December 2024 – Muntjac Magazine

Odile – The Revolts Following The Death Of Nahel

Posted on 27/12/2024 - 27/12/2024 by muntjac

Source: http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4261 & https://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos52441.html

Introduction

France is no stranger to uprisings of racialized youth following murders of their brethren at the hands of the police.

October 27th, 2005, three Black and Arab youths flee from a police patrol, knowing that they will be subject to an identity check and possible detention for hours at a police station. The police terrify them and force them into an electrical substation. Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré are killed while the third child Muhittin Altun survives but is severely injured.

February 4th, 2017, french cops rape and humiliate Théodore Luhaka, a Black man. In March of that same year Liu Shaoyao, a Chinese Man, was murdered by French police who claimed he came at them with a pair of scissors.

June 27th, 2023, Nahel Merzouk, a North African teenager, is murdered by police, the murder is filmed from several angles and shared widely online.

December 10th, 2024, Abdoulaye, a Black man who suffered with mental health conditions was murdered in police custody, in 2023 he was the center of a viral video in which he was struck by an unmarked police car before being leapt on by cops in body armour.

The response to these atrocities is always the same;

-fascists raise money for the cops, raising millions of euros

-the police are given new powers of search, detention and exclusion,

-liberals, civil society organisations, Black/Asian/Arab/Muslim “rights” orgs (assimilationists) stand in a square and talk into megaphones about “justice” and “accountability”

-leftists propose something between police “reform” and forced employment

-right wingers propose immigration restrictions

-shop owners buy new security equipment (cameras, shutters)

-lumpen, anarchists and militant members of the mourning communities take to the streets, fight the police, burn cars, loot shops, start fires.

-the family of the deceased appear on national television, demanding peace with tears in their eyes.

Mutt.

The Revolts Following The Death Of Nahel

At the OCL (Organisation Communiste Libertaire) meetings this summer, a discussion was organized, based on the presentation of the brochure “Souffleur sur les braises” on the revolts following the death of Nahel, in Nanterre last summer. —- This brochure gives the floor to 5 people who live in Hérouville, a suburb of Caen, and participated in the fiery nights of their neighborhood. Some people were known for a long time, or crossed paths in the Yellow Vests (GJ) or more recent struggles, others were unknown before this meeting. The desire was to show solidarity and undo the distance between the revolutionary movements and these revolts.

Nahel, a 17-year-old, was killed by a police officer in Nanterre on June 27, 2023, the day after riots broke out in Nanterre, then the day after that everywhere in France. The comparison with 2005 does not seem relevant to the authors of the brochure, because at the time the revolt was confined to the suburbs of large cities and especially in the Paris region. In 2023, riots broke out in small towns of 4/5000 inhabitants, where police stations were attacked with Molotov cocktails, tobacco shops looted, cars burned. A generalized revolt that lasted 5/6 nights, with attacks by cops using mortars, damage to public buildings or banks, looting of stores, often with redistribution to the population, as happened in Caen in 3 working-class neighborhoods.

The Ministry of the Interior counts 23,878 fires, 12,000 vehicles set on fire, 2,500 public buildings damaged including 273 police and gendarmerie premises, 105 town halls, 168 schools. The Medef speaks of a billion euros of deficit for companies following the damage. By comparison, during the movement against the pension reform which lasted several weeks, there were 299 attacks against public institutions. This shows the degree of intensity of these few nights of revolts and everywhere in France.

Why did it explode this time?

Indeed, this is not the first time that a young person has been shot by the police and the reactions are rarely of such magnitude. There are at least 3 elements that can explain these riots. First, a saturation effect due to the increase in the number of people injured or killed by gunfire since the 2017 laws that give cops more possibilities to shoot, then the very shocking video of Nahel’s death that circulated very quickly on social networks and finally references to the film Athena (1), “we do like Athena!” shouted the rioters.

The organization was done in small groups with young people aged 13/14, the older ones came to support them. They also dropped them off by car in other places in the city, so that it would be faster. The interviewees are 20/25 and are clearly among the oldest. As an anecdote, two 50-year-old friends who wanted to participate were accosted and searched by the young people, who did not know them and suspected them of being cops. A whole neighborhood solidarity was set up, with the older brothers, the families who reported where the cops were and left the doors of the buildings open so that the young people could take shelter. Links between the neighborhoods that are usually opposed, made it possible to start all at the same time and thus disperse the cops, but also to exchange information on the cops and for the mortars. The mortars were brought back from Poland and Germany by go-fasts like the dealer, and then distributed in the different neighborhoods.

From the start, a call was made: “we don’t touch people’s vehicles, but public things”. The targets were surveillance cameras, streetlights to avoid being spotted, schools, town halls, bus and tram companies, shopping centers on the edge of neighborhoods, tobacconists (436 in France), sports shops, banks. In Hérouville, there weren’t enough cops, about thirty, and they could only hold the central square, where there are shops, a theater, and also a market square. At one point, the cops left, telling the young people, “you’re burning down your neighborhood anyway, we don’t care”. As soon as they left, the young people attacked the bank and managed to get in. The cops came back immediately and charged, there was no question of letting them touch the banks.

In Hérouville, as everywhere, the repression caused a lot of injuries from flashballs and stun grenades, there were at least 3 arrests. It was the first time that the GIGN was present, as well as many drones. In France, there were 1,300 arrests, followed by 762 convictions to a firm sentence, on average 8 months of incarceration. The GIGN and sometimes the RAID intervened everywhere in France and drones were widely used. Curfews were introduced, in Caen buses and trams stopped their service from 7 p.m. and gas stations also closed at 7 p.m.

The Yellow Vests of Caen were for many people from working class neighborhoods. From this movement, there remain in Hérouville informal collectives, for example a garden at the foot of the towers where there are aperitifs, food recovery and solidarity. Since the riots, 4 cameras planted at the top of the towers, monitor the garden permanently.

There were attempts by activists to make connections in a more or less clumsy way. A demonstration was called in the city center, many people from the neighborhoods came. The people who called for the demonstration took the lead of the procession with somewhat angry slogans: “we’re going to smash everything, we’re going to do our shopping”. By saying we’re going to do our shopping, they announce we’re going to loot and in fact they don’t do it. The people from the neighborhoods who have been looting for several nights are disgusted and announce that they won’t come back. At the next demonstration, there will only be 50 people. They weren’t given the lead of the procession, nor the megaphones, and in addition 4 people were arrested, they were a bit bitter. They feel more vulnerable in the city center and don’t know where to hide unlike in the neighborhood. The left-wing organizations organized a solidarity demonstration in September in Caen. She leaves from the only working-class neighborhood where nothing happened at the end of June, pure coincidence?

If it only lasted a few nights and if some places were not attacked, it is probably so as not to disturb business. This is a reality of the neighborhoods that the struggles are confronted with. It is also due to the lack of mortars that were used to keep the cops at a distance, and also of course because of the repression. People died during these riots, including one in Marseille from a flashball shot at point-blank range.

We have every interest in getting closer to the people who revolted because they are cool, even if there are lots of contradictions.

In other cities

In Reims , a city of 220,000 inhabitants, in a district of 30,000 inhabitants, average income 890 euros, 37% of unemployed under 25s, 27% of single-parent families, priority district of the city, there is a small tradition of riots, notably during the acquittal of a baker from the FN who had killed a young man who had stolen croissants from her. These are the images we see at the beginning of the film “La haine”. Last year, there were 2 days of riots, with very young participants and adults who followed them, without being masked, and sometimes regulated, preventing them from attacking certain places, such as the Post Office where they receive their RSA. A store was targeted, but not the one run by the Chechens, nor the Kabyles’ tobacco shop where the old men play PMU. The police station, which is empty at night, was attacked, but not the national police academy or the CRS barracks near the neighborhood. Contacts were made via Snapchat or Instagram loops, already created at the high school or elsewhere. The looting is anecdotal: coke, Yop, sweets, and the next morning the mothers came to stock up on the groceries necessary for survival, then later it was the alcohol that was stolen. The HLM office was attacked, we don’t know by whom, but certainly not by the kids. The police remained very discreet, no major clashes as long as it remained in the neighborhood. On the other hand, roadblocks were set up in the city center to prevent people from going there.

In the 93 , the riots were less significant than in 2005. Some things are surprising. In Bobigny, for example, the looting was more of their mother’s shopping. Rosny 2, the largest shopping center in the 93, was apparently looted by young people from residential areas. The darons who protect certain buildings already existed in 2005, but it was more organized in 2023. In Blanc-Mesnil, mothers had meals in front of the municipal swimming pool to protect it. Everything was burning around it, but the general high school, which has a glass facade and would have been an easy target, was not hit, the vocational high school was. The silent march for Nahel’s death in the city center of Nanterre attracted an impressive crowd, very calm and family-oriented. It degenerated as they approached the prefecture, surely by provocation from the many police officers, to prevent Nahel’s family from speaking out.

Mantes la Jolie , 40,000 inhabitants, is known because it is where the 151 high school students were forced to stay on their knees, hands on their heads, while they blocked their high school to oppose the reform of the baccalaureate and Parcoursup, but also in support of the Yellow Vests. There was little solidarity for these high school students, despite the collective for the defense of young people from Mantois that was created on this occasion, 150 people at the demonstrations, mainly the left and the far left. The situation was identical in June, just a demonstration of 30 people called by Solidaires where there were twice as many cops. An attempt to create union solidarity, by explaining that the rioters do not come out anywhere, that they are from our class, the children of our friends, of our colleagues, remained very much in the minority. On the possibility of getting involved, same thing as in Caen when you are over 30, it leaves a feeling of unease. There are very few political forces left in the neighborhoods. The MIB (2) or the collective against double punishment, which could, in their time, provide a link between political forces and the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods, no longer exist.

In Toulouse , we quickly realized that the neighborhoods were already structured into teams, and that there was no place to join them, unlike the GJ where you could join a roundabout. So, we wanted to do public and reachable things, with the idea of extending the fight, taking it out of the ghetto, multiplying the offensives, this resulted in a demonstration of 400 activists completely supervised by the cops. We would have done better to do things on our own, block things. We must stop asking ourselves the question of the outside or even of solidarity, but rather that of how we get into the fight and not how we support. It is certainly easier to do anti-repression than to get involved.

There were agreements with the dealers not to start the riots too early, so that they could sell. We also saw people patrolling the neighborhoods to watch their cars.

In the 92 in Chatenay Malabry , the Butte Rouge is a very important 100% HLM city, with projects for rehabilitation, destruction, privatization. There were no riots in 2005, but there, the annex town hall burned and the tramway – an important element of gentrification to bring more affluent people to the city – was damaged. In the 1970s, there were lots of associations, the Fasti, the Gisti (3) …, a MJC managed by the inhabitants and the Communist Party. Now there is nothing left, the opposition is 20 people in a city of 35,000 inhabitants. There is no political life, but clientelism with gentrification and the urban planning where everyone is gorging themselves. When we created a collective to resist the reconstructions in the Butte Rouge neighborhood, we couldn’t get a room, or at the last minute. The posters were taken down the same day. People are afraid that they won’t be given housing or that they’ll be evicted, so they don’t resist much. And the mayors are going to have even more power to allocate social housing. The associations are hyper legalistic. To buy social peace, all the communities have their own room and subsidies. These 40 years of depoliticizing the neighborhoods explain why things are going to explode. In 2005, we won, what, a police station in the center of the neighborhood.

On the issue of the presence of girls and women in the riots

In the Yellow Vests, women were very present and it lasted for more than a year with a lot of discussions. What about these riots? For some, it is a spontaneous revolt of anger by people who are used to occupying the streets, who find it legitimate to do so. For others, girls are less present than guys in the riots, but it is no different from what happens elsewhere. Guys have a strong feeling of anger, because they are the ones who are always arrested and hassled by the police.

There were young and older women in the demonstrations. In Hérouville, women and children walked around the neighborhood to watch the cops and protect from afar.

In Rennes, girls were discussing how to make Molotov cocktails with tampons. They were taking part in looting stores. The rioters were quite young, and there is repression within the family. Who lets their daughters out at night? And that is not the same as saying that the street was forbidden to girls.

The repression

We see that the Senate was expecting a revolt, thanks to the surveillance of social networks, but not who, where and how. We find a lot of interesting information on the Senate Information Mission. It notes at least one incident in 330 cities, including cities that have never seen this kind of riots like Vierzon. In Montargis people went to destroy the city center. Those who are convicted are first-time offenders with an average age of 14, the youngest is 12 years old for a firm sentence.

In Reims, there were convictions in immediate appearance and probably bans from the territory for some of the accused who were not seen again in the neighborhood. There was no solidarity from the left or the far left, no follow-up of the trials. The residents of the neighborhood were punished collectively, no public transport for 6 weeks, the renovation of the bus shelters took more than 4 months. The mayor of Reims proposed to punish the parents of the rioters by depriving them of social housing and family allowances.

All the inhabitants of the 93 have suffered collective punishment: no more buses throughout the department from 9 p.m. and then 7 p.m. The festivities normally present during the summer have been cancelled, notably on July 14.

What could have been the tipping points for this movement to gain momentum and be joined by other struggles?

These riots were a little better perceived than those of 2005, because there was a general anger after the demonstrations on pensions and Sainte Soline, which can help to better understand this movement.

For there to be a connection, forces are needed, but the revolutionary movement no longer exists. The first phase would be to create a link, but relatively few activists live in these working-class neighborhoods.

With the yellow vests, there was no need for revolutionary organizations to create these links, it happened quite naturally on the roundabouts.

There was a social explosion with a speech and demands among the GJ. A fairly political movement and bearer of projects, which temporarily put the cogs of the state in difficulty and managed to get 7 billion while the state coffers were supposedly empty. Most of the parties and union organizations refused to analyze the GJ as a political revolt.

Participating in a riot is part of the culture of young people in the neighborhood. They defend their territories, it is anger expressed in actions. Young people say “there are no slogans, we just act”, but it is not just anger, the message is clear, a guy is getting killed, we have to react so that the next one is not me. And we are tired of being victims of this increasingly racist police.

Working-class neighborhoods are more often stigmatized, especially during Covid, and more recently for the defense of terrorism because of support for Palestine and at the time of the Olympic Games, there was a lot of repression, searches and house arrests.

But the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods also participate in the struggles, notably in the mobilizations for Palestine; there are many people from the neighborhoods and few political organizations.

If the left had made immigrants vote as it had promised in 81, politicians would care more about the inhabitants of the suburbs. During the strike at Talbot in June and July 1982, in addition to wage demands and improved working conditions, skilled workers of immigrant origin fought for their union freedoms. The Mauroy government (socialist) denounced them as being manipulated by Islamists, to discredit their struggles and demands.

Since then, the Islamists have taken up a lot of space, and the dealers regulate the economy and regulate the neighborhoods, it is one of the cogs of the system.

The targets were also clear in the 93 all the companies in the free zone burned down. Many public institutions and banks were attacked. And if the school burns down it is perhaps because it is raining in the classrooms. The school is also one of the places of social discrimination and reproduction of the dominant ideology. And it also serves as a daycare, to get parents back to work, as we saw during Covid.

And after?

These events have had a strong impact on people and minds. There were discussions between young people and other residents in many neighborhoods after the riots.

It is a continuation of other movements. All actions, whether ecological, riots, GJ, anti-pension, feed off each other. A wealth is created, and something remains, it is added to what happened before. For example, the demonstrations after the yellow vests were modeled, took the same form as that of the GJ.

For the moment these different movements do not really look at each other, they remain very separate. It is our job to create links. We could have helped them on the question of repression, it was an opportunity to bring a clear political point of view by showing solidarity and saying that we are right to revolt, that the riot is legitimate.

The Yellow Vests are not joining the demonstrations of support, probably because of the trauma caused by the enormous police repression still underway. There are still trials and the families are affected by the injured. They are not putting themselves forward, even if some are still in the movements. It is a missed opportunity, people did not come out, they left the kids all alone.

The media sets the pace and delivers a discourse. We see this in the difference in treatment with the farmers’ riots that went as far as Paris.

There is another component missing, something stronger than the riot. The form was liked, being where the cops are not, but it is difficult to continue when the government sends tanks against the rioters.

We are not just in solidarity, but we fight to change the world for us too, where we are. It was complicated to mobilize even in the union organizations.

There were calls to go to court where the young people were appearing immediately, but they were well guarded. In addition, the majority were summoned to the juvenile court, therefore without an audience. In Bobigny, you had to know in which room the trial was taking place in order to be able to enter, and since the clerks were also on strike, there was no indication of the room. However, there were many more people at the trials than in 2005.

Some anti-repression groups spend more time dealing with the left and have missed the riots. Nevertheless, an anti-repression and anti-racist fund has been created.

On the relationship to the image , we keep saying that we should not film during demonstrations or other things, while we see that the movement began thanks to the video of Nahel’s death and that perhaps without this shocking video, nothing would have happened. Can’t the videos serve as an archive of what happened, scenes of looting, cop attacks, the jubilation…? So as not to forget.

Odile

Notes

1- The film Athena – Athena is a French film released on Netflix in 2022 and directed by Romain Gavras. Grandson of an Algerian rifleman, Abdel is a young lieutenant in the French army, engaged in Mali. He returns following the death of his youngest brother Idir, apparently deceased as a result of a police blunder. Abdel finds his family torn apart, between the desire for revenge of his little brother Karim and the business in peril of his big brother dealer Moktar, he tries to calm the tensions. Minute by minute, the Athena city plunges into chaos, then the situation degenerates into civil war throughout France… The end of the film reveals that a small far-right group staged the fake police blunder that cost Idir his life.

2- Immigration and Suburbs Movement

3- FASTI Federation of ASTI- Associations of Solidarity with All Immigrants. GISTI Information and Support Group for Immigrants

Further Reading

https://infokiosques.net/spip.php?page=lire&id_article=2061

muntjacmag.noblogs.org/post/2024/10/22/actforfreedomnow-france-june-july-2023-chronicle-of-attacks-after-the-murder-of-nahel-m/

https://illwill.com/nothing-left-to-loot

Anon – Freedom fighters North London & Worldwide

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

20/12/2024

On the 27th November dozens of riot police carried out dawn raids on the Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) in Harringey, North London, and several home addresses across the capital.

A number of anti-genocide activists from the Kurdish refugee community were arrested under terrorism charges, several more comrades were arrested the same day on protest related charges. A wave of protests, an occupation and hunger strikes followed until KCC was returned to the community. Under constant pressure the return took place over a week earlier then planned, despite what appears to have been a multi-million pound policing operation.

The dawn raids came just weeks after Turkey’s minister of foreign affairs Hakan Fidan, a leading fascist in Erdogan’s AKP party, met with Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy, also the local MP for Harringey. This attack on the Kurdish community seems to clearly be part of agreed negotiations, in exchange for Turkey’s continued support as a NATO member for western Imperialism, in particular Israeli aggression.

These raids must also be seen in the geopolitical context as part of the handover negotiations, from Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship, to a coalition made up mostly of Jihadists, including former ISIS and Al-Qaida (now known in Syria as HTS) fighters, and Turkish funded and trained militias. These militias have been taking a passive approach to Israeli aggression in the Middle East, and attacks on Syrian land, earning them support from the Western ruling class despite their political ideology.

Today (20/12/24) 6 of the Kurdish activists taken in the dawn raids had a court hearing at the old Bailey. A comrade who sometimes writes for Muntjac has written the following report from todays trial:

The 6 people charged with terror offences have been bailed for a trial date in January 2026.

In the meantime they are released on tag under house arrest and with draconian bail conditions. They have to report to the police station between 12 and 2 daily, making it hard for them to work and study, and bail conditions barring them from the area around KCC means they can’t use the Piccadilly line which goes underneath KCC or the overground line going next to it.

Kurdish activists have been asking supporters to brainstorm ways in which our networks can keep supporting the Kurdish community through this. They’ve said probably the way people can support them the most is by extending revolutionary social changes from Rojava into our countries through local neighbourhood direct democracy, environmentalism and women led liberation.

It must surely be assumed that if these people genuinely were directing a “terrorist organisation”, posing an immediate threat to life, the system would be locking them up straight away and not bailing them until 2026 under house arrest. This gives us time to turn things around, the Turkish state will be ramping up pressure on the British government to deliver long sentences. Collectively we can put greater pressure on UK politicians to put a stop to these show trials and stop supporting the genocide being waged against the only real democracy in the Middle East.

If these freedom fighters are to be given 10 year sentences, this will represent yet another grave injustice in British colonialism’s long and shameful history. What can be certain is that like every other empire before it, this systematic corruption will not be continuing indefinitely.

Darcus Howe on ‘third world “socialism”

Posted on 18/12/2024 by muntjac

http://www.sojournertruth.net/interview1.html

Extracted from^

The political struggle for working class emancipation would be led by a political party of intellectuals drawn from the middle classes with a handful of advanced workers in tow. Once in government the leadership would provide proper welfare, organize the workers to produce more in order to meet the costs, the workers to be motivated either by incentives, the moral whip or Siberia. The surplus goes towards projects sanctioned by the leadership and the massive bureaucracy which hangs over to corrupt the new. Surplus for guns, travelling expenses for bureaucrats to beg loans abroad. From time to time, with less regularity as the years go by, the working class would be called to large gatherings then sent home after being told of the latest in the development plan to which they must shout their assent. All this is spiced with revolutionary slogans All independent attempts at working class and peasant organization are to be squashed with a ferocity which surpasses that meted out by previous colonial masters.

“FLOWERS WILL EMERGE FROM THE DESERT” – Interviews & Communiques from Sudanese Anarchists

Posted on 17/12/2024 - 02/01/2025 by muntjac

A collection of interviews and writings by anarchists in Sudan.

Also avalible in our shop; https://ko-fi.com/s/02d9e93e68 [Proceeds donated to the Sudanese Anarchist Gathering]

Flowers Sudan-Print Flowers Sudan Read

If you are an org or group of friends who want to put on an event to support the Sudanese Anarchist Gathering or other Sudanese people resisting war and genocide, get in touch and we can send you a box of the zine for free.

Free Association of Autonomous Fire – ACTION CLAIM FOR NIKOS ROMANOS AND SIDIQ/AND ALL THOSE WHO WERE KILLED BY COPS/BANDUNG

Posted on 14/12/2024 by muntjac

DITERIMA DARI SITUS anarchistnews org

ACTION CLAIM FOR NIKOS ROMANOS AND SIDIQ/AND ALL THOSE WHO WERE KILLED BY COPS/BANDUNG

We claim that the attack and arson of a police post in Bandung, West Java on December 13, 2024 coincided with World Anti-Police Day. This attack and arson is in solidarity with our imprisoned comrade Nikos Romanos, as well as Sidiq and all imprisoned anarchists. This attack is also in solidarity with the victims of police brutality who have lost their lives all over the world and in this fascist country. Police agencies will never disintegrate on their own just like the state, they must be destroyed!

Until all are free!
Until all prisons are destroyed!
Fire on the prisons!

Free Association of Autonomous Fire

______________________________________________________

Kita mengklaim aksi penyerangan serta pembakaran terhadap pos polisi di daerah Bandung, Jawa Barat pada tanggal 13 desember 2024 bertepatan dengan hari anti polisi sedunia. Tak lupa penyerangan dan pembakaran ini adalah bentuk solidaritas untuk kawan kami Nikos Romanos yg terpenjara, juga Sidiq dan semua anarkis yg terpenjara. Penyerangan ini juga ditujukan untuk solidaritas kepada korban kebrutalan polisi yg telah memakan korban jiwa di seluruh dunia dan di negara fasis ini. Badan kepolisian tidak akan pernah hancur dengan sendirinya sama seperti negara, mereka harus dihancurkan!

Sampai semua bebas!
Sampai semua penjara hancur!
Api ke penjara!

Free Association of Autonomous Fire

poet of da soil – A 4TH WORLD INNA BABYLON

Posted on 14/12/2024 by muntjac

This peice was featured in Issue 1 of Muntjac Magazine

4TH WORLD – “Subpopulations existing in a First World country, but with the living standards of those in a third world, or developing country.” – read An introduction to the 4th World by MerriCatherine and Kiksuya Khola

(make maps out of tha ashes – tha ancestors guide us)

i can tell u what we remember:

a friend recounting how they watched riots on the news at 10 years old

asked their mum if they could go

they had a lot to be angry about

and we have a lot to be angry about

mark duggan made london, liverpool, nottingham, bristol and gloucester burn

niggas who brought babylon 2 its knees

and they remember

and they’re afraid

its why no matter what u vote these parties all hate immigrants

its why you’ll see TSG vans at every rally

and citizenship don’t mean anything when they can remove it

the easiest way 2 find out if you’re british is tha colour of your skin

babylon law codifies white civility in stone

and whoever diverges knows how cruel a state can be

council estates turned penitentiaries

mosques declared training grounds for jihadists

but when it comes 2 terror

what is terror if not august race riots and bibby stockholm

if not PREVENT harassing children

And 1 in 5 BLK mothers dying

And BLK kids are 4x more likely 2 be sexually assaulted strip searched

because NHS and Met Police aint 2 different from EDL

white supremacy coats every breath we take on dis island

but think back

think back

2011 – 1985 – 2001 – 1981

every flame is purifying

1976 carnivals they made pigs scatta by chanting soweto

time 2 make pigs scatta by chanting harehills and moss side

by chanting brixton and barking

chanting peckham and palestine

tower hamlets and haiti

croydon and congo

postcolonial peoples

chanting world black revolution

and fourth world uprising

fourth world(?)

third world oppressions as a first world problem

every european country with a black underclass

babylon and that muslim underclass

Tha kweer niggas that know refuge in the crevices of the third world/swimming around tha murky banks of britan

those living and breathing in peripheries of tha belly

tha estates that be

concentration camp/holy ground/slave revolt ground zero all in one

every school in the ends a pipeline 2 prison

tha ppl called terrorist or criminal

we be fourth world – tryna end tha first world

trapped inside internal colonies

while our motherlands celebrate independence(?) days

postcolonial peoples who reject white saviours

the only gods we know are our hands

solidarity is awkward but tha yutes know it best

we be tha ones that makes devils scatta be it 2011 or 2024

tha real anti-fascists – tha trotskyists could neva

we be fourth world – tryna end tha first world

the only one we know

poet of da soil is a Black queer muslim poet and abolitionist, you can read more of their writings at substack.com/@poetwav

Ektin Ekdo – Do we want to protect each other, or just ourselves?

Posted on 14/12/2024 - 28/12/2024 by muntjac

This peice was featured in Muntjac Magazine Issue 1

Do we want to protect each other, or just ourselves?

The question comes as a comrade writes:

There has never been an anti-colonial movement in Britain from colonised people.

Uprisings, sure. Fleeting moments with little support to be found from The Movement .

“No Justice, No Peace” heard on the same streets where those in power continue to deal out injustice, in peace

Keep your head down, stay out of trouble and you’ll do well.

A lonely fascist surrounded by 200 anti-fascists, says someone unaffected by the uniformed fascists between the anti-fascists & the ‘lonely’ fascist.

“There’s security here and I don’t even know who they are!” proudly exclaimed by a community ‘anti-fascist’ organiser.

A protest steward faces a crowd of de-arresters, tells them solemnly tells them that the police won’t take anyone away

A van drives off with a minor in-tow

Instead of seeding you’ve been ceding and now there’s no land left to grow

or go to

“I abhor all violence” said only in reaction to retaliation and uprisings from below

“This will only make us look bad” say those who have more than enough power to change what looks bad

Who is us, anyway?

People who love britain, but abhor fascism? A vile contradiction at best.

Discomfort grows, alongside avoidance.

Conflict continues regardless.

In a world full of still violences, willingness and determination to distance yourself from violence won’t save you, but it’s easy and comforting to be a pacifist when violence is distant.

Community is as necessary as it is messy. Civility it is not. Militancy it contains.

There are communities beyond what is state-sanctioned or acceptable.

Will we stand on what we mean, or will we muddy things for personal gain, comfort?

If you let your enemies/adversaries or even the people you are trying to move decide or guide your tactics, then who is winning?

“What and who are you trying to save?”

If you are speaking for yourself, speak for yourself

Do not speak to condemn me for things you are unwilling to do

Do we want to protect each other, or just ourselves (and britishness, inexplicably)?

Sunwo – Against Black Britishness

Posted on 14/12/2024 - 20/12/2024 by muntjac

This peice was featured in Muntjac Magazine Issue 1

For a country partly responsible for spreading ideas like nationalism across the globe, Britishness is not just a badge—it is a mechanism of control. To be “black” in Britain, then, should be a negation of coloniality. Yet, the lack of continuity in the decolonial struggle within the heart of the colonial core has created a form of cultural amnesia. Our people’s came here seeking liberation from the chains of colonialism, dreaming of a better life. But in doing so, they were forced into a new form of intercolonialism. Now, we wrestle with the impossible task of fitting into a culture that negates our very existence and liberation.

What does it mean to be captured, to be colonised inside the heart of the empire?

Black people in Britain experience systemic oppression at every level. We are the least employed, the least paid, and we hold the least significant positions of power. The rare exceptions, the tokens, have climbed up by bootlicking their way in to the system. We are disproportionately incarcerated, and when sentenced, we face harsher punishments for the same crimes committed by our white counterparts. The system is designed to push us into poverty and then criminalises us for it.

The healthcare system, too, reflects this systemic neglect. We experience the worst health outcomes and receive the poorest treatments. Our communities are ravaged by a combination of structural inequality and outright hostility. And yet, many of us cling to the dream of “success” within this system—a dream that ultimately requires us to work for the very state that oppresses us. Success in this system, for Black people, can only mean subjugation.

The Lessons of Windrush

The history of Black people on this island is a history of exploitation. Our relationship with the British state is defined by labour: we were brought here to serve the dying empire. The Windrush generation should serve as a lesson in how we are used. They came to rebuild Britain after the war, only to face hostility, deportation, and betrayal.

Today, we see the same pattern in the legally sanctioned immigration of African health and care workers. They are brought here under unequal terms, with limited rights to stay and build a life. Their purpose is clear: to prop up a crumbling system. This unequal exchange, this intercolonial migration, reflects the ongoing exploitation of Black labor to delay the collapse of British society.

Against Britishness

Black people must reject Britishness as a core identity. It should exist only as a condition for administrative purposes—a recognition of the reality we must navigate. But we cannot allow it to define us. To accept Black Britishness is to fall into the same traps as Black Americans, who have been isolated by nationalism. American Blackness, forged in the crucible of reactionary patriotism, has become complicit in imperialism. This “imperial Blackness” serves the empire rather than resisting it.

Instead, we must imagine and fight for an anarchic, liberatory Blackness. This is a Blackness that transcends borders, a Blackness that resists the conditions of oppression affecting Black people worldwide. It must be rooted in solidarity with the diaspora—connecting not just African descendants but all Black people subjected to colonial violence, from the Caribbean to the Pacific.

Toward a Liberatory Future

To build this liberatory Blackness, we must focus on radical cultural and political practices that reject assimilation into colonial systems. This means organising through autonomous horizontal formations that coordinate locally and internationally, sharing radical histories, ideas, and strategies. It means rejecting nationalism and imperialism in all forms.

Our struggle must be insurrectionary and disruptive. We must engage in direct action, mutual aid, and self-organisation. Only through resisting are we going to overcome the forces that seek to isolate and oppress us.

Anti-colonial struggle must be fought within the colonial core itself. The crimes of this country—the systemic exploitation, the racism, the xenophobia—can only be addressed through the collapse of the empire that created them. We cannot reform an empire; we must dismantle it.

For Black people in Britain, liberation cannot come through Britishness. It can only come through the rejection of empire, the rejection of borders, and the creation of a radical, borderless solidarity.

p.n. – AN ARTIST LOADS THE GUN

Posted on 14/12/2024 - 14/12/2024 by muntjac

This peice was featured in Muntjac Magazine Issue 1

1.

To the White Creative Residency Facilitators and Slightly Less White Residency Cohort at 56A Infoshop, Understand that this letter is not a pleading missive intended to change your hearts and minds but is a form that lets me use the accusatory ‘you.’

Those of you who make claims upon radical pedagogy and anarchism, openness and discomfort, care and complaint: why do you normalise colonialism by prioritising the comfort of israelis?

Why did you feel the need to collectively waft soothing noises at one person who cried over a ‘Globalise the Intifada’ zine and was frightened by the phrase ‘From the river to the sea’? When this person complained it was easier to say they were argentinian rather than israeli in certain spaces, I heard someone say ‘I bet!’ in reassuring tones. I wonder what possessed them. Why did you take pains to reassuringly say that israelis are welcome in that space and that “we” were behind them 100%? Why did you appear so very sure that everyone in the room thought with one mind, one heart?

Distantly through my rage I heard someone say that she ‘did not have black and white thoughts on what was unfolding’, with a little hiatus near the end of that sentence, and I wonder: what values and relations did you think that space was capable of supporting? One that refuses to name genocide and whiteness, it seems. It is therefore unsurprising that people were willing to make expressions of anti-colonial resistance into a problem, rather than be accountable to the Palestinian struggle.

We were all in that same room at that moment, which I acknowledge was abrupt. I understand responding under pressure is difficult. However, you cannot simply explain this fulsome affirmation from the whole group as merely an imperfect stress response, a poorly thought-out and emotional moment in group dynamics. I believe what I witnessed was a severing of politics from care where the group defaulted to comforting someone who should have been further challenged. Perhaps you refused to create this challenge because you think of yourselves as nice people: I have no such delusions about myself.

I needed to leave the room in order to interrupt this moment. I just said, ‘I’m out.’ I got up and walked away.

With comical timing, one of the white facilitators called out to my retreating back– ‘I think we can still hold space for this!’

For what? For whom? A white colonist throwing a tantrum is by definition refusing to hold space for anything else.

The only space I am holding is for Palestine and all colonised peoples of the world, and I find in June Jordan’s words a ballast:

YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I COMMIT

TO FRICTION AND THE UNDERTAKING

OF THE PEARL

– Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.

I am curious about whether you think the cause of Palestine, and by extension the struggle of all colonised peoples across the world, is merely your little branding exercise. Do you understand the necessity of actively refusing cultural or material complicity in zionism and any other form of racism? Anyone may wear a cute little Palestine badge and go on an A-to-B march while avoiding any critical self-reflection about how to relate to the colonised world and its peoples, I suppose for fear of “black-and-white thoughts” that may result in the political discernment required to see zionism for what it is and reject it instantly.

This was a situation that required a refusal of the nonviolent communication we had just been practising. Those rules don’t apply in this situation as all forms of white supremacy must be run out of our spaces, not coddled and validated. Refusing to understand that white supremacy currently takes the form of a multicultural project which is sustained through the active invitation of racialised and ethnicised people is what underlies this normalisation of zionism in social spaces.

We must contextualise israeli identity as we do british, american, australian, and other colonial identity categories. If we see zionism as colonialism and adherence to colonialism as a form of whiteness (no matter the identity of the speaker), then this allows us to see the shocking amount of racism permeating our spaces. The tools, tactics, and emotions are familiar to many of us: upon encountering anything critical of the colonial project with which these people still deeply identify, they cry white tears, centre themselves, act like the victim, whine about being unfairly judged, and insist they have reason to fear for their safety while everyone else in the room sits in quiet sympathy. This normalises colonialism by reproducing the idea that “both sides” just need to come together and talk because everyone’s feelings are equally valid, or whatever vapid bullshit liberals throw out like a cosy blanket over their desire for order and quiet.

In the case of liberal zionists, their vision of “peace” is merely a more capacious settler colony, a continued apartheid (“two-state solution”) that gives up the majority of historic Palestine to israel, a generosity that allows Palestinians–disarmed, docile, grateful–to live in bantustans. Too many people only object to zionism in its specifically Kahanist form, an overt and gleeful desire to exterminate Palestinian existence through blunt violence. Liberal zionists who are “anti-occupation” / “pro-peace” / [dove emoji] but who mainly mobilise through photo-op demos and saturating the discourse with their complaints about how they feel unfairly targeted for criticism, who analyse everything through internal israeli politics, who fear anything but the most placatory and normalising gestures from Palestinians and their supporters, are very much zionists. They’re just being wet about it.

But look at the kind of moment saying something wet engenders: a collective betrayal of anti-colonial values in response to one person crying. You were quickly disarmed by the liberal zionist weapon of choice: the tearful declaration that they are being attacked–that actually, this moment is all about them and their feelings!

Though I am an anxious person who often freezes up, I knew where my comrades were: outside of this room full of people who think Palestinian life is worth less than a moment of their discomfort.

I give you my absence and ask what you think could take its place.

2.

‘Art-making: not as a leisure activity, solely or simply an expression of self, but as the most important medium that we have to communicate. Art-making which hides the seeds of how to be a human stitch in the tapestry again, passed for safe-keeping in the hands of our indigenous. Art-making as a means to mobilize the weapon. If armed struggle is the first action of finding a world beyond colonization, beyond what we can see, culture loads the gun. The role of the artist is to load the gun.’

– Ismatu Gwendolyn, ‘The Role of the Artist is to Load the Gun’

ismatu.substack.com/p/the-role-of-the-artist-is-to-load (shared via Isabella K.)

You, the residency cohort, will be sharing your work in the middle of December 2024. You, who welcome the coloniser; you, with no black and white feelings; you, who sit quietly and nod your head.

I wonder what kind of art you thought was possible under such conditions. How can you make art which engages with ownership, property, and social relations of the local area when you have decided that colonial comfort, with its funhouse mirror distortions, is more appealing? I bet you can’t even see your own faces, blurred and reflected; I bet you insist that it’s different–it’s different!–because you don’t want to think on your own complicity. How can you speak of magic, play, and care when it’s obvious your imaginations are blank due to your predictable willingness to placate racist fragility? What is anarchist about any of this? You are in lockstep with the state as you jingle across the floor with your jester’s hat.

‘So watch your treasures closely. Because we refuse your culture. No sonnets but shouts of “SHAME!” at you from across the street. No stinging critique, but the sting of the Wasp’s Nest. No lionising the powerful, but rather the roar of the Lion’s Den. And when you are dead, no portraits await you, only us performing Piss Aktion on your grave.’

– Ravachol Mutt, ‘Destruction is the only cultural expression left’ newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/destruction-is-the-only-cultural-expression-left

This is a peer critique. The disruption that Ravachol Mutt calls for is sorely needed in grassroots cultural spaces: these, too, can be hegemonic. They’re smaller, less bureaucratic, the stakes are lower–and that is exactly why it’s more disappointing when people refuse to take risks and cling to what the ruling class wants us to consider normal. Yes, wipe away the coloniser’s tears and reassure them! You’ve just repackaged the same old respectability and whiteness.

I believe we should communicate more violently against colonisation. The failure to do so means our social spaces become like any other: centres for reproducing bourgeois colonial cultural norms. The white anarchist, then, merely becomes a whimsical academic or single-issue reactionary, each in their own way nostalgic for something more interesting than our current modernity, which is harsh, extractive, grey, corporate. It seems their vision of a changed world is a liberal capitalist garden city in western europe, but with improved art schools. How our current modernity and all its objects and relations are nourished through centuries of stolen colonial resources and labour–that is to say, of finely ground human and non-human lives–is not something which figures in their analysis. If we really come down to it, white anarchists are mostly fine with this fundamental structure of their world; they just wish it was all a bit nicer for them (or at least less embarrassing).

So it is no surprise that when the colonised subject revolts, certain white anarchists respond with horror, sympathy, comfort-seeking. Decolonial insurgency is not a viable political consciousness for them. If people they see as fellow whites take up armed resistance, it is only their right: racial solidarity is naturalised. For anyone else, it’s barbaric. The West and the rest has never been so clear.

Wherever you are, and by whatever means necessary, may a thousand intifadas bloom!

3.

to m.,

thank you dear comrade–if u had not left that zine at the infoshop back then, i would not have known i needed to walk out of it the following month.

in steadfast solidarity with all colonised peoples of the world,

Zhachev – Please Stop Demonizing Militancy

Posted on 14/12/2024 by muntjac

This peice was featured in Muntjac Magazine, Issue 1

“The rifle has revealed itself, but the lion has not.”

— “Tallat el Baroudeh”, Palestinian folk song

The phenomenon of militancy is shrouded in controversy and misconception. Upon closer examination, the context in which militancy generates and emerges reveals a complex web of factors that contribute to its presence. The erosion of traditional ways of life, the global imposition of Western cultural values, broad economic disparity, social marginalization, and disruption of social norms can and often do all play a role in shaping the dynamics that sustain militancy. Engaging in armed struggle, militants are not only fulfilling social obligations to protect their people and preserve their culture, but they are also self-asserting a reconstituted subjectivity, a militant individuality, actualizing their unlimited potential as creative individuals, becoming unmoored from the mires of resentment, through action.

The militant individual is often one who has experienced either a strict limitation or a total denial of their individual subjectivity. This suspension can stem from a variety of sources, including: traumatic experiences, societal expectations, cultural norms, political regimes, and many more. In some cases, the sense of self of the militant is forged in opposition to historical realities and other definitive constraints, some or all of which may be imposed upon them non-consensually. This leads to deep-seated resentment and desire for resistance. The experience of external restraint can also be internalized, with individuals being socialized to conform to certain societal norms and expectations. The pressure to adhere to these norms can be overwhelming, leading to feelings of suffocation, and a desperation for change. The desire of the militant for self-affirmation, self-expression—for autopoiesis—becomes a means of reclamation, a means of asserting their desires, existence, and individuality.

In some cases, the experience of limitation can be particularly acute, like in situations where certain groups or communities are extremely marginalized and repressed. The sense of self of militant individuals might also be shaped by things like the struggle for simple recognition, or a chance at prosperity, as they seek to challenge the dominant culture and societal structures that attempt to silence and erase their voices.

The desire of the militant individual for autopoiesis and free expression is often driven by an intense sense of urgency, as they recognize that time is never in their favor in life, and that any opportunity to assert individuality is likely to be fleeting. This sense of urgency can manifest in a variety of ways, from spontaneous outbursts, to acts of civil disobedience, and even to more focused and deadly forms of violence.

Ultimately, the desire of the individual for self-expression and autopoiesis is an all-too-human desire, one that cannot ever be completely silenced or suppressed, and by extension the same can be said about militancy. It is at the barest a cry for recognition, a demand for dignity, a command to be heard and seen as an individual with potentiality and subjectivity, no matter how different or unique.

The desire of the individual for autopoiesis and self-expression, especially through armed conflict, is not only part of the personal journey and development of the militant individual, but a fundamental requirement for the survival and cohesion of the larger group. In many traditional and tribal communities, armed struggle and conflict are seen as a necessary means of maintaining and ensuring the well-being of all individual members of the community. Armed struggle serves as a way to resolve disputes, redistribute resources, and reconstitute social bonds. In many societies (especially those originating prior to the era of modern, mechanized, total war), warfare is not simply a brutal and destructive act, but rather a crucial mechanism for maintaining social harmony and equilibrium. It allows for the release of tensions and pent-up energies, and provides opportunities for individuals to distinguish themselves through bravery, skill, speed, and cunning, with those who demonstrate exceptional prowess in battle earning the favor and admiration of other individuals within their community. At times, armed struggle also serves as a way to define (or usurp) social roles and hierarchies within certain communities, by community members. Armed struggle is a means of creating shared experiences and memories which often end up binding communities together and sometimes even defining communities and their trajectories. The collective trauma and suffering inflicted during conflict can create a sense of solidarity and mutual understanding among individual members of a community, as they come together to mourn their loses and rebuild their lives. In this way, armed struggle can also be a catalyst for social cohesion, rather than only a destructive force and cycle of retribution that simply tears communities apart.

The militant individual is not merely an aberrant or deviant figure, not a “villain”, but rather an unextinguishable component of the human social fabric. The desire for autonomy and self-expression is not a personal whim, nor a simple act of spite, but instead, sometimes a necessary condition for the survival and flourishing of a people.

Zhachev

Zhachev is a 35 year-old Palestinian born in exile in the southeastern United States. He currently lives and writes from the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. substack.com/@zhachev