Note: The content of this article + accompanying collage are both originally created by Mutt and self-published by him on Medium. We are reproducing this on the Muntjac blog with permission because their writing lays out so clearly why Muntjac is a vital project and, we hope, a generative meeting-point for all 3rd and 4th World anarchists. Like the sound of all that? We wanna see your submissions by 30/09/24! Email fawnarchy@grrlz.net – Naga
***
Long Live Muntjac!
Confronting Eurocentrism In The British Anarchist Scene
Disclaimer; this medium article does not reflect the views of the Muntjac editorial collective, nor is it published by them. This is my own view on why this project is so important to me and why I hope that it inspires similar projects.
In my several years floating around in the British anarchist movement, there has always been this glaring hole in the available books, zines and magazines. Very few people who aren’t white have any kind of platform. We all know about Black and Asian anarchists who are in this-or-that group or who are involved in this-or-that project, but there’s very little content that centres our voices, our desires and our praxis.
Embarking on a project like this, a free print/digital magazine which not only has to claw its way up the hierarchy of legitimacy amongst the other anarchists but also crawl up and through the anti-anarchist propaganda pushed by the non-white NGO and Marxist spaces that already exist and draw in non-white radicals like moths to a flame.
As distinct minorities in this country, having projects to amplify our voices is essential, this isn’t the first attempt at this in anarchist history. For example, Korean anarchists working in Japan and in exile in Manchuria in the 20s and 30s organised together and wrote their own papers [1]. Chinese anarchist dissidents wrote short-circulation magazines together to keep connected. [2]
(White) Anarchists in the UK are involved in supporting immigrants and refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and they’re involved in these very diverse communities across the country but sadly this coming together hasn’t produced a wealth of content written from our points of view. One factor is that a lot of the black and asian radical tradition is an oral tradition.
In my view, a large part of this is due to the pressure of being judged then later excluded by our white peers and another part is due to how deracialized British anarchism is especially amongst the ‘no war but class war’ types who “don’t see colour”. I’m guilty of it myself, I spent most of my time too worried to even talk about these issues thinking I wasn’t qualified.
If anyones going to call out the misogynoir in our movements, it’s us. If anyones going to point out the racism in the anarchist scene it’s us. I hope people take the time to write or to talk about these topics, even if it’s just a few paragraphs it’s needed now, more than ever.
You can follow muntjac on like 50 different fuckin apps here; linktr.ee/muntjac
[1] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/dongyoun-hwang-anarchism-in-korea-book
[2] https://www.thecommoner.org.uk/the-equality-society-a-preliminary-archival-reconstruction-of-the-chinese-american-anarchist-movement/
***