shut down our party last.

Carni Afterz was our response to the racist riots this summer, combining carnival culture and free party culture with anti-fascist and abolitionist strategies for social change. We hope to contribute to the expansion of the strength of carnival, that can only ever be fought for and won.

Why Cable Street Beat?

The original Cable Street Beat was established by Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) in 1988. Original skinhead culture, rooted in Jamaican ska and working class subculture was being appropriated by braindead neo-nazi boneheads. White Noise records, Blood and Honour and Rock Against Communism spewed out oi punk garbage and propaganda music glamourising racist attacks, genocide and violence against women. Boneheads attacked gigs where Black, Irish and socialist bands were playing, taking the fight to Desmond Dekker, The Pogues and Angelic Upstarts.

Militant Anti-Fascists made the decision that this would no longer go on in the open and Cable Street Beat put on and defended gigs by Angelic Upstarts, Blaggers and The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Unity Carnivals attracted tens of thousands, Freedom of Movement put on CSB raves around the M25 and funds raised paid the court fines for antifascists arrested in clashes with the NF, who had tried to lay wreaths for the Nazis at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day.

Shop fronts on Carnaby Street selling far right merchandise were smashed up, nazi tee shirts were ripped off stalls in Camden Market and Blood and Honour Boneheads were famously routed at the Battle of Waterloo, a victory later replicated by Black Power activists in 2020. CSB and AFAs intervention into the political landscape ultimately sent the bonehead subculture underground and rendered it lifeless. The street fighters of AFA have for the most part hung up their gloves and settled down to raise their families. For those of us in our new crew who are born and raised in London, or who have come and made London our home, Cable Street Beat and the Battle of Cable Street are parts of our heritage we will never allow to die, and look to pick up where those who’ve come before us have left off.

The Battle of Cable Street took place on the 4th October 1936. 6000 policemen tried to escort 3000 uniformed blackshirts from the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley into London’s East End. Over 100 000 working class East Londoners came and packed out the streets, built barricades and fought against the police, ensuring the fascists did not pass and enter their community. Excrement was thrown out of buckets onto the policemen while marbles were rolled under charging horses and policemen were dragged off their horses. The Communist Party of Great Britain, led by Rajani Palme Dutt, played a central role in mobilising the community. Anarchists, trade unions, dockers, East London’s Jewish and Irish communities and many other migrant communities were well represented.

The Battle of Cable Street was the largest pitched battle in a series of street fights which ended in recurring defeat for the fascist blackshirts and put a stop to the rise of their movement. If it hadn’t been for ordinary people taking direct action and refusing to play by the rules set by the ruling class, the fascists may well have continued to rise to power in Britain, as they did in Germany, and the outcome of World War Two and world history would have been very different.

The Battle of Cable Street is still being fought everyday among our communities, families, workplaces and circles of friends, in the minds we change, the power structures we help tear down, digitally and on the ground and in the physical battles and street fights that continue to take place. The echos of the Battle of Cable Street are still heard in every victory won and when we chant No Pasaran.

Why the fundraiser?

The British state continues to uphold neo-colonial economic robbery carried out by corporations operating out of the city of London. The fight against fascism and the anti-colonial struggle are intrinsically connected. The police and the criminal justice system responded to the pogroms last month not only by arresting some of the racist rioters but also by putting on trial and in some cases already sentencing people who fought back against the racists. Most of those prosecuted come from Muslim and global majority backgrounds, uprooted and placed here out of the violence and inequality of colonialism and targeted precisely because they defended themselves and their communities from racist violence. The British state apparatus, the police and the courts, and the fascists all act in the interests of the establishment.

Abolitionists look to free ourselves from the illusions of false binaries of citizens and outcasts, criminalised and the free and good and bad people. We recognise the perfections and imperfections of those marked as guilty within ourselves. This doesn’t mean things that have happened in the past can simply be ignored, forgotten or swept under the rug. Through opening up conversations and decentralising power, bringing us closer to nature and the natural bonds that connect us and keeping each other safe instead of relying on those with a monopoly on force who are all too often the culprits, we can move towards psychologically healing and making repairs. A harm free world doesn’t exist but we can reduce harm through the process of tearing down power structures and the social structures that atomise and divide us, working to bring back together what’s been broken where we can. At times the whole system of injustice needs to be turned on it’s head, it’s clear to us here that the police and judiciary are the criminals and the incarcerated anti-racists are the heroes.

Waiting for your trial not knowing what the outcome will be, having your name slandered in the media and difficulties getting jobs and renting afterwards, relying on friends and family financially while inside, the threat of homelessness when deprived of your ability to work and pay rent, being prevented from working to support loved ones who depend on you, and shame in the eyes of your loved ones and community are all part of the prison sentence. Until the time comes for us to tear down the prison walls, there are other bits of prison sentences we can abolish.

At Carni Afterz over £4000 was raised in donations. Some of the donations have gone directly to anti-racist prisoners, to cover material needs and rent and abolish the bits of their sentence that we can. Some of the donations have gone to anti-raids defendants, on trial for sitting in the street and blocking a coach in Peckham from transporting asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm prison barge.

The definition of a pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group. Faced with the full strength of community resistance, the fascists failed to massacre or expel a single one of us. The government is now continuing the pogrom where the street fascists have failed, by launching a wave of kidnappings, deportations and immigration raids. Community networks, direct action and knowledge sharing makes it harder for the police and immigration officers, who barely know the law themselves these days. The rich and powerful will never give back what they’ve taken freely so reparations can’t be asked or begged for, they must be snatched straight out of their hands. CSB stand in full support of the anti-raids resistance.

What we aim to do through our parties is redistribute resources and put abolition into action while while having fun in the process. We can’t just sit around waiting for a revolution or the potential of a better afterlife. Change is needed now and is taking place constantly, we all mould the world in little ways in our own minds image. As the capitalist age of history comes to an end, the beauty and chaos of nature and the cosmos, circles, spectrums and multifaceted shapes through to the music of the spheres replaces narrow minded and linear ways of thinking, square blocks, basic rhythms, 2D false simplifications and forms of social stratification. We believe in a future, yet we don’t need to believe in a future because the revolution is taking place as we speak.

In Sudan the people formed neighbourhood resistance committees and launched civil disobedience campaigns which swelled into an uprising and overthrew the dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The military massacred protesters and tried to hold on to power, the transition to civilian democracy began but in 2021 the military seized power again in a coup, alongside the janjaweed militias, so the revolution continues. The Sudanese anarchist gathering emerged from the resistance committees and have been on the frontline of the protests and the fighting. Some of the donations raised have gone to Sudanese anarchist revolutionaries, to show our support and international solidarity.

Constant war remains necessary for the capitalist system to sustain itself through it’s dying breaths. In Palestine the people face genocide but still fight back relentlessly and refuse to allow any more of their land to be stolen. In Kanaky the people riot and burn tyres while they shake off the shackles of the last remnants of French colonialism.

It would be unjust to compare what we’re doing to those who’s material bodies are up against guns and whose spirits are made immortal through the actions their sacrifice inspires. Regardless of the incomparison we can’t watch genocides take place on the news, without recognising the role of the British state, recognising our location in the centre of global capital and recognising our capability to disrupt it. In everyday acts of resistance and disobedience a better world is being created, our present reality is first thought, then spoken or written into existence, then we make it happen. Just like any other binary, Utopia and a total paradise will never exist, it doesn’t need to, rebellion is a state of living taking place in every current moment.

Introducing Muntjac: Anarchism Decolonised

Posted on 02/09/2024 - 04/09/2024 by muntjac

There is a growing number of 3rd and 4th world anarchists in the UK deprived of spaces that centre our voices. A lack of infrastructure has made it harder to engage, celebrate and agitate together.

The inspiration behind us getting together to at least try to make this happen comes from the militancy of racialized communities in this country standing up for themselves. As such the first volume of the mag will be centred around these manifestations of autonomous community self defence both in recent memory and in our history and traditions.

Articles not on that topic are welcome too, you do not need to be an intellectual and there is no minimum for submissions but due to size constraints around 4 pages of A4 would be the maximum we can take. (Though, we can help create zines of larger articles and distribute them too if you fancy) Poetry is also, of course, welcome and deeply appreciated too.

The magazine is anti-copyright and will be available in print for donations, online for free and also in audiobook form also for free if all goes well. No one turned away for lack of funds.

P.S. Preferred format for submissions is plain text via email so we can reformat these things quickly.

Deadline for volume 1. 30/09/24

If you want to submit content or stock the magazine once its out, you can contact us by Email: fawnarchy@grrlz.net or on the various social medias we use via linktr.ee/muntjac