Tag: autonomous resources

Anarchy in the Burbs Zine (2020)

Dear readers,

We are excited to present to the world our very first zine! But before we tell you about how this zine came about and its contents, we want to share a bit about ourselves and our aspirations for resistance in the region known as the Inland Empire.

Anarchy in the Burbs began as a project aiming to become a source of collaborative information and resources, by and for IE locals. We initially got the ball rolling with i.e.uprising as an informal news source providing information on – you guessed it – the IE uprisings. We also wanted to provide some political education from a radical, autonomous angle and encourage our community to cultivate agency over our living conditions. We seek to share knowledge and resources for people interested in building a strong base for future liberatory movements in the occupied Inland Empire region.

A call to action: The Inland Empire Will Breathe By Any Means Necessary!

Summer 2020 saw hella people from our hometowns taking the streets in opposition to the police and white supremacy. The fire and fervor also revealed that there are many people in the IE who all envision a world beyond exploitation, prisons, borders, or oppression. In recent years, our communities in the IE are starting to confront another huge problem. Poverty has plagued this region for decades and has become a direct gateway to the logistics beast that’s taken root in our community. Mega-companies such as Amazon and other logistics companies feed off of our people by taking advantage of our economic desperation and precarity. The lack of opportunity in the IE is no accident; we are only wanted as cheap, disposable labor for the wealthy’s profits. We all know that the warehouses and logistics sector have forcibly imposed themselves onto the lives of every resident of the Inland Empire, but it is much more than that: we are confronting a system that is organized in such a way that it literally deprives us of our ability to breathe clean air. We all live within this system that is designed to suffocate life, not nourish it.

Racial capitalism in the Inland Empire is suffocating us all. The encroachment of logistics development is transforming these indigenous lands into large warehouses, changing our communities into diesel death zones where residents struggle between life and death. San Bernardino County residents suffer from a range of illnesses, all of which have been linked to poor air quality caused by the warehouses and the logistics sector. Breathlessness is a fundamental feature of this white supremacist, settler-colonial system that constantly imposes harm and violence upon Black, indigenous, Latinx, and non-white communities. The Black struggle against police brutality and institutional racism has been teaching everyone about this system’s violent mechanisms, and it is summed up by the Black Lives Matter movement with one phrase: “I can’t breathe.” Racial capitalism’s link to the state continues to primarily oppress Black people, and the anti-Blackness that these systems are built on have constructed the blueprint for all other experiences of systemic suffocation, which includes the environmental racism and mass exploitation that we are experiencing in the IE.

In the face of systemic suffocation, we now have to collectively re-assess the meaning of life and move away from the violent system that continues to cause rampant death and the suffocation of our communities. We cannot wait for the good will of our leaders: why would we wait for their good will when we are running out of air to breathe? The time has come for us to become self-determining communities. We all deserve better and we must believe in our ability to reorganize our society in ways that nurture life, not suffocate it. We do not need to have all the answers right now in order to recognize the urgent importance of abolishing the existence of the warehouses and logistics sector that poison our communities. As we can clearly see, life cannot continue this way, and breathing will become impossible unless capitalism and its warehouses are abolished as a whole. Let’s navigate the unknown together and put our minds together to create a better reality than the one that has been imposed on us. As the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) movement once said, we learn by walking, and by walking we will learn.

Ultimately, we cannot be hesitant any longer: we must begin a collective departure away from this present civilization of death and its mechanisms of suffocation. Let the IE show the world that we can throw down hard. Let’s combat breathlessness with the fresh air produced by revolt. In the closeness of our bodies and minds in struggle, let us find ways to pass the air that we have left to more of our communities and to other generations. We must attack the foundations and institutions that deprive us of the sacred air we breathe and construct a new reality that does not commodify and exploit the planet and our people. We just want to breathe: this is not a demand but a threat. We will not ask for permission anymore. We will breathe by any means necessary.

Let’s hit the streets now: How this zine came about

In the wake of the George Floyd uprisings as well as movement organizing in the time of COVID-19, we tried to consolidate useful, consumable information for the IE locals who were beginning to take the streets and organize for the first time in their lives. We centralized information for actions until street demos died down, at which point we decided to focus on providing an informal and introductory political education. We broke down what we felt were useful organizing concepts and theory as well as addressed common questions and concerns in an effort to welcome folks new to this scene, analyzing with an IE lens so that anybody could use these findings in a local (or similar) setting when the time comes. Simply: there isn’t enough writing on suburban-based and small city autonomous organizing (especially for new folks coming into it), so we tried to remedy that.

Of course, for COVID and non-COVID reasons, there were limits to organizing (especially social media organizing), but the webpages have been a starting point for many faceless readers as well as for the working relationships we’ve made since then. Although organizing in the IE has obviously existed prior to summer 2020, there was a palpable invigoration of interest and mutual aid following the uprisings in memory of George Floyd, and we’re grateful for the projects and communities borne of or multiplied by it. Our contribution is small but hopefully significant to somebody, and so we’ve compiled this zine in memory of the wildfire George Floyd produced and the ensuing history made in the Inland Empire. We hope that the lessons and advice offered in this zine can help push movement organizing in the IE to new, unseen levels in the future.

Get up to speed: What you will find in this zine

A lot of our thought processes and writing interventions center around addressing common obstacles that get in the way of increasing our autonomous capabilities. Our writings address these issues by attempting to unpack – and thus, remove – those obstacles that get in the way of increasing our collective power, removing them one by one. Below is an outline of some of the information we have compiled, practical advice, and critiques of common organizing logics that we felt were important to address and unpack. We hope that y’all find some of these arguments relevant and timely, and that they lend to making our movements stronger. We hope that you can share this zine and discuss it together in community, only by collectively discussing and seeing each other will we figure out the ways to set our communities free at last.

I. Info Hub
An informal directory of Inland Empire projects and groups that readers can plug into. This section also contains further readings and resources on abolition and autonomy.

II. Know-How
Some brief resources and guides on essential skills, from the digital to the streets to general survival.

III. Practice
Introductory (but crucial) concepts and practical information for folks interested in autonomous organizing.

IV. Critique
Various critiques of common obstacles seen in left organizing spaces, including criticisms of 1. rigid ideology and political labeling, 2. symbolic protest, 3. representation, 4. non-violence, and 5. electoral politics.

Moving at the Speed of Trust: Autonomous Community Agreements

We all want to live lives outside of the hardships imposed upon us by oppressive, violent systems of power. However, as we seek to break away from these violent systems, we must be careful in not reproducing the dynamics of systems of power — such as those of patriarchy, ableism, and so on — within the spaces we navigate and the new realities that we create. In order to do so, we must pay attention to the means that we use in our abolitionist movements and not just towards to goals we aspire to.

What we propose is that, as we build our power and capacities to liberate ourselves, we must move at the speed of trust; what this means is that our movements are only as strong as the relationships that constitute them. We cannot assume that individuals are immediately trustworthy when they claim to be against the police, capitalism and so on, if they replicate oppressive behaviors. In addition, working in coalition or with other organizations must also move at the speed of trust: we cannot know every detail of the internal politics or agendas of other groups or organizations, so we must coordinate together on the basis of autonomous community agreements. By assembling and linking up together in community, we can actively achieve specific goals through temporary formations that emphasize material concerns and affinity, instead of abstraction and ideology.

The practice of autonomous community agreements must not be confused with points of unity, party line, or political program. Community agreements are a contextual, flexible, and “formal” informality of practices that individuals and groups consent to in their collective organizing, with special care for process and means. We must embody today the new realities that we aspire to and wish to see actualized. What we have here is a rough set of boundaries and agreements that others can model off of. They are not rules nor are they principles; they are meant to be community truths and modes of conduct that are never to be set in stone or policed. They can be subject to change given the dynamic situations and community needs that folks can face at any given time. Those who cannot abide by the agreements must create their own spaces on their own preferred terms. Ideally, there should not be harm nor personal beef that stems from this because of reference to the dynamic collection of agreements. Conflict can be generative and can help proliferate multiplicity and autonomy when certain alliances are no longer useful. Autonomous community agreements are meant to facilitate the growth of power and groups that can eventually create self-determining communities that move at their own terms and set their own priorities in their fight for self-liberation. In the end, proactive trust and attunement to each other’s needs and conflicts is the foundation for autonomy and abolitionist praxis.

Loose Blueprints for and Example of Autonomous Community Agreements in action:

  1. First and foremost, we acknowledge that we are on occupied native lands and must keep that in mind in all of our organizing. – We could inadvertently recreate settler-colonialism in our organizing if we don’t prioritize native people’s plight and acknowledge that this land is stolen in the first place. For example, autonomous land projects — such as the purchase of land to build a commune — must be considered through this lens to prevent said projects from recreating colonialism. This can happen when we continue to ignore native people’s ancestral ties to the land being “purchased” and reinstate smaller scale settler-colonial relationships to land and natives.
  2. This space is run horizontally, meaning that: everyone will have a voice at the table, there is no one single leader or shot caller, we proactively delegate tasks and rotate roles, and we ask for each person to actively contribute to the best of their ability and capacity. – Vertical or top-down organizing means that orders come from the person in charge and trickle down to bottom ranks; this happens in any group or organization with a hierarchical leadership structure, such as CEO to manager or manager to laborer. Instead of enforcing hierarchical relationships, horizontal organizing is a practical way to encourage autonomy and self-representation in our spaces. Furthermore, it’s safer to be a leaderless organization or group because you can be incognito from and untraceable to the state and state collaborators.
  3. This is a space that is actively building power outside of the state and its institutions: if you are a fed, cop, snitch, abuser/abuse apologist, non-profit, mainstream media, or state collaborator (i.e. reformist or politician) you will be asked to immediately leave the space. – The purpose of autonomous organizing is to build power beyond the state, its institutions, and its style of relationships. To do that, we must push back against and remove those who collude with the state directly and indirectly. This includes removing literal agents of the state (feds and cops), state collaborators (snitches, mainstream media outlets, and reformists/ politicians), and those who recreate oppressive interpersonal behavior (abusers/ apologists, nonprofits, and reformists). There is no way to work with these kinds of people without risking state repression or liberalization of our movements and spaces, and attempting to change their minds is a waste of resources.
  4. This is an autonomous space, meaning that we are trying to empower ourselves and our communities to liberate themselves: this is not a space for recruiting, centering ideological debates, or for cliquey behaviors. We should not be concerned about trying to persuade people to follow one ideology over another or argue with each other: we are more concerned about working towards a material change in our lives, not necessarily in abstract ideas. – In continuation to the above point, we should be cognizant of our limited resources and energy. If we focus on working together to create material changes in our communities, we will naturally be less concerned with people’s exact placement on the political compass and why ours is “better,” recruiting people for some other organization or event, canceling and shunning people who haven’t exhibited harmful behavior just because we don’t “like” them, and other inane issues that just waste time, take up space, and create further unnecessary divisions.
  5. Please respect the privacy and security of others in the space: what is said in Vegas stays in Vegas, and do not record participants of this space without their consent. – For the sake of security culture, it is imperative to make sure the information said in any anti-state organizing space stays within that space and the folks in communion. Otherwise, sensitive and even incriminating information can fall into the wrong ears. Dry-snitching is also a very real threat, and a recording of people at a secret meeting or even at a protest can help the feds build a case against someone. Don’t be that person who accidentally collaborates with the state.
  6. As we continue to work in community together, we do not want to reproduce cycles of harm to ourselves or each other while building power. No anti-Blackness/transphobia/queerphobia/sexism/classism/racism/fatphobia/ableism/will ever be tolerated in the space. – Similar to other points regarding the need to build power outside of hierarchical, colonial, and state relations/ institutions, we need to also make it a priority to prevent all oppressive and harmful behavior in our interpersonal relationships. If we are to be intentional about our liberation, we must treat one another with respect and be mindful of the way we may recreate harmful dynamics in our personal spaces. After all, the micro scale is just a reflection of what already exists at a macro scale, meaning that the way we socialize at a small, personal level will be influenced by the systems and dynamics at play in greater society.
  7. Although this is a BIPOC-centered space, we still have to acknowledge the privileges between certain identities and proactively work to center the most oppressed voices, such as Black, indigenous, and trans voices. – Just because we work together does not mean everyone has the same experiences, and we shouldn’t reduce people’s identities and experiences to such just because they are BIPOC. In fact, it’s damaging to treat all BIPOC as static or identical because that can recreate harmful dynamics and ignore important intersections within already marginalized identities. It’s important to listen to the most affected voices and center them when organizing.
  8. On Democrats and Liberals: Being a democrat is not radical since liberals play respectability politics and prioritize capitalism over BIPOC communities. Any person that comes to the space with these kinds of views will be removed. – It’s a waste of time and energy to argue with Democrats and liberals, and people with shared values should be prioritized for the sake of conserving resources and maintaining the integrity of our spaces. Point 3 stated that collaborating with reformists posed a risk by liberalizing our goals and our spaces; working with Democrats and liberals functions similarly. Ultimately, although many “nice” people may be Democrats or self-proclaimed liberals, they are ultimately moderates who in reality, seek to reform instead of radicalize the world. The DSA and nonprofits already exist.
  9. We all agree to keep these agreements open to adding and editing as we continue to share space. – In the spirit of horizontal organizing and collaboration, it’s necessary to listen to our comrades’ input when making decisions and setting agreements to make sure that we aren’t merely imposing our will against others’. Similarly, people and life itself are fluid, and the adaptability of our community agreements should reflect that.

Autonomous, Decolonial & Abolitionist Resources/Readings

BOOKS

The main two books we want to highlight are:

“Beyond Survival: Transformative Justice” by multiple authors

“The Master’s Tools” by Tom Nomad

Other strong suggestions:

“Burning Down the American Plantation” by Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement

“Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis” by Katherine McKittrick

“To Our Friends” by the Invisible Committee

“Our Enemies in Blue” by Kristian Williams

PODCASTS

First and foremost, we want to recommend the podcasts titled “On Resistance” and the “Black Autonomy Podcast” (both podcasts are available on spotify)

Resonance Audio — resonanceaudiodistro.org

Channel Zero — channelzeronetwork.com

The Final Straw — thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org

USEFUL WEBSITES

An introductory article that we highlight recommend: “The Challenge of Autonomy: Prospects for Freedom Going Into 2021” found at bayareaintifada.wordpress.com

And also check out the resources complied at this list, especially the “Digital Resources” section— https://linktr.ee/FugitiveDreams

trueleappress.com

thisisbobbylondon.com

neversurrender.noblogs.org

blackautonomynetwork.noblogs.org

indigenousaction.org

iaf-fai.org

prolewave.noblogs.org

puraacracia.club

confrontacionesblog.noblogs.org

haters.noblogs.org

Other sites to explore:

sproutdistro.com

amwenglish.com

Theanarchistlibrary.org

Itsgoingdown.org

Libcom.org

VIDEO

SubMedia (Sub.Media)

Fanonian Critique of Representation: Against Compromise with and Recuperation by Elites

The insights provided by revolutionary theorist Frantz Fanon allow us to see the different ways that movements in the Inland Empire carry a unique advantage: the lack of domination by mass organizations or movement representatives allows for truly ripe conditions of self-sustaining autonomous organizing. This situation contrasts the realities of large, metropolitan cities where liberal politicians, non-profits, and social democratic organizations tend to dominate and battle for control over social movements. Without seeking to become a new representative or hierarchical force, movements in the IE have a strong and unique potential to develop power in never-before-seen ways.

What follows are a few quotations from the book “The Wretched of the Earth” by the Black, decolonial, revolutionary theorist Frantz Fanon. They are quotations that center his insightful criticisms concerning acts of representation. In his analysis, we see that elites (political, economic, racial, and social classes with power) use representation (via political parties and organizations) to exert control over the oppressed and colonized underclasses (‘the people’). The quotes that follow reveal the problems that occur when parties, organizations, and other vanguard groups sought to “represent” the colonized masses.

In a nutshell, Fanon observed that colonizers impose representation on otherwise autonomous peoples so that the colonizer can negotiate with said elites and representatives in order to co-opt and control the colonized masses. What Fanon spoke about are the limitations of political parties, organizations, and other groups that sought to “represent” the colonized masses, which is an inherently impossible project. His analysis points toward the dynamics of mass organizations during revolutionary movements and how they hinder true liberation at times. 

In these historical lessons and analysis, Fanon reveals a variety of mechanisms that led to the reproduction of the vicious cycles of power: domination by elites and leaders that replicated colonial structures in the name of nationalism and ‘decolonization.’ As opposed to a true decolonial and anti-capitalist liberation, there was a rotation of leaders who hi-jacked the truly revolutionary activity and energies of the peasants and the oppressed. We must heed these warnings and protect our autonomous power from those who seek to represent us. We must always act in our own name and push away anyone who insists on compromise or liberal recuperation.

Representation is an impossible project that centers the intentions and desires of leaders and “representatives.” Among the representative measures that Fanon discusses in these quotes, there are: self-appointing leadership, compromise, calls for unity, recuperation, and other vertical power dynamics. Representative elites, through their parties and organizations, attempt to make it seem as if their desires are the same as those they attempt to represent. They will ask for us to unite with them; we must insist otherwise. Revolutions and insurrections from-below must reject the top-down agendas pushed by authoritarian groupings and refuse to compromise with any authorities.

‘The people’ are always invisibilized by their ‘representatives’:

“The elite will attach a fundamental importance to organization, so much so that the fetish of organization will often take precedence over a reasoned study of colonial society. The notion of the party is a notion imported from the country. This instrument of modern political warfare is thrown down just as it is, without the slightest modification, upon real life with all its infinite variations and lack of balance, where slavery, serfdom, barter, a skilled working class, and high finance exist side by side.”

Non-violence is a method of recuperation that keeps the elites in control:

“The peasantry is systematically disregarded for the most part by the propaganda put out by the nationalist parties. And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system, is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For them there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization and decolonization are simply a question of relative strength. The exploited person sees that their liberation implies the use of all means, and that of force first and foremost.”

Reject compromise with all elites, ward off hierarchical representation:

“At the decisive moment, the colonialist bourgeoisie, which up till then has remained inactive, comes into the field. It introduces that new idea which is in proper parlance a creation of the colonial situation: non-violence. In its simplest form, this non-violence signifies to the intellectual and economic elite of the colonized country that the bourgeoisie has the same interests as they and that it is therefore urgent and indispensable to come to terms for the public good.”

Organization is just a means to other ends, elites use it as an end in itself:

“This idea of compromise is very important in the phenomenon of colonization, for it is very far from being a simple one. Compromise involves the colonial system and the young nationalist bourgeoisie at one and the same time. The partisans of the colonial system discover that the masses may destroy everything. Blow-up bridges, ravaged farms, repressions, and fighting harshly [to] disrupt the economy. Compromise is equally attractive to the nationalist bourgeoisie, who since they are not clearly aware of the possible consequences of the rising storm, are genuinely afraid of being swept away by this huge hurricane…”

The will of ‘the people’ will always exceed the will of the ‘representatives’:

“In certain circumstances, the political party political machine may remain intact. But as a result of the colonialist repression and of the spontaneous reaction of the people, the parties find themselves out-distanced by their militants. The violence of the masses is vigorously pitted against the military forces of the occupying power, and the situation deteriorates and comes to a head…”

Representation is an undesirable game that the elites will always win:

“… Those leaders who are free remain, therefore, on the touchline. They have suddenly become useless, with their bureaucracy and their reasonable demands; yet we see them, far removed from events, attempting the crowing imposture—that of ‘speaking in the name of the silenced nation.’ As a general rule, colonialism welcomes this godsend with open arms, transforms these ‘blind mouths’ into spokesmen, and in two minutes endows them with independence, on condition that they restore order.”

We want to add to and contextualize these critiques of representation within contemporary movements. Everything in a social movement or revolutionary situation is decided on the ground, in real life. Sometimes, rigid principles (particularly those that never bend or that are decided upon a priori) get in the way of the dynamism required on the ground. In fact, the hyper-emphasis on principles within organizations is influenced by the western Judeo-Christian culture of adhering to “eternal” laws. Sometimes, a lot of organizations or vanguard parties impose principles upon individuals that prevent their own political growth or insurgent experimentation. We are not arguing that people should not engage with organizations; the point is that everyone should decide for themselves their own rules of engagement with other groups. The point of our argument against representation is to encourage non-organizational formations for liberation. Organization should never become an end in itself; it is always only ever a means because when it becomes an end, it will only exist to reproduce itself and encroach on the autonomy of others with/ for its power. We must cultivate other kinds of collective gathering points and containers (such as community assemblies, neighborhood councils, etc.) so that many people can plug in and actively participate in resistance.

In the end, Fanon’s historical analysis allows us to see beyond the ploys and schemes of representation. His lessons point towards the need for movements that must become non-organization-centric and non-representative. This can be done by working together, instead through autonomy and affinity. We must always center the most oppressed groups in society and the methods that they prefer to use for securing their liberation. The people’s unruliness and disorderly methods will always exceed the measures put forth by organizations and parties. Altogether, we must learn from the pitfalls of past revolutions that centered representation over the people.