Muntjac #1 Anarchism Decolonized
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![] black people were so frightened at that time that they wouldn’t leave their houses, they wouldn’t come out, they wouldn’t walk the sireets of Portobello Road. So we decided 1o form a defence force 10 fight against that type of behaviour and we did. We organized a force 1o take home coloured people wherever they were | g in the area. We were not leaving our homes and going out attacking anyone, but if you attack our homes you would be met, s the type of defence force we had. We coming and we had a po that w re warned when they were to guard our headguarters When they told us that they were coming to attack that night I went around and told all the people that women 1 told them 10 keep pots, ettl soda and if anyone i vithdraj vas living in the area to o that night. The of hot water boiling, get some caustic d 10 break down the door and come in, 1o just lash out with them. The men, well we were armed. During the day they went out and ot milk bottles, got what they could find and got the ingredients of making the Molotor cocktail bombs. Make no mistake, there were iron bars, there were machetes, there were all kinds of arm We made preparations at the headquarters for the attack. We had men on the housetop waiting for them. I was standing on the second floor wit out as look out when I saw a massive lot of people out there. I was observing the behaviour of the crouwd outside from behind the curtai s upstairs and they That’s the time 1 gave the order for the gates 10 open and throw them back 1o where they were coming say. TLet’s burn the niggers, let’s lynch the niggers Jrom. was an game and it was serviceman, I knew guerrilla warfare, 1 knew all about their very, very effecti Start bombing them.’ When they saw the Molotov cochtails coming and tart 1o panic and run. It was a ver, 2 serious bt of fighting that night, v were determined 1o us any means, any veapon, anything at our disposal for our freedom. We were not prepared to go down like dying dogs. But it did work, we gave Sir Oswald Mosley and his Teddy boys such a whipping they never](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 5.png)
![der Brixton was a horough plagucd by policing and constant scarches u the racist ‘Sus’ laws, enabling the police to stop and scarch people bitrary raids, whenever the hell they felt like, this tactic was paired with a Deati iad of ways; s and surveillance. Black power organisations set up infoshops and educated th his was responded to namy peers as part of a broader campaign against police harassment. Some squatted buildings o drink smoke and listen to reggac in spite of the police. Some would intervene with the police when they began to harass someone. n In 1976, an 18 yea stabbed to death. The Indian Worke: old engineering student, G dip Singh Chagga Association [Southall] organ m, but the youth attending the meeting grew frustrated atic, lobbyist approach of th meeting on fac with the “timid” burcaue elders and the lack of a conc s murde stead for te response to Chagga - Opting direct action, they left the meeting to protest against Southall’s police for its inaction, and i n the ocess aded up rowing stones at a Jaguar who’s dri they launched er called them “black bastards™. Shortly afte the Southall Youth Movement (SYM). In the days that followed. they organ d a number of protests, attacked white motorists who chanted t slurs at them and when thei ades were arrested, surrounded comi the police station demanding their release. These new formations would be later described by Race today as “I reaking through the solid wall of Asian organisations which maintained the status quo” August, 1976, police assaulted Black attendees of the Notting Hill Can officers, damaged 35 police vehicles and looted shops. The repression that followed led to the ar ner steel pan player at ival o nd they defended themselves and injured over 300 police est of 60. Rasta Billy. a for Carnivals commented that; ‘Carnival became the first opportunity that many of the black youths born in Britain had 1o express their anger on a national basis and to confront the police and let them know the forces of black anger.” 6](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 7.png)
![spaces, not coddled and validated. Refusing to understand that white supremacy currently takes the form of a multicultur 1 project which is sustained through the active invitation of r is what under cialised and ethnicised people ies this normalisation of zion sm n social spaces. We must contextualise isracli iden y as we do british, american, australian, and other colon ies. If we sce zionism as 1 identity categos alism and adherence to colonialism as a for color m 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, tact; s, and emotions are famili tical of the 1o many of us: upon encountering anything c al project with which these people still deeply identify. they ery white tears, centre themselves, act like the vietim, whine about being unfy eve color ly judged, and their safety while one else in the room sits in qu nsist they have reason to fear fo nalises t sympathy. This nor g the idea that "both sides” just need to come color alism by reprodu together & whatever vapid bullshit nd talk because everyone’s feclings a cqually valid, or erals th ow out like a cosy blanket over thei desire for order nd quict. In the case of liberal zionists, their vision of "peace” is merely a more capacious scitler colony, a continued apartheid (‘two state solution”) that gives up the majority of historic Palestine to isracl, a generosity that allows Palestinians disarmed, docile, grateful 1o live in bantustans. Too many people only object 1o zionism in its specifically Kahanist form, overt and gleeful desire to exterminate Palestinian existenee through n Dlunt violence. Liberal zionists who o “anti occupation” / "pro peace” [dove emoji] but who mainly mobilise through photo op demos and saturating the discourse with their complainis about how they feel unf: ly targeted for criticism, who analyse everything through internal isracli polities, who fear anything but the most placatory and normalising](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 33.png)
![naga - Fear, Safety and Repres NOTE: In this piece I use the terms "(British) East & South East Asian” (BESEA) and It names a particular tendency and group of peaple who engage in such politics. the sort that might Asian American” in a loose, critical way self characterise as being "anti-covid hate” or "Stop Asian / AAPI / ESEA Hate". My comrades and I remain sceptical that a "(B)ESE. \" political identity as recoverable even as we sometimes organise under it to do certain thing: Tam w ting to sketch out the cu ent reaction: basis for community cs. Instead of continuing on from cops, we need to st state self defence ican and BESEA polit 10 beg for e conti nbs of state validation and protect ue the proliferation of resistance ag: lenee. We’ll begi as BESEA groups appear to view Asian Am I a brief description of the situation in the so-called US.. ican activity as somehow more advanced and it’s mportant to show this is not the case. om 2021 onwards, vari Fi ous news articles in the socalled US. ted a rise in Asian Americans taking self defe guns. [2] This was in ¢ cpo se classes [1] and purchasing ponse to an escalation i cet violence racist st against Asians; the attacks which gained the most media attention created an t rative of white male vigilantes or Black homeless men specifically geting Asian American women and elders. Anti Black racism is inh t to these polities. While some Asian American organisations might post instagram slides that celebrate Juncteenth or offer ’s elear from the rest of condolences for Black victims of police violence, i their social media messaging, co ope state bodies and public fig ation with similar organisations, es that their primary goal is assimilating Asian Americans into the colonial violence inherent to the US state calisation of such through the protection of private property. A previous polit cs includes the so called Rooftop Korcans, petit bourgeois As](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 46.png)
![settlers who sought to defend their businesses du the 905 by attacking Black people 3] Itis the community self defence is grounded in Asian American "Stop Asian Hate” (SAH) politics, its participants fill the role of self deputised po ather than opposing state violence and neglect. & the LA uprising in fore no surprise that wh n s, And yet there is a contradiction: for all their messaging that Asians need 10 he responsible for protecting "ow largely aimed at applying pressure on police to investigate violent attacks and indeed all racial animus as "hate crimes”. celebrating weighty own”, SAH social media content is nes sentencing that apparently shows the state considers such animus as inju s own social body. [4] Journalist Esther Wang reported on such ‘desperate, confused, righteous” polities of SAH in 2022, focusing on ious 1o nal the aftermath of Christina Yuna Lee’s mu et homeless man N take hold — a sense of grievance that was hardening i der by a sir tes. "A bitterness was ey om & nearby encampment. She w nning to o a polities of self protection.[5] Her article describes in detail the reactionary bent of ina Yuna Lee’s former landlord ca and ing a tase pepper spray in order 1o attack homeless people, community objections to any housing suppor neighbou self defense training clubs that espouse theories of racial self interest. for thei s on the s and Asian Wang makes clear that whi understandable oot cause. e such paranoid e not solutions to decp societal responses have an problems or everyday trauma. In all this, its made clear the condition of heing made vulnerable to homelessness of gentrification, displacement, ~criminalisation and bric of SAI he reality of the US. as a settler colonial project and how it incarceration, is not understood as violent within the politics constructs and orders race 1o situate ce ain populations close o death in literal spatial terms is seen as merely aberrant, rather than consistent with its death making project. A slightly more canny tendency of SAH politics](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 47.png)
![ccent pays lip serviee to non carceral advocacy, which can be seen in Stop AAPI Hate statements condemning the killings of Easter Leafa, Victoria Lee. and Sonya Massey[6] by police which consistently call for ‘in language’ and ‘eulturally sen des tability’ for this ‘misconduct.” Again, the idea that such ¢ responses to mental health e ises, nanding ‘accou violence is entirely consistent with the state it would s ot permitted; interrupt their ply needs to draw redemptive fantasy of the state as an all giving carcgive d child closer to its br who si Nt sser what abolitionist Dylan Rodr igucz deseribes as the : "Black on Asian” violence is but one folkdevil used to kick Exception’ dirt over the tracks of what Rodrigucz calls ’wl ¢ nationalist, domestic wa ishment of individualised e totality’ for which state enforced pus pes s an insufficient response as said totality is ’a) cold blooded petrators nselves. as fuck, and b) doesn’t give a shit about individuals in and of thes [7] Citing critical Asian Amer . abolitioni: t an o ganising by sex workes feminists, and prisoner suppo the call fo 1 campaigns. Rod © practices of iguez encourages us to “collecti volt, solida y. ereativity, and mutual aid that de p (Black, Brown, and otherwise) and culti accountability to other communities, organizations, and movements oritize condemnation of individual perpetrators ate infrastructures of struggling for al domestic war! eration from antiblackness, colonial domination, and asymmetr ws attention to his Rodriguez consistently dr own contradictory position within his own academic dayjob, obscrving that this position is filled with people whose embrace of libe means they have a ’knee jerk aversion to guns and fircs al pacifism ms.[8] Because they prioritise individual knowledge extraction rather than being open to collective militancy, these people can be a cal sccurity risk to movements who see the necessity of self defense. You will never find me condemning armed resistance anywhere in the world. However, as I was researching community self defense in an Asian 8](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 48.png)
![While YPT still proceed from an embedded position in US. gun cultu they are clear that rearms are to be used e situations and share 1 spec information about different interventions, such as de escalation, and complement tacy eld medicine. ‘Guns are not a cal knowledge with f " YPT write in a recent infographic. [9] This i talism: onically echocs a k people acquire gus [10] This esistance, line in An Anarchist Anti Gun Manifesto: I th s beeause of the fantasy of possessing hyper concentrated power manifesto de naturalises n armed the role of guns o couraging the expropr keeping in mind the; tion then destruction of such weapons while e arc othe domestic ways of wieldi & force i 0 the Asian American organising is of course much more varied tha liberal NPI or ar ned leftists, but I focused on these aspects as | feel it is nder theorised. We now tu 1 to the situation in the UK, which is similarly captu ency. The same calls for Stop Asi cd by counte s n Hate rang out with predictable politics: a so called Demonstration of Unity rally in spring 2021 collapsed due to brave groups|11] and individuals that refused to work with a speaker who was the subject of the Solid arity not Silenee campaign about misogyny and abusc in music/I2] Liberal and conservative BESEAs do not have working nalyses of how power structures function — they think capitalism and its concomitant violences are fine. their horizon of radical cha BESEAs. Add to this bizar exceptionalism with its for frankly deranged foeus on joy. food, and hate ¢ for whom small business ownership is their family background and nge being improved access for self fulfilling, British poisoned Asian ndational anti Blackness - animated through a ne by NPIC careerists political subjectivity — and you have the current BESEA movement in a nutshell. (Notable exceptions inelude the abolitionist tendency in some groups within ESEA Sisters; Remember & Resist]13] and sex worker 10](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 50.png)
![organising such as Sparrow’s Wings. not to mention individual Asians active acs ncluding antiraids networks.) oss v ous solidarity movements, The uation in the UK can still be neatly deseribed in The Mor ally later in 2021: ’We asked the police ally to ensure there would be no breach of peace. Group’s statement about anothe 1o he present at the They requested further information and intelligence supporting ou his was provided to them w request. [14] cone hin minutes of th s. The cur nd ent BESEA political landscape is characterised by nonprofits high profile ~charitable individuals in full, unquestioning, cages <o operation with the state. Everybody circulates around the axis of "hate o " for which a mo; lance ime preventior comprehensive state surves s the solution. This is their goal and they refuse to see any other approach as valid, such as the abolitionist strategy of "withi realistically assessing what happens when the state intervencs in marginalised commur ablised people[15] BE om the abolitionist 1 0 and against ities and situations with vulne SEAs do not really have values that derive 1 al 10 collaborate with hate crime charities to ndeney for them, it’s rad del ver bystander intervention workshops. You won’t find them at copwatch meetings learning about police interventions because that would mean caring about people other than themselves. BESEAs are self rightcous about this self interest because their political identity is based on being uniquely downtrodden and ignored. They don’t historicise Asian identity within the larger context of both colonial labour and colonial middlemen; they refuse any critical engagement with these contradictions. Rather, they propagandise narratives of the hardworking migrant rejected by hoth whites and other racialised groups; they write exhausting hooks and articles. appear on morning TV segments, ¢ ate whole exhibitions, circulate a ound the Having Conversations Industrial Complex, attend big dos at Buckingham Palace. What is their demand? Visibility tolerance and increased hate crime data collection. And](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 51.png)
![afterwards, they’ll grab their newest LinkedIn profile pietu t forth and communities rallied in the When the pogroms of 2021 by streets against fascists and thei newbuild apartments IAs sat in the pig protectors, these BES! cd. They didn’t say. ’We’re not good in owds, we can be more useful co ordi nd ¢ o ating from home or doing afterwards’ no. their relation to these streets is not arrestee suppo tactical. They exclusively communicate n a language of fear and unsafety. This was to be expected of the glossy finteeh and media types, but a similar response was given by established community services that support migrants on the ground reporting service. Commu share multi ling affi prevention” na : report all "hate erime” to the police or a on to create and ices were in a posi al safe to check in with their members and y plar m solida y with targeted groups. Insicad. the “hate ative was in casy reach for everyone, and it will continue me that way until a viable alter: am for ative prog: lling these social needs is created. Meanwhile, the state’s border seeuritisation regime continues apace. nented mi s and refugees experience the ablisation. They have also be Undocus nts, asylum sceke 1 discarded ses on publi ng 1d the Morccambe Bay cockle pickers within sharpest edge of this vulner from the majority of BESEA discou the deaths of the Essex 39 & ontextuali safety the Hostile Environment would mean understanding the state as something other than saviour how these social murders are consistent with its regime/16] - Similarly, focusing on strect attacks rather than how fascist organising works in tandem with state violence means that both material conditions and comu ed. While there is a g it 1o the suceess of state funded hate erime data collection diverts attention ity needs are obscu clear need for multilingual culturally informed support services, and resources from actually effective solutions.](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 52.png)
![Indeed, it is not st aightforward for the public to understand how hate ime data is actually used by cither pol o foy es or reporting services; thus far there’s been no accountability from the "changemakers” who apparently use this data to make policy changes (for and by whom?) There are ways in which community groups could collect and analyse data usi g an actively caring methodology and robust ethical framework which targets the root causes of social problems, as shown by the Dying Homeless project by Museu ] Otherwise. it appears m of Homelessness 17 that a whole panoply of ESEA community centres and migrant support services are being funded, wholly o n part, by the state desire 0 monitos ana of racial animus by non state actor; row categor use of state hate crime data BE interactions and eriminalisation of other communities as collateral. . As one possible g patrols in certa al e willing 1o treat increased police s assign cas, libe n SEAs have made it clear they a ity There would be some uti EAs encouraging internal conversations within mij ant support. service: 1 this hate ¢ . asking them how they me scheme. If it pays an alrcady it from involvement i overloaded caseworker for a few more hou ant to aweek, then it’s impo name that this i not a sustainable solution for making our commun safer. Our responsibility, then, is to propose things that do work and build capa g program carricd out by Asian American organisers in Oakland 18] This robust, holistic approach fills many gaps. from intergenerational political ies ity mediator ity towards . One example is the commur ica education, Black As ity de escalation, prisoner support, and housing. Learning from their organising. perhaps our foundation in babylon would be propagandising clear, simple messaging that combats the narrative of distrust and fear. all while balancing an acknowledgement of people’s feclings of unsafety. Then, we ask people to really co means. We have to actually listen-even if we anticipate the sider what safety answers](muntjac-1-anarchism-decolonized-muntjac 53.png)
JVIUNTIAC,
ANARCHISM DECOLONISED
‘*' COMMUNITY SELF-DEFENCE AGAINS
UMML FASCISM AND THE STATEN,
ISSUE 1 WINTER ‘24 1y
Contents,
03. Mutt. - Editorial
15. Sunwo - The Forgotten so-called ra
18. Micelio - Untitled
31 Harrow Antifascists - Report back from Harrow 07.08.241
33.Zhachey - Stop Demonizing Militancy
37.PN.- AN ARTIST LOADS THE GUN
2
Mutt. - Editor
al
As ever, since the day we arrived here, it's been up to us.
The racialized peoples of this hellish archipelago. defend
ourselves.
Let's take a partial look at our collective
tories of struggle.
In 1919, in Cardiff, Liverpool and East London
n (Cas
acists targeted Chinese,
n, Egyptian and othes
Somal bbean). Malaysi
ed residents, many of whom were British colonial troops stationed
or demobilized in Britain, the racists also targeted their partners and
spouses who were often white women. In response, at various intervals in
med lyneh mobs found themselves in
Cardiff groups of whites that had fo
shootouts wi zed people they b
h the raciali
d o target.
In 1948, i
people out of work, bos
1 Liverpool the National Union of Seamen stri
ed to keep Black
ting that “we have been successful in changing
ships from coloured 10 white, and in many instances in persuading masters
and engineers that white men should be carried in preference to coloured.”
During an extended period of attack, Black sailors armed themselves to
stave off atte
npied massacres by mobs of whites cither in uniform or in
plain clothes intent on destroying them, the lodgings they stayed in and
1
rest every Black person in the
the clubs they frequented. Often when the police “intervened” in rac
attacks on Black sailors theyd simply
area.
In 1958, the West Indian community of Notting Hill tooled up 1o fight
fascists who'd been targeting them at night, utilizing ambush tactics and
skills many had gained in their time in Britain's colonial armed forces,
One ex RAF mechanic, Baker Baron was interviewed yea
later and said
] black people were so frightened at that time that they wouldn't leave their
houses, they wouldn't come out, they wouldn't walk the sireets of Portobello
Road. So we decided 1o form a defence force 10 fight against that type of
behaviour and we did. We organized a force 1o take home coloured people
wherever they were |
g in the area. We were not leaving our homes and
going out attacking anyone, but if you attack our homes you would be met,
s the type of defence force we had. We
coming and we had a po
that w
re warned when they were
to guard our headguarters
When they told us that they were coming to attack that night I went around
and told all the people that
women 1 told them 10 keep pots, ettl
soda and if anyone i
vithdraj
vas living in the area to
o that night. The
of hot water boiling, get some caustic
d 10 break down the door and come in, 1o just lash out
with them. The men, well we were armed. During the day they went out and
ot milk bottles, got what they could find and got the ingredients of making
the Molotor cocktail bombs. Make no mistake, there were iron bars, there were
machetes, there were all kinds of arm
We made preparations at the headquarters for the attack. We had men on the
housetop waiting for them. I was standing on the second floor wit
out as look out when I saw a massive lot of people out there. I was observing
the behaviour of the crouwd outside from behind the curtai
s upstairs and they
That's the time 1 gave the
order for the gates 10 open and throw them back 1o where they were coming
say. TLet’s burn the niggers, let's lynch the niggers
Jrom. was an
game and it was
serviceman, I knew guerrilla warfare, 1 knew all about their
very, very effecti
Start bombing them.’ When they saw the Molotov cochtails coming and
tart 1o panic and run. It was a ver,
2 serious bt of fighting that night, v
were determined 1o us
any means, any
veapon, anything at our disposal for
our freedom. We were not prepared to go down like dying dogs. But it did work,
we gave Sir Oswald Mosley and his Teddy boys such a whipping they never
come back in Notting Hill. I knew one thing. the following morning we walked
the streets free because they knew we were not going to stand for that type of
behaviour.”
In 1939 Kelso
stabbed to death by whites, in response Rhaune Laslett, Claudia Jones,
olehrane, a Black Antiguan resident of Not
ng Hill was
Amy Ashwood Garvey and othes
volutionarics put on an_ indoor
Carnival to empower the besieged Black communities of Britain. With
ngs grew so large they out grew the halls they were
¢ the groundwork to what is now a cultural institution for
time, these gathe
held in and we
the West Indian communities in Britain. The Notting Hill carnival.
In 1968, ank €
restaurant which quickly became a hub fo
inidadian revolutionary
ichlow opencd the Mangrove
Black people to seek shelte
round them and organise their fight back
tish state. In fear of this. the police
vom the racist hellscape
against the B aided and shut down
the restaurant a dozen times. Attacks i
¢ this against Black community
centers, cafes, clubs and even daycares were surprisingly commor
In 1970, 150 Black radicals protested against the police’s war on the
mangrove and were met with a force of over 600 police officers, who
assaulted the march est and trial which would later
leading 1o the ar
be known as the Mangrore 9. They won in court after a long trial and the
police’s assault on the Mang ied on until the 80s. in 1988 Frank
framed after riot police raided the restaurant and ‘found” drugs. After
e car
was
atrial he was acquitted and was awarded damages in 1992.
chout the 70s the Bengali Housing Action Group, the Black
& Race Today collective squatted homes to house immigrants in
spite of the
tlocal government & landlords.
der
Brixton was a horough plagucd by policing and constant scarches u
the racist ‘Sus’ laws, enabling the police to stop and scarch people
bitrary raids,
whenever the hell they felt like, this tactic was paired with a
Deati iad of ways;
s and surveillance.
Black power organisations set up infoshops and educated th
his was responded to
namy
peers as
part of a broader campaign against police harassment. Some squatted
buildings o drink smoke and listen to reggac in spite of the police. Some
would intervene with the police when they began to harass someone.
n
In 1976, an 18 yea
stabbed to death. The Indian Worke:
old engineering student, G
dip Singh Chagga
Association [Southall] organ
m, but the youth attending the meeting grew frustrated
atic, lobbyist approach of th
meeting on fac
with the “timid” burcaue
elders and the
lack of a conc s murde stead for
te response to Chagga
- Opting
direct action, they left the meeting to protest against Southall’s police for
its inaction, and i
n the
ocess
aded up
rowing stones at a Jaguar
who's dri they launched
er called them “black bastards™. Shortly afte
the Southall Youth Movement (SYM). In the days that followed. they
organ
d a number of protests, attacked white motorists who chanted
t slurs at them and when thei ades were arrested, surrounded
comi
the police station demanding their release. These new formations would
be later described by Race today as “I
reaking through the solid wall of
Asian organisations which maintained the status quo”
August, 1976, police assaulted Black attendees of the Notting Hill
Can
officers, damaged 35 police vehicles and looted shops. The repression that
followed led to the ar ner steel pan player at
ival o
nd they defended themselves and injured over 300 police
est of 60. Rasta Billy. a for
Carnivals commented that;
‘Carnival became the first opportunity that many of the black youths born in
Britain had 1o express their anger on a national basis and to confront the
police and let them know the forces of black anger.”
6
In 1980 Akhtar Ali Baig was brutally murdered on East Ham high street
by a gang of white, skinhead youths aged 15 to 17, who first verbally
abused him before spitting on him and eventually stabbing him. Paul
Mullery. the one who stabbed him exclaimed in front of eyewitnesses e
" He was soon ar
Just gutted a paki!
sted, In response 130 Asian and some
West Indian youth marched to Forest Gate police station, the police
claimed it wasn't a racially motivated attack. Later 2300 people marched
through Newham in a protest organised by Newham Youth Movement,
they planned to march to Fo ce stations and
est Gate and West Ham pol
location, the police tricd to
oke through chanting “Here 1o
stay, Here 1o fight!” and “Self Defense is no offense!” On reaching the site of
the murder spot. the march stopped o pay its respect to Akhtar. A mullah
then return to the murde oute them
.
towards West Ham Park but the youth |
chanted some prayers from the Koran There were 29 arrests and in
response the youths met with the Steering Commitice OF A
Organisations to drum up support and put on a sccond march, 5000
an
ar
people attended, Black workers from Fords downed tools and (is
¢ of middle class racial solidarity) shopkecpers shut th
minor. pi
shops for the day.
April 10th, 1981, the boiling tension following the racist mass murder of
1 New €
cy. a Black man who had just been
13 Black teenagers in the firebombing of a house
nti-police insurrection, Michael Bai
Mo an
oss
stabbed in Brixtons ‘frontline’ was being kneeled on by police for over 20
minutes. People nea
nd took |
by intervened and forced the cops away from him
m 10 hospital. they the ¢ reinforcements
fought with the pol
that had been sent in. The following day. the police lined the sireets every
with vans, rather than their usual foot patrols. Word got round
that Michacl had died in hospital, no small part due to the police allowing
him to bleed out for so long. At 3
trying to se
bricklayer but eventually battle
50 meter:
pm a plainclothes cop was bricked for
h a Black man's car. police attempted to ar
ines were drawn. By the end of the night
est the
there were 279 injured cops, 50+ dest
oyed police vehicles and several
buildings and shops burnt out and looted.
July 3rd. 1981 three coachloads of white skinheads from the East End
a
ve in Southall for a gig at a bar called the Hambrough Tavern, on the
way there they attacked shopfronts run by Asian people and assaulied
one Asian woman, in response Asian and West Ind
n o defend the s)
n youth struck back,
n o
the police came
ns but by the o
d of the night the
ed and the
skins were sent packing, several police officers wer
Hambrough was b
c inju
i to a crisp. The youth said to the media the
following day
el
“If the police will not protect our community, we have 1o defend our:
cist
Throughout July 1981 There we
further anti police and anti ¢
up Brixton. There
isings in Toxteth, Moss Side, Chapeltown o
nd again i
ed the:
were so many I'd run out of space if T cove y.
all prope
1982, The S
campaign
Sqquad. a group of radical South Asian women began the
solidarity
h Afia Begu
Bangladesh after her husband died in a fire. They established a soc
m who had been deported to
center in London’s Brick Lane. The followi
ng yea
they would
themselves to the railings outside the home sccretaries home, they were
later ar
ted and sexually assaulted by the police.
In 1983, a collective of diasporic South Asian women founded Mukti
magazine, with the intention of creating a publication to address the
under diseussed concerns of South Asian women in the (politically) Black
movement of the time. Topics such as deportation, citizenship, sexual
fulfilment, lesbianism, a
ranged marrage, incest and child sexual abuse
were presented in 6 different languages. They had a wheelchair
accessible office and hosted meetings for groups like the Incest Survivo
s
8
Group, Asian Women Youth Workers Group, and Aurat Shakii exhibition
group.
September 1985, armed cops had gone to Chey roce’s home, in
Normandy Road (Brixton), to find her son, Michae
who was wanted for
and then
She
esponse
armed robbery. Mrs Groce sa
d the cops rammed down her doo
an at her pointing a gun, she moved backwards and they shot her
.In
people mobilized outside Brixtons police station and a group of Black
n cussed out the police., I the pol
was par
lysed and confined to a wheelchair by he
wom wasn't uni e wheeled out a
‘commu ded to deescalate the situation
ity leader’ and a Black priest inte
that the molotov cocktails began to fly.
Decembe
13th 1995, another Black upr
of Wayne Douglas, in police custody. Black lu
fought back against police, ransacked shops and bu
& took place after the murder
apen and their mates
ned cars for
hours.
December 1999, five Chinese restaurant workers, who had had to defend
themselves against a white attack in London’s Chinatown, were
themselves arrested. (This i
cident is a repeat of what happened in a
attack in the same.
June 5th 2001, in Harchills, Leeds the South Asian community stood up to
the police who had beat a South Asian man for having a “Faulty tax disk”,
they organised an ambush using a hoax 999 call, ironically reporting that
a police officer had been struck with a molotoy cocktail, the police arrived
and the insurgents threw molotoy cocktails and stones at them and fought
the police into the night for their friend.
In August 2011, a young Black woman initiated the Mark Duggan
Rebellion by throwing stones at a crowd of police who were looming
9
around at a vigil for Mark, the police responded by beating her and the
owd rushed fight them off. the crowd, in control of the streets st
ned. Only aftc
o ed to
loot shops, that summer the whole country bu a police
h meddling leftists &
did the flames die out
crackdown of an uni ned w
maginable scale coml
the Black liberal counterinsurgenc
In 2016, London Black Revolutionaries and the Malcolm X Movement
released inseets into a Byron Burger restaurant
n
esponse 1o the Chain
ation which led to the
conspi
deporta
ng with border force in a sting op
on of 35 migrant workers
from Albania, I
Egypt, and Nepal.
In 2021, a collective of
adical Black squatiers called House of Shango,
inspired by the legacy of Black revolutionary and squatter Olive Mo
W
distributed frec food and clothing every Sunday in Windrush squ
In 2022, the gover of their own
ment warned of a coming economic
creation, in response Autonomous Black Queers distributed free guides
ting, fare evading and electric meter tweaking.
on shop
On top of all of this, we can't forget the ps
racism on the i
on rebels who fought against
side in our past like Biba Sarkaria or the countless more
that have carried on the tradition since. There are of course, daily little
y
resistances, fights, seuflles. people slacking off at work, stealing from the
businesses robbing us of our money and time.
On the 18th of July this year, in Harehills, Leeds: children were kidnapped
from the home of a Romani family by police on the orders of social
workers. In response the community came out and fought the police
demanding the children be returned, into the dead of night, successfully
fighting off riot police. Bonfires we
sight, though one was extinguished by Mothin Ali, a green party politician
who actually mentioned his uncles getting repressed following the 2001
e lit 1o obscure the police’s line of
10
harehills uprising as the reason why he and his cohort acted as a
counte gent force. The following day the parents went on a hunger
strike and days later the children were released back into their care.
nsu
In Nov
spread on telegram by
enough that the pre existing
amongst the white Irish lumpe
nber last year, viral misinformation following a stabbing was
ascists in Ireland,
aising the temperature just
acism, anti blackness and Islamophobia
. working, middle and ruling elasses could
boil over into an att
mpt to stalk the city center, jumping anyone darke
than a sheet of paper. They failed, with the 2nd night going out with a
ath
whimpe than another bang.
In England, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and “Northern Ireland” we weren't
as lucky. Starting in Southport, then spread towns and ¢
This wave of white violence r
ng o othes
es.
ulted in assaults on racialized people.
stalking of racialized people, the destruction of bu
s used 1o house
refugees, pe
p
attacks on mosques.
onal and private p
om homes to shopfronts, cars
ope
to commur
y helonging to racialized people
ity fridges and nume
rous
The British state,
nder supercop Keir Starmer's “patriotic” & “left wing
leade . the further
ship, gave us cver i
criminalization of self defence, mask ba
creased poli
ce powel
s and the famil
r high speed
court processes Kier was a part of as a prosecutor during the Mark
Duggan Rebellion in 2011 leaving antifascists with little time o defend
themselves in court and the use of the charge of “Affy
ay’ which was
created to curtail anti-police street militaney by the Black communities of
London has been util
ed again 10 a great extent as a tool of repression
Labor and
cen party politicians and their supporters attended some
protests with the sole purpose of preventing anything other than
newspaper sales happening. After all, for many of them it was the fir
time “the left” were in power during a p
can't upset the police when they're ‘on side”
I the near
The extra parliamentary Left complemented this v
nce, a well rehears
Trotskyist led dampener on resista ed prog
peace policing, often go
militant demonstrator
n the police and
ng as fa
. standing in front of targeted buildings for
¢ as standing betwe
photo ops and then bailing when the fascists turned up. Leading people
the wrong dircction (both lite
while projec
lly and figuratively) selling newspapers
nsurgent politic
1
ng a ‘resistance festival’ of white people patting
les were bei
g lobbed at them, a counters
culminating in a collabor
democratic pol
themselves on the back for spe
ation with a group of washed up soc
ans hos
ic
ding weeks bussing themselves into
London to talk to the pol
Finally and in the most dep;
Many
forces with the assi
ssing. but not at all suprising display of all.
adicals™ in the “POC. BAME & ESEA” organising circles joined
& at home’
milationist middle class in advocating ‘stay
and staying “safe” and working with the police to utilize hate crime
neighbourhoods.
legislation to encourage even more police into ou
The antifascist response to the race riots this summer was sluggish in
places. most were blindsided by the sheer number of whites willing to
march arouw acist & islamophobic slogans
d in broad daylight chanting
and how many white youth were willing to smash the windows of peoples
homes because they believed the residents weren't white enough.
However once the ball got rolling, the fightback that “organised”
autonomous anti fascists and racialized communitics across the country
put back were awe inspiring.
Crowds of teenagers ignoring the w
‘commu
nings from the peace policing
ity elders donning what is essentially black bloc and
confronting fascists in the strects, traveling to support communitics in
other towns in response to fascists announcing plans to mareh in towns all
+ for vulnerable
over the region. People fo
membe
ming networks of suppo
oviding cach other with transport and
even seemingly trivial things like checking in on cach other on the
s of their communiti
es.
regular.
However, former Black Panther, Jo! w's comment in an interview a
few years ago about how antifascism can't just be event based if it's going
1o become part of the culture has stuck with me. We have to deal with how
cate
people are facing daily racism and daily policing. We have to o
al programs to help people live with the crushing living costs he
e
Following the dying down of this round of
ace riots, radicals got to work
After
als, in the spirit of the original
ave, which raised £1000 in
supporting those arrested for defending themselves, for exampl
ad
nival, put on a fundr
iser at an illegal
dona
ns despite police
epression.
Weeks ago Romani and Irish Traveler youth were ta
police in a
ceted by Manchester
acially motivated operation and forced onto trains out of the
y o thi
rgeted by police repression with a community center being raided
s of people being a
nter. Soon aft
. the Kurdish community in London were
nd
ested.
Bashar Al Assad was overthrown days ago and in response the British
state & states elsewhere are looking to deport Sy
an active war zone as the civil war and genocidal campaign against Syria’s
cthnic minorities, aided and backed by the Turkish state and its fascist
fan asylum scekers into
proxics is nowhere near over.
of the s
Throughout the histor
has been an
ggles of racialized people here, there
gent tendency who have rejected the pa
ifistic
nst
stewardship of middle class & reformist political groups who constantly
have worked with the police and the government to assert themselves as
self decl;
ed ‘leadership’ of their respective cultures and nationalitics.
»with the race
m as a group is to amplify the voices of this tendenc
ots thi
g a catalyst fo
summer and the us to come
esponse 1o it hei
together. Many of us are either one of the few anarchists in our culture’
diasporic radical community or one of the few peaple who a
vt white
n
our local anarchist scene and as such there’s a need to
cate something
without both of these restrictions, without having to water down anarchist
texts into the often vague language used by seeto
s of the Asian and
Black radical movements o
10 have our thoughts filtered through the all
Is in charge of the majority of anarchist publications
g cool shit, have something to say. knowledge to sha
white editorial boa
L A
Let's work together and burn Babylon once and for all.
hes
e you doi
Mutt, Muntjac Magazine
13/12/24
“Mutt.”is a pen name of a Bajan Mulatto anarchist. linktree/muttworks
"
nwo - The Forgotten so-called Race Riot.
In 1958, at a pub e called
n St. Ann's, Nottingham, pol
10 a disturbance. Eyewitnesses reported that it all ki
e wei
1 response
ked off over the
refusal of service to an inte
acial couple, spar
& a brawl. Some say
involves
over 1000 people we
chaos reets. If you look at the newspape
about “Black violence” and how many white people were injurcd. But
others put it in the hundreds. Either way
s all
lled the st rs from the time,
here's the thing - the evidence points to much of the violence being led by
a white mob,
Let's he clear: this wasn't a race riot like they like o call it, this was a
fascist attack, a pogrom. Black people who we
¢ there say white
individuals from outside St. Ann's showed up, forcing the community to
fight back and protect themselves. The participation of potentially
hundreds of white individuals was historically downplayed. Only through
community accounts and extensive archival rescarch has it become
possible to uncover a clea
rer picture of what really went down. Another
overlooked aspect is the |
weeks afterward.
rolonged police p
eser
e sticking around for
A few days later. another uprising happened in Notting Hill, some say that
this uprising was spired on by the happening in Nottingham, where black
forks had managed to fight off a racist mob. These encounters with white
reactionary violence mark a pivotal time in the black experience in
Britain.
This happened ten years after the first voyage of the Empire Windrush.
The carly immigrants of color in the UK tell a story of exclusion.
Caribbean immigrants faced serious barriers to housing and employment,
despite being invited to Britain 1o address labor shortages after World
War 1L They ended up making homes in cramped Vietor
While the country relied on immij
inally built for mill worke
they were treated like outsiders, unable to access soc
o
1 spaces fr
unable to participate fully in socicty.
The Colour Bar in Britain worked like an informal apartheid, denying
Black and brown people decent jobs, housing. and public spaces. It lasted
in one form or another into the 1980s. Beyond that, they struggled just to
have a normal commuy
And then there were the Teddy Boys —a
acist gang eme
ssed Black and Asian immigrants,
ain areas. People who lived through it
ed on into the B0s. Let’s face it that
ging from white
working class youth e
making it dange:
say this kind of intimidation ca
lure. They ha
ous 10 access ce
same culture seeped into the punk scene of the 1980s. If you
This Is England. you know what I mean.
e eve
Through self defense and resistance, Black and
carved out their own safe spaces. They stood up aga
own commu
es
inst violence and
refused 1o accept their assigned place in a racist hierarchy. It is not a
coincidence that the conflict arose from the
efusal of service of a
interracial couple. IU's obvious that reactionary violence is tied to the
insecurities of white working class social conditions, tools used by those
in power to spawn hate against marginalized groups. For black and brown
people in the UK. Self defense and rebellion became liberatory tools 1o
protect the community. to demand better treatment, and to push back
I bar
against structy ers enforced by the state.
So maybe we need to rethink the language we usc. Instead of calling it a
“race riol.” we should recognize it
s a form of uprising. a rebellion, a
moment of resistance. “Race riot” plays into the same old narratives that
pit both sides against each other. Lets call it what it was: an act of
resistance.
16
Sources:
blackpast.org,/global african history,
pottingham riots 1958
bbe.couk, 207246
libcom.org,
e
k- england nottinghamshire -
riicle/ 1938 nottingham race riots
Micel
o - Untitled
To the rhythm of the spontancous glissando of the nthe
Gershwinian rhapsody. buildings appear on the hor
imagines can be no other thing but Manhattan. An anonymous worke
net
zon of what one soon
enter
nd the
the scene alongside the cha
workday begins. 11
permanence and internalisation of time.
cteristic muted trumpet
first action is. naturally, to check his wateh
nd
minding him of its scarcity
disturbing the everyday routine from the
time itself and transforming it into something that, like any othes
rst minute of the day, slicing
commodity, is consumed.
cets reads
A newspaper flying through the st
white collar worker
through the monste
instruments. A century after its debut, the Rhapsody in Blue has evolved
irst i
i a diner can't pay his bill. A zoo of people moves
city to a rhythm set by clocks and metallie
nce. From its teners in the now defunct
s aud
along with i
Acol
various generations through Disney. in a short ilm that, while celebrating
the history of onc of the most iconic cities for hourgeois societics,
highlights the working elass as the cconomic and driving fo
w's Manhattan, and into
n Hall to the first frames of Woody All
¢ of change,
contrasting th fal and
cultural, with that of the hourgcoisic.
r role in the production of wealth, both mate
This constant bombardment of images and slogans is no coincidence. The
media through which the bourgeoisic disseminates an ideology that
generates a sense of defeat and powerlessness in the face of economic
forces have accompanicd state apparatuses since the origins of hourgeois
societics, disabling worker agency by shaping individual pe
ception into
one that feels powerless in the face of the labour market's blows, halting
the formation of groups that could confront the mechanisms by which the
gap between social classes widens.
18
In Latin Ameri dustri
ca, processes of late
alization at the beginning of
the 20th ¢ stitutional
rous
tury were surrounded by the creation of an
framework cent n. In several Latin American
d on labour exploita
countries, large extraction companics were established in
cgions
favourable to min stil an industrial
& activities. Management began to
capitalist ethic of time and work, and onc of thei
main strategies was to
promote the traditional family structure. Unde: istand
an extrac
patriarchal logic. neighbourhoods, schools, roads, and recreation spaces
were ereated so that new generations could serve the extractivist
re
capitalism that mostly henefited the US. It was in these working class
s that struggles to balance working cond
production centr ed tendeney to defend the right to
communi ions within
s arose, and a ma
unionise spread th
with the neoliberal turn and is now in crisis in many countries. History
om 1971 the € ike in Sal
of Coahuila, on the Mexico US. border.
alii
often happens in Mexico, had a protectionist union aligned with the
gove can Workers
(Confedera M), which helped simulate
oughout the 20th century, same which has declined
gives us an example nsa as illo, capital
The company employed 10,000
worke ne and, as
s. representing 10% of Saltillo's population at the
ament under the Confederation of Mexi
on de 'l de México, C
any contractual
n and protect its own i
23 year old Salvador Aleardz, factory works
terests. Led by
s rejected the collective
M and called for a strike, de
labour agreement with the € nanding a 33%
wage inere that in the medium term,
due to pressur
ase. Initially, they achieved victor
from the government, in collusion with business owners,
the church, and the med; it was
ot undermined. After the movem
dismantled, Saltillo beeame a city where it is common practice for forcign
automotive companies to invest and abuse the economic and political
power granted by the Mexican government and phoney unions.
19
From a classical Marxism perspeetive, unions are seen as having political
potential capable of undoing the progress made by employers and
providing a platform that, in sccking the association of the working class,
ght for the suppression of competition rhet,
en by commodified labour sold 1o corpo all. wage labour
offers means to 1 the ma
dri ations. After
rests on the competition workers have among themselves within the
market, and the pattern of indusirial progress paradosically creates
conditions for workers groups that advocate for sharcd goals.
10 unite
however, nuanced
The optimism with which unionism has been viewed is
within the same Marxist
radition: the nature of wage labou
gencrates
struggles that seek to improve the sale of their commodity (their labous
power) without having revolutionary power to combat capital.
spontancity that union movements may or may not claim is subo
geois ideology and is therefore criticised for deepening worke
idcological enslavement by the bourgeoisic.
he
dinated
S
1o bou
Itis important to nuance the different theorctical readings of the
importance of union movements as engines of radical change v
radi h the
cld expe
the fo
ence in multiple locations. There is no simpler way to explain
aportance of unions than by understanding the need
¢ rights. to push for their own
ch are opposed to those of factory managers. No
. reformism, or state cocreion has removed the right to
unionise. The fact that unions nest in production points gives them a
ion and i
workers have to organise and defend thei
interests. whi
burcaucrac;
fundamental tool in their
battles against capitalism. While not all
des sdiction e
nands can be won within the ju ceted by bourgeois society,
even the most bureaucratic union can ereate cracks that shake employers,
msta
gencrating cir
state. In unionism lics a communal union in spirit, unable to be fully
nces that clash with the imperatives of a capitalist
integrated into the society of which it is a part
20
Setting aside any theoretical debate about the effectiveness of unionism
as a revolutionary fo 1 modern
e, the reality is that class domination
nces in the
societics can be (and is) challenged by collective expes
struggle to defend our rights. In this context, the axis of ac
workplace is revealed as a vehicle through which collective power can
nthe
n
not only change the material conditions of those who offer their labou
power but also revive the collective imagination around better possible
worlds, introduce new myths that allow us to move toward them from
multiple fronts, and defeat current narratives of progress that plunge
sm, obscuring the structural causes of social,
people into a defeatist nihi
cconomic, and environmental collapse.
In Colombia, for example, working women organised to expose the false
1920, four
rgest textile
mpany (Compaia de T
“labou Druar
peace” and perpetuation of gender roles. In F
hundred women a
nd one hundred men from Colombia’s la
factory, the Medellin Text dos de
Medellin). went on strike. After twenty four days of striking, the
demonstrator
won recogni
on of their demands: a 40% wage i
nerease,
the redu
ction of the workday to nine hours and fifty minutes, the
regulation of the fine system, and better hygiene conditions. They also
succeeded in firing supervisors accused of rape and adminisir
ators
hostile to the workers. In Mexico, du
ig the 705, a group of Maoist
workers within the Volkswagen (VW) factory in Pucbla managed to break
away from a corrupt indust
1 union tied to the CTM. They formed an
independent, democratic union, with regular clections and collective
bargaining that improved their working condition
In Septes
increase. In the same month, VW &
nber 2024, this very same union achieved a 1059% wage
nounced the closure of its factories in
German territo
y duc to internal costs. putting more than 300.000
workers' jobs at risk and shifting labour costs to cheaper
showing the neocolonial natu
markets,
¢ of moder
industry
s that today seek to
Among unionist movements, there are various cu
rebu
d the class consciousness that ncoliberalism has eroded. For
different collectives, the urgeney of reclaiming the historical causes of
the workers' struggle has become clear: reduction of working hours,
d working conditions, collectivization of labou
gele,
sistance while undermining the
mechanisms that have allowed the bourgeo
redistribution of
digni
profits, ete. In the search for new horizons of st
s necessary
to rescue the historical vehicles of
state to reinforee a
cads a
production system that not only exploits works
subjec
but also sp
1 the face of systemic
ity that seeks to rende
us inoperative
injustices.
se from
Not all struggles against labour precarization on the peripher;
coordinated union movements: we know that the state a have
ad employers
nt form, is a
nits cur
o opted many unions, that the union figure,
conduit for workers' demands but also a brake on their resistance. We
also know that thousands of workers fight from their daily routine,
individually or collectively, and that on the margins of union
m, they
explore, weave, and form various strategies to build movements that allow
workplaces. Increasingly, o
ing as vital forms of resistance and support for
them to reclaim thei oss horder solidari
y
networks are ems
clandest tonot let
¢ struggles and di
go. 10 not lose the dream of creating independent unions that break frec
from corporate powers.
rect action. We call on every workes
The spirit of communal union knows no borders, and through solidarity
we will be able to resist the storms to come,
ad find platforms to
reimagine ourselyes.
Micelio are a small collective collaborating with independent industrial unions
in northern Mexico. You can follow them on uwitter @MicelioRojo & on
Instagram @micelio_rojo
Harrow Antifascists - Report back from Harrow 07.08.24
Around 400 anti racists came out last night in North Harrow while the
fascist rioters failed to show up at their announced location. If they
had shown up they wouldn't have stood a chance.
Around 100 people joined a p
the local TUC, PSC & Counterfire. On the other side of the junc
partofa
. All of the local
otest with speeches and chants called by
on
around 300 people lined every shop in the high street
community defence group put together at 2 days not
man dem came out and stood alongside the shopkeepers. There was a
very strong turnout
from Mahfil Ali Mosque and many Hindus and Sikhs coming out in unity
and the comm nce stayed out long after the protest fi
1ed o travel to Brentford or Hounslow if fash didn't turn
om the local Tamil community as well as brothers
shed.
y defi
Many of us pla
up. but they failed to show up there as well! The
was a huge sense of joy
e that our community had come out in such numbers
among everyone th
and represented, and that the racist riots we've seen across the country
weren't happening on our patch.
The protest was mostly white and the Community defence was mostly
Black and Asian but the whole community was united. Only a handful of
s of london to
people linked to the activist seene travelled from other par
support and their support was very much appreciated. This is because
most people from the scene were in areas closer to them like Finchley,
y mu
Walthamstow. Stokey and C
oydon. and people up for travelling north
dinstead where numbers wey
e more
west mostly decided to go to Brentfo
needed. Elsewhere in Harrow over 100 brother 1 around
near.
stood gu
me nowhere
ow Central Mosque late into the night and the fascists
Unable to have a mob riot the local fash have resorted to tacti
cs they’
des
ibing as “guerrilla warfare”. Reports have been coming in the past
few days of a liquid being thown on a hijabi wome:
by a white man which
may have heen acid, cars of white people driving round shouting racist
abuse and death threats at POC, bottles thrown over the fence of a school
holding a summer camp and a white van driving around Wembley with a
man throwing acid at Muslim women, white men in balaclavas being
arrested by police in Harrow on their
way to riot and an Indian student
cist attack. The school has been contacted
ighting in
fatally stabbed in a possible
and confirmed there was an incident, other reports such as
Wealdstone are w
confirmed and can fly around at these times but we
know what
taking place.
Aside from a handful of potential spotters and livestreamers too
frightened to film, a Hindutva fascist and confused desi Tommy Robinson
supporter called Tirbhuwan Chauhan showed up, and a lone polish
fascist started shouting racist abuse in the middle of the crowed and
stamped on the foot of a man with his leg in a cast before the fascist was
rescued by police. But instead of arresting him the police guarded him in
ts before bundling him away into a getaway car. Another car d
numbe
ove
pastand a racist punched a protester out the car window before speeding
off but the police did nothing about this. Instead the pol;
ing 1o enforce the seetion 60 they'd put in place and hars
ce decided to
55
cmoving their face coverings. The police couldn't get
ound the fact that the seetion of socicty they
g W
ot. However people looked out for each
their heads ay e so used
toe e the ones who wes
& and stercotypi
e out to protect
vent a
our community and f
other and refused to remove our face cove
ngs and despite threats, the
rest any anti racists or enforee the section 60.
police failed to a
Violent riots nationwide, co ordinated ra
st attacks by lone individuals
and small groups and ars g or
expelling ethnic and religious minority groups is the definition of a
pogrom. The ang
on attacks on homes aimed at massac
of the racists has be
u stirred up by the lies of the
media, influ ans from New Labour, the tories and the far
©
s and politi
right, looking 1o seapegoat and dis
ct
from the oppression of the entire
working class by our ruling clite. If Keir Starmer now goes ahead with his
planned sweep of mass immigration raids then he will be rewarding the
racist rioters, showing them their actions lead to resulis, and ordering the
mechanisms of the state to take part in the pogrom and expulsion of the
most oppressed and targeted seetion of our socicty. For now our mass
community
sistance nationwide may have halted the riots but we may
25
need to utilise our netwo
ks and come out with the same strength o stop
the colon
al racist state from launching deportations and ca
pogrom of the
ry
ng on the
cist rioters.
This w
i written by a member of Harrow Antifuscists, a community based anti
Jascist network which helped organise the local defence group who came out
on in anticipation for attacks by fascists. This was first published on the
Inquilab blog.
Zhachev - Please Stop Demonizing Militancy
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
1o its presence. The erosion of traditional ways of life, the global
1 cultural values, b
imposition of Weste oad cconomi
marginalization, and disruption of social norms can and often do all play
arole in shaping the dynan
s that sustain mi med
itancy. F
struggle, militants are not only fulfilling social obligations to protect their
people and preserve the € a
reconstituted subjectivity, a mili their
¢ culture, but they are also self asser
i individuality, actual
unll cative
dividuals, becoming w
mires of resentment, through action.
her a strict
The militant individual is often one who has experienced e
limitation or a total denial of their individual subjectivity. This suspe
sion
can stem from a variety of source:
including: traumatic experiences,
sacietal expectations, cultural norms, pol
In some cases, the sense of self of the militant is forged in opposition to
ical regimes, and many more.
historical realities and other definitive constraints, some or all of which
may be imposed upon them non consensually
This leads to deep seated
0
resentment and desire for re: nal rest
tance. The expericnce of extes
can also be internalized, with individuals being socialized to conform to
certain so e to adhere 10 these
ietal norms and expectations. The pressu
norms can be overwhelming, leading to feclings of suffocation, and a
ation for change. The desi
self expression- for autopoiesis becomes a means of ¢
re of the militant for self affirmation,
lamation, a
means of asse tence, and i
ng their desires, o
In some cases, the experience of limitation can be particularly acute, like
in situations where ¢
tain groups or communitics 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 desis
e 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 flecting. This sense of urgency can manifest in
a variety of ways, from spontancous outbursts, to acts of civil
disobedi
ul
is an all too h
nce, and even to more focused and deadly forms of violence.
ndividual fo
nately, the desire of the
self expression and autopoiesis
man desire, one that cannot eve
be completely silenced or
suppressed, and by extension the same can be said about militaney. Itis at
the barest a cry for
ccognition, a demand for dignity. a command to he
dividual with potentiality and subjec
heard and seen as an i
matter how different or w
ique.
ession,
The desire of the individual for autopoiesis and self expr
especially through armed conflict, is not only part of the personal jou
and development of the militant individual, but a fundamental
ney
requi
traditional
remes
at for the survival and cohesion of the larger group. In many
nd 1 rmed struggle and conflict a
aining and ensuring the well being of all
bal communities,
e seen
as a necessary means of mai
individual members of the community. Armed siruggle serves as a way Lo
resolve disputes, redistribute resources, and reconstitute social bonds. In
n.
many societics (especially those originating prior to the era of mod
mechanized, total war), warfare is not si
mply a brutal and destructive act,
but rathy al mechanism for maint
a cru
ng social harmony and
equilibrium. It allows for the ics.
clease of tensions and pent up en
and provides opportunitics for individuals to distinguish themselves
through bravery. skill, speed, and cunning, with those who demonstrate
exceptional prowess in batile carning the favor and admiration of othes
individuals within their community. At times, armed struggle also serves
as a way to define (or usurp) social roles and hicrarchics within certain
communities, by community members. Armed struggle is a mes
creating shared experiences and memories which often end up binding
s of
communities together and sometimes even defining communitics and
their trajectorics. The collective trauma and suffering inflicted during
conflict can create a sense of solida
y and mutual understanding among
28
individual members of a community, as they come together to mourn their
loses and rebuild their lives. In this way. armed st
iggle can also be a
catalyst for social cohesion, rath
than only a destructive force and eycle
of
bution that simply tears communities apart
The militant individual is not merely an aberrant o
deviant figure, not a
“yillain', but rather an unextinguishable component of the human social
fiaby e fo
whim, nor a simple act of spitc
condition for the sur
he desi
.
autonomy and self exp
ssion is not a personal
but instead, sometimes a ne
ssary
ala
g of a people.
Zhachey
Zhacher
States. He currently lives and writes from the southern Blue Ridge Mountains.
is a 35 year old Palestinian born in exile in the southeastern United
substack.com/@shacher.
pn. AN ARTIST LOADS THE GUN
To the White Creative Residency Facilitators and Slightly Less White
Residency Cohort at 56A Infoshop,
Understand that this letier is not a pleading missive i
hearts and minds but is a fo
tended to change
you
m that lets me use the aceusatory you.
29
Those of you who make claims upon radical pedagogy and anarchism,
openness and discomfort, care and compl
at: why do you normal
colonialism by prioritising the comfort of israclis?
Why did you feel the need to collectively waft soothing noises at one
person who cried over a ‘Globalise the Intifada’ zine and was fri
by the phrase 'From the river to the sea’> When this p
ghtened
on complained it
isracli
was casier to say they were g ather than in certain
rgentinian
1 wonder what
spaces, 1 heard someone say 'T bet!”in reassuring tones
gl say that ise
possessed them. Why did you take pains to clis
cassu
are welcome in that space and that "we” were behind them 100%? Why
did you appea n the
mind, one heart?
" so very sure that everyone
room thought with one
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 s
ntence, and I wonder: what values and relations did you
think that space was capable of suppor refuses to name
1g? One that
genocide and whiteness, it seems. It s therefore unsurprising that people
istance
we essions of anti-colon
re willing to make cxp
problem,
a
rather than be accountable to the Palestin
We were all in that same room at that moment, which T acknowledge was
abrupt. 1 understand responding under pressure s difficult. However, you
cannot simply explain this fulsome affirmation from the whole group as
merely an imperfeet stress response, a poorly thought out and emotional
moment in group dynamies. I believe what [ witnessed was a severing of
politics from care where the group defaulied to comforting someone who
should have heen 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 orde
i
to interrupt this moment. T just said,
m out 1 got up and walked away.
With comical timing. one of the white facilitator
retreating back I think we can still hold space for this!"
m
called out to my
For what? F
whom? A white colonist throwing a tantrum
refusing to hold space for anything clsc.
by definition
The only space 1 am holdi
the world, and T find in June Jordan’s words a ballast:
g is for Palestine and all coloniscd peoples of
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I COMMIT
TO FRICTION AND THE UNDERTAKING
OF THE PEARL
Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for bb.L
I am curious about whethe
you think the cause of Palestine, and by
extension the struggle of all colonised peoples across the world, is merely
your little |
nding exercise. Do you understand the necessity of actively
refusing cultural or material complicity in zionism and any other form of
acism? Anyone may wear a cute little Palestine badge and go on an
Ato B march while avoiding any critical self reflection about how to
relate 1o the colonised world and its peoples, I suppose for fear of
"black and white thoughts” that may result in the political disce
required to see zionism for what it is and reject it instantly.
nment
This was a situation that required a refusal of the nonviolent
communication we had just heen practising. Those rules don't apply in
this situation as all forms of white supremacy must be run out of our
31
spaces, not coddled and validated. Refusing to understand that white
supremacy currently takes the form of a multicultur
1 project which is
sustained through the active invitation of r
is what under
cialised and ethnicised people
ies this normalisation of zion
sm
n social spaces.
We must contextualise isracli iden
y as we do british, american,
australian, and other colon ies. If we sce zionism as
1 identity categos
alism and adherence to colonialism as a for
color m 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, tact;
s, and emotions
are famili tical of the
1o many of us: upon encountering anything c
al project with which these people still deeply identify. they ery
white tears, centre themselves, act like the vietim, whine about being
unfy
eve
color
ly judged, and their safety while
one else in the room sits in qu
nsist they have reason to fear fo
nalises
t sympathy. This nor
g the idea that "both sides” just need to come
color
alism by reprodu
together &
whatever vapid bullshit
nd talk because everyone's feclings a
cqually valid, or
erals th
ow out like a cosy blanket over thei
desire for order
nd quict.
In the case of liberal zionists, their vision of "peace” is merely a more
capacious scitler colony, a continued apartheid (‘two state solution”) that
gives up the majority of historic Palestine to isracl, a generosity that
allows Palestinians disarmed, docile, grateful 1o live in bantustans. Too
many people only object 1o zionism in its specifically Kahanist form,
overt and gleeful desire to exterminate Palestinian existenee through
n
Dlunt violence. Liberal zionists who o
“anti occupation” / "pro peace”
[dove emoji] but who mainly mobilise through photo op demos and
saturating the discourse with their complainis about how they feel
unf:
ly targeted for criticism, who analyse everything through internal
isracli polities, who fear anything but the most placatory and normalising
much zionists.
gestures from Palestinians and their supportcr
They're just be
. are very
ng wet about it.
But look at the kind of moment saying something wet
ngenders: a
collective betrayal of anti colonial values in response to one person
o
ying. You we
choice: the tea
th
e quickly disarmed by the liberal zionist weapon of
e being attacked that actually,
all about them and their feelings!
ful declaration that they a
moment
Though I am an anxious person who often free;
zes up, 1 knew where my
comrades were:
life
outside of this k Palestini
oom full of people who thi
s worth less than a moment of their discomfo
Igive you my absence and ask what you think could take its place.
“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 sceds 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.’
33
Ismatu Gwendolyn, The Role of the Artist is to Load the Gun’
ismatusubstack.com . the role of the artist is to-load (shared via Isabella K)
You, the resideney cohort, will be sharing your work in the middle of
December 2024, You, who welcome the colonisers you, with no black and
white feel head.
st you, who sit qui
etly and nod you
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 arca when you have decided
that colonial comfort, with its funhouse mirror distortions, is more
ed and reflected;
appealing?
Ibet you insist that it's differ
I bet you can't even see your own faces, blu
ent-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 duc to your predictable
chist about any of this?
willingness to placate racist fragility? What is an
You are in lockstep with the state as you jingle across the floor with your
joster's hat.
o watch your treasures closely. Because we refuse your culture. No sonnets
but shouts of “SHAME!” at you from acros:
the sting of the Wasp’s Nest. No lionising the powerfil, but rather the roar of
Den. And when you are dead. no portraits await you, only us
the street. No stinging critique, but
the Lion's
performing Pis
Ravachol Mutt, Dest
lisorg.uk transmissions destruction s the only-culural-expression left
Aktion on your grave.
wction is the only cultural expression left’
This is a peer eritique. The disruption that Ravachol Mutt calls for is
so1
ely needed in grassroots cultural spaces: these, too, can be hegemonic.
They're smaller, less burcaucratic, the stakes are lower and that
fuse to take risks and cling to
exactly
why it's more disappointing when people
what the ruling class wants us to consider normal. Yes, wipe away the
coloniser's tears and reassus
e them! You've just repackaged the same old
respectability and whiteness.
Ibelieve we should communicate more violently against colonisation. The
failure to do so means ou < centres for
so
fal spaces become like any othes
il cultural norms. The white anarchist, then,
reproducing hourgeois colon
merely becom
s a whimsical academi
c or single issue reactionary, each
their own way nostalgic for something more intercsting than our cur
modernity, which is harsh, extractive, gr
of a changed world is a liberal capitalist garden city in west
but with improved art schools. How our current moder
y. corporate. It scems their vision
1 curope,
ity and all
elations are nou
objects and shed through centurics of stolen colonial
resour ound human and
s and labour-that is to say. of finely g
non human lives-is not something which figures in their analysis. If we
really come down to i
. white ana
chists are mostly fine with thi
fundamental structu
e of their world; they just wish it was all a bit nicer
for them (or at least less
Soitis no surprise that when the colonised subject revolts, certain white
anarchists respond with horros
sympathy, comfort sceking. Decolonial
insurgeney is not a viable political consciousness for them. I people they
see as fellow whites take up armed resistance, it is only their right: ra
ty is naturalised. For anyone clsc, it's b
al
solida baric. The West and the
rest has never been so clear.
Wherever you are, and by whatever means necessary.
nay a thousand
intifadas bloom!
3
tom.
fu had not left that zi
thank you dear comrade
i 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,
P
36
38
MUNTIAC
ANARCHISM DECOLONISED
COMMUNITY SELF-DEFENCE AGAINST
EASCISM AND THE STATE
ISSUE 1 WINTER ‘24
-
linktree/ muntjac
Contents,
03.Sunwo - Against Black Britishness
ntasians
06.naga Fear, Safety and Repres
16. Simoun Magsalin - Notes towards a Decolonial Anarchism for those
Neither Indigenous nor Settler
23 Marion Koshy - Eulogy For Houston SRA
30. Ektin Ekdo - Do we want to protect cach other, or just ourselves?
33. poet of da soil - A 4™ WORLD INNA BABYLON
2
nwo - Agains
For a country partly responsible for sp onalism
oss the globe, Bri
control.
eas
ac
ishness is not just a badge it is a mechanism of
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
people’s
the colonial core has created a form of cultural amnesia. Ou
came here seeking liberation from the chains of colonialism, dreaming of
abetter life. But in doing so, they were forced into a new form of
intercolonialism. Now, we wrestle with the impossible task of fiting into a
culture that negates our very existence and liberation,
What does it mean to be captured, to |
the empire?
Black people in Britain exp oppr
are the least employed, the least paid. and we hold the least significant
ience systemi
positions of power. The
bootlicking their way into the system. We are disproportionately
e exceptions, the tokens, have climbed up by
hments for the
incarcerated, and when sentenced. we face harsher puni
same crimes committed by our white counterparts. The system is
1 criminalises us for it.
designed to push us into poverty and th
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™
es us o work for the
within this system - a dream that ultimately requi
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 | ation. Ou
tory of explo
relationship with the British state is defined by labour: we were brought
e. The Windrush generation should serve as
ne to rebuild Britain after the war
here to serve the dy
alesson i
how we are used. They ca
only to face hostility. deportation, and betrayal.
on of
Today. we see the same pattern in the legally sanctioned
y nmigra
African health a
1d care workers. They are brought here under unequal
purpose
1 d a life. Thei is clear: o
ms. with
mited rights 1o stay and bu
prop up a crumbling system. This unequal exchange, this intercolonial
migration
collapse of British society
reflects the ongoing exploitation of Black labo
1o delay the
Against Brit
Black people must r
ritishness as a core identity. It should exist only
as a condition for administrative purposesa recognition of the reality we
tode
e us.
must navigate. But we cannot allow i
[
been isolated by nationalism. Amey
o aceept Black
ritishness is to fall into the same traps as Black Americans, who have
an Blackness, forged i
1 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 affc
rooted in solidarity with the diaspor
ting Black people worldwide. It must be
conneeting not just Afy
ican
descendants but all Black people subjected to colonial violence, from the
Cari
bhean to the Pacific
Toward a Liberatory Future
beratory Blackness, we must focus on radical cultural a
To build this,
political practices that ¢
g through autonomous formations that coordinate locally
and internationally, sharing radical histo tegics. It
‘ject assimilation into colonial systems. This
means organi
es. ideas, and str
means rejecting nationalism and n all forms.
mpe
Our struggle must be insi
rectionary and disruptive. We must engage in
direct action, mutual aid, and self organisation. Only through ¢
we going to overcome the forees that seck o isolate and oppress us
sisting are
Anti colonial struggle must be fought within the colonial core itself. The
crimes of this country - the systemic exploitation, the racism, the
can only be addressed through the collapse of the ey
that created them. We cannot reform an empi
re
< we must dismantle it.
For Black people in Britain, liberation cannot come through Britishness. 1t
can only come through the rejection of empi
re, the rejection of bordes
s,
and the ereation of a radical, borderless solidarity.
naga - Fear, Safety and Repres
NOTE: In this piece I use the terms "(British) East & South East Asian”
(BESEA) and It names a particular
tendency and group of peaple who engage in such politics. the sort that might
Asian American” in a loose, critical way
self characterise as being "anti-covid hate” or "Stop Asian / AAPI / ESEA
Hate". My comrades and I remain sceptical that a "(B)ESE.
\" political identity
as recoverable even as we sometimes organise under it to do certain thing:
Tam w
ting to sketch out the cu
ent reaction:
basis for community
cs. Instead of continuing
on from cops, we need to
st state
self defence ican and BESEA polit
10 beg for e
conti
nbs of state validation and protect
ue the proliferation of resistance ag: lenee.
We'll begi
as BESEA groups appear to view Asian Am
I a brief description of the situation in the so-called US..
ican activity as somehow
more advanced and it's
mportant to show this is not the case.
om 2021 onwards, vari
Fi ous news articles in the socalled US. ted a
rise in Asian Americans taking self defe
guns. [2] This was in ¢
cpo
se classes [1] and purchasing
ponse to an escalation i
cet violence
racist st
against Asians; the attacks which gained the most media attention created
an
t
rative of white male vigilantes or Black homeless men specifically
geting Asian American women and elders. Anti Black racism is
inh
t to these polities. While some Asian American organisations
might post instagram slides that celebrate Juncteenth or offer
's elear from the rest of
condolences for Black victims of police violence, i
their social media messaging, co ope
state bodies and public fig
ation with similar organisations,
es that their primary goal is assimilating
Asian Americans into the colonial violence inherent to the US state
calisation of such
through the protection of private property. A previous
polit
cs includes the so called Rooftop Korcans, petit bourgeois As
settlers who sought to defend their businesses du
the 905 by attacking Black people 3] Itis the
community self defence is grounded in Asian American "Stop Asian
Hate” (SAH) politics, its participants fill the role of self deputised po
ather than opposing state violence and neglect.
& the LA uprising in
fore no surprise that wh
n
s,
And yet there is a contradiction: for all their messaging that Asians need
10 he responsible for protecting "ow
largely aimed at applying pressure on police to investigate violent attacks
and indeed all racial animus as "hate crimes”. celebrating weighty
own”, SAH social media content is
nes
sentencing that apparently shows the state considers such animus as
inju s own social body. [4] Journalist Esther Wang reported on
such ‘desperate, confused, righteous” polities of SAH in 2022, focusing on
ious 1o nal
the aftermath of Christina Yuna Lee's mu et homeless man
N
take hold — a sense of grievance that was hardening i
der by a sir
tes. "A bitterness was ey
om & nearby encampment. She w nning to
o a polities of
self protection.[5] Her article describes in detail the reactionary bent of
ina Yuna Lee's former landlord ca and
ing a tase
pepper spray in order 1o attack homeless people, community objections to
any housing suppor neighbou
self defense training clubs that espouse theories of racial self interest.
for thei s on the s and Asian
Wang makes clear that whi
understandable oot cause.
e such paranoid
e not solutions to decp societal
responses have an
problems or everyday trauma.
In all this, its made clear the condition of heing made vulnerable to
homelessness
of gentrification, displacement, ~criminalisation and
bric of SAI
he reality of the US. as a settler colonial project and how it
incarceration, is not understood as violent within the
politics
constructs and orders race 1o situate ce
ain populations close o death in
literal spatial terms is seen as merely aberrant, rather than consistent with
its death making project. A slightly more canny tendency of SAH politics
ccent
pays lip serviee to non carceral advocacy, which can be seen in
Stop AAPI Hate statements condemning the killings of Easter Leafa,
Victoria Lee. and Sonya Massey[6] by police which consistently call for
‘in language’ and ‘eulturally sen
des tability’ for this ‘misconduct.” Again, the idea that such
¢ responses to mental health e
ises,
nanding ‘accou
violence is entirely consistent with the state it would
s ot permitted;
interrupt their
ply needs to draw
redemptive fantasy of the state as an all giving carcgive
d child closer to its br
who si Nt
sser
what abolitionist Dylan Rodr
igucz deseribes as the
: "Black on Asian” violence is but one folkdevil used to kick
Exception’
dirt over the tracks of what Rodrigucz calls 'wl
¢ nationalist, domestic
wa ishment of individualised
e totality’ for which state enforced pus
pes s an insufficient response as said totality is 'a) cold blooded
petrators
nselves.
as fuck, and b) doesn't give a shit about individuals in and of thes
[7] Citing critical Asian Amer . abolitioni:
t
an o
ganising by sex workes
feminists, and prisoner suppo
the call fo
1 campaigns. Rod
© practices of
iguez encourages us to
“collecti volt, solida
y. ereativity, and
mutual aid that de p
(Black, Brown, and otherwise) and culti
accountability to other communities, organizations, and movements
oritize condemnation of individual perpetrators
ate infrastructures of
struggling for
al domestic war!
eration from antiblackness, colonial domination, and
asymmetr ws attention to his
Rodriguez consistently dr
own contradictory position within his own academic dayjob, obscrving
that this position is filled with people whose embrace of libe
means they have a 'knee jerk aversion to guns and fircs
al pacifism
ms.[8] Because
they prioritise individual knowledge extraction rather than being open to
collective militancy, these people can be a
cal sccurity risk to movements
who see the necessity of self defense.
You will never find me condemning armed resistance anywhere in the
world. However, as I was researching community self defense in an Asian
8
Ame med
ican context, various critiques came to mind - mostly that
struggle in the socalled US. has become synonymous with US. gun
culture.
For example, Yellow Peril Tactical is an Asian American armed leftist
pro gun rights group with the aim of educating and training people
fircarm handling. ining. and community defense. They also
build connections w armed lefiists groups and med;
n
o tactical tr
I othe:
. sharing
this knowledge through their podeasts. The n
1 reactionary self def
situate their project as
nse. All of this is valuable. However,
intervention
as 1 listened to their discussions, I started thinking that perhaps some
armed leftist groups position themselves as a subset of US gun culture
who wish to explore their militarised hobb
ather than politiciscd
organisations who have strategised the necessity of tal
through their own analysis of the state monopoly on violence.
ng up a
ms
Lalso noted that while there appears to be a willingness to wield cocreive
sits alongside rather limi g at rep
For example, YPT's inaugural podcast episode in 2021 began from the
point of diversifying gun eulture, with one speaker complaining about
how hard it was to be a queer Asian woman in the gun world, and another
speaker chiming in that the c di
1 kept listening. and though I personally felt mildly irritated to hes
couched in te
YPT
supremacist forces dominate the distribution of and training in firearms.
force, this limi esentation,
ed ways of lool
influencers. But
¢ were now mos
erse gun
r this
s of and
‘misconceptions”, "representation” diversity”.
sentially described a serious situation where self deputised white
YPT is also clearly interested in building meaningful solidarity across
borders: they collaborate with various groups, raise funds for the village
of Jinwar in Rojava as well as insurgents in Myanmar, which further
clarifies their politics radically differ from the average liberal.
9
While YPT still proceed from an embedded position in US. gun cultu
they are clear that
rearms are to be used
e situations and share
1 spec
information about different interventions, such as de escalation, and
complement tacy eld medicine. ‘Guns are not a
cal knowledge with f
" YPT write in a recent infographic. [9] This i
talism:
onically echocs a
k people acquire gus
[10] This
esistance,
line in An Anarchist Anti Gun Manifesto: I th
s
beeause of the fantasy of possessing hyper concentrated power
manifesto de naturalises
n armed
the role of guns
o
couraging the expropr
keeping in mind the;
tion then destruction of such weapons while
e arc othe domestic
ways of wieldi
& force i
0 the
Asian American organising is of course much more varied tha
liberal NPI
or ar
ned leftists, but I focused on these aspects as | feel it is
nder theorised.
We now tu
1 to the situation in the UK, which is similarly captu
ency. The same calls for Stop Asi
cd by
counte
s
n Hate rang out with
predictable politics: a so called Demonstration of Unity rally in spring
2021 collapsed due to brave groups|11] and individuals that refused to
work with a speaker who was the subject of the Solid
arity not Silenee
campaign about misogyny and abusc in music/I2] Liberal and
conservative BESEAs do not have working
nalyses of how power
structures function — they think capitalism and its concomitant violences
are fine. their horizon of radical cha
BESEAs. Add to this bizar
exceptionalism with its for
frankly deranged foeus on joy. food, and hate ¢
for whom small business ownership is their family background and
nge being improved access for
self fulfilling, British poisoned Asian
ndational anti Blackness - animated through a
ne by NPIC careerists
political subjectivity — and you have the current BESEA movement in a
nutshell. (Notable exceptions inelude the abolitionist tendency in some
groups within ESEA Sisters; Remember & Resist]13] and sex worker
10
organising such as Sparrow's Wings. not to mention individual Asians
active acs ncluding antiraids networks.)
oss v
ous solidarity movements,
The
uation in the UK can still be neatly deseribed in The Mor
ally later in 2021: 'We asked the police
ally to ensure there would be no breach of peace.
Group’s statement about anothe
1o he present at the
They requested further information and intelligence supporting ou
his was provided to them w request. [14]
cone hin minutes of th
s.
The cur nd
ent BESEA political landscape is characterised by nonprofits
high profile ~charitable individuals in full, unquestioning, cages
<o operation with the state. Everybody circulates around the axis of "hate
o " for which a mo; lance
ime preventior
comprehensive state surves s
the solution. This is their goal and they refuse to see any other approach
as valid, such as the abolitionist strategy of "withi
realistically assessing what happens when the state intervencs in
marginalised commur ablised people[15]
BE om the abolitionist
1
0 and against
ities and situations with vulne
SEAs do not really have values that derive 1
al 10 collaborate with hate crime charities to
ndeney for them, it's rad
del
ver bystander intervention workshops. You won't find them at
copwatch meetings learning about police interventions because that
would mean caring about people other than themselves.
BESEAs are self rightcous about this self interest because their political
identity is based on being uniquely downtrodden and ignored. They don't
historicise Asian identity within the larger context of both colonial labour
and colonial middlemen; they refuse any critical engagement with these
contradictions. Rather, they propagandise narratives of the hardworking
migrant rejected by hoth whites and other racialised groups; they write
exhausting hooks and articles. appear on morning TV segments, ¢
ate
whole exhibitions, circulate a
ound the Having Conversations Industrial
Complex, attend big dos at Buckingham Palace. What is their demand?
Visibility tolerance and increased hate crime data collection. And
afterwards, they'll grab their newest LinkedIn profile pietu
t forth and communities rallied in the
When the pogroms of 2021 by
streets against fascists and thei
newbuild apartments
IAs sat in the
pig protectors, these BES!
cd. They didn't say. 'We're not good in
owds, we can be more useful co ordi
nd ¢
o
ating from home or doing
afterwards’ no. their relation to these streets is not
arrestee suppo
tactical. They exclusively communicate
n a language of fear and
unsafety. This was to be expected of the glossy finteeh and media types,
but a similar response was given by established community services that
support migrants on the ground
reporting service. Commu
share multi ling
affi
prevention” na
: report all "hate erime” to the police or a
on to create and
ices were in a posi
al safe to check in with their members and
y plar
m solida
y with targeted groups. Insicad. the “hate
ative was in casy reach for everyone, and it will continue
me
that way until a viable alter: am for
ative prog:
lling these social needs is
created.
Meanwhile, the state’s border seeuritisation regime continues apace.
nented mi s and refugees experience the
ablisation. They have also be
Undocus
nts, asylum sceke
1 discarded
ses on publi ng
1d the Morccambe Bay cockle pickers within
sharpest edge of this vulner
from the majority of BESEA discou
the deaths of the Essex 39 &
ontextuali
safety
the Hostile Environment would mean understanding the state as
something other than saviour how these social murders are consistent
with its regime/16] - Similarly, focusing on strect attacks rather than how
fascist organising works in tandem with state violence means that both
material conditions and comu
ed. While there is a
g it
1o the suceess of state funded hate erime data collection diverts attention
ity needs are obscu
clear need for multilingual culturally informed support services,
and resources from actually effective solutions.
Indeed, it is not st
aightforward for the public to understand how hate
ime data is actually used by cither pol
o foy
es or reporting services;
thus far there's been no accountability from the "changemakers” who
apparently use this data to make policy changes (for and by whom?)
There are ways in which community groups could collect and analyse
data usi
g an actively caring methodology and robust ethical framework
which targets the root causes of social problems, as shown by the Dying
Homeless project by Museu ] Otherwise. it appears
m of Homelessness 17
that a whole panoply of ESEA community centres and migrant support
services are being funded, wholly o
n part, by the state desire 0 monitos
ana of racial animus by non state actor;
row categor
use of state hate crime data
BE
interactions and eriminalisation of other communities as collateral.
. As one possible
g patrols in certa al
e willing 1o treat increased police
s assign cas, libe
n
SEAs have made it clear they a
ity
There would be some uti EAs encouraging internal
conversations within mij
ant support. service:
1 this hate ¢
. asking them how they
me scheme. If it pays an alrcady
it from involvement i
overloaded caseworker for a few more hou
ant to
aweek, then it's impo
name that this i
not a sustainable solution for making our commun
safer. Our responsibility, then, is to propose things that do work and build
capa g
program carricd out by Asian American organisers in Oakland 18] This
robust, holistic approach fills many gaps. from intergenerational political
ies
ity mediator
ity towards
. One example is the commur
ica
education, Black As ity de escalation, prisoner support, and
housing.
Learning from their organising. perhaps our foundation in babylon would
be propagandising clear, simple messaging that combats the narrative of
distrust and fear. all while balancing an acknowledgement of people’s
feclings of unsafety. Then, we ask people to really co
means. We have to actually listen-even if we anticipate the
sider what safety
answers
won't please us-because it builds trust and can sometimes be su
prising.
cs of the ESEA experience to shared
Then, we beg
1 linking the spec
material conditions 4
ad create accountability to other communities. For
these ESEA migrant sery t might look like
making meaningful connections with groups outside of the cury
ces and commu
ty centres,
ent hate
o
ime. consortium,
neluding but not limited 1o Black led abolitionist
movements, Palestine solidarity groups, community led homelessness
quees
advocacy, trade and renters union:
larity and prisoner
support.
mist as these
I sketch out the above even though it seems almost refo
services are actually trusted by a sizeable propo
on of migrant
communities, especially elders who aren't confident using English. Since
i's impracticable 10 argue against the existence of such services, we can
instead challenge their funding, messaging, and coalitional potential. Ou
fers from that of the so-called US, where the liberal hate
ely exist to
erime nonprofits provide no social good whatsocver: they pi
the poli
e. We have to di
cern the roles that va
us
groups serve in our communities and drive home how the
continued
n in “hate o
ne prevention” fails 1o fulfil that need. This
nd
happens alongside developing our own abolitionist theor
stand
organising. unde i it must be contextualised as buil
global insurrcetionary movement.
ling towards a
The representasian narrative remains so popular exactly because the
messaging is simple and self serving, but it isn't insurmountable. Indeed,
their narrative of ra
1 self interest, bourgeois aspiration, and failed
assimilation as abject vietimhood has stabilised over the past few years.
We know their tricks. We know they're wrong, and we know they're
s
ed. They don't have any new ideas. We want the whole world free, and
we have to make that knowledge completely
esistible.
"
Notes for this piece are available on the muntjac website,
15
Simoun Magsalin - Notes towards a Decolonial Anarchism
for thos nor Settler
e Neither Indige:
ou
In the the anarchism of the
hipelago so called as the “Philippine;
cu characterize their anarchism in terms of indigencity and
older mi
decoloniality. This milieu, represented by their foremost theorist Bas
Umali, appropriate indigeneity and combine it with primitivism and deep
ceology. As Umali
Decolonial processes do not tell you to adopt indigenous culture, but
they do not stop you from doing so cither. The most essential in this
process is awareness. If someone takes action it should be their decision.
120)
(¥Pangayaw and Decolonizing Resistance™, 20
As such, this milieu believes that they are entitled to Indigenous culture
by virtue of having descended from indigenous ancestors. This is not
without controv A comrade of mine eriticizes this line of thinking
g that this appropriation of indigeneity is unjus fally given
sayi . espe
that Umali’s book profited off Indigenous cult hout bringing it back
to Indigenous communities. In this I agree, but what was more
thought provoking was how they initially cha
acterized Bas Umali as a
settler
Now wait a minute, Bas Umali, like myself and many others, are Manilefio,
that is. we live in Metro Manila. The Philippines *does* have settler
colos
jies in many places in Mindanao and the Cordilleras, but Manila
#itself* has no Indigenous people on its land. Or perhaps to say it in
nother way, the indigenous peoples of what would become Manila were
systemati
ally colonized and have become alienated from the
relationship 10 the land. Indigencity is first and foremost a social
relationship to land and coloni cenous peoples continue 1o
on. Ing
exist in the Philippines, and they exist in relation to colonization by
16
Filipinos. But what arc most Filipinos if we're neither Indigenous nor
settle mportation of Ameri minology cannot do fo
? Clumsy an tey
ous
purposes.
Let's start with the
Who in the Philippines arc
Indigenous and who are settle cen million
Indigenous peoples live in the Philippines subdivided into more than a
hundred languages. Many of these Indigenous peoples live on their
rs? Perhaps more than four
stral domains, have a connection to their land, and are actively still
catened by continuing colonization that threatens the ltures
uds. Many of these Indigenous peoples live alongside F
ian) settlers
perhaps be Hlocanos and Tagalogs g
ilipino
ry. These scttlers may
from elsewhe: the coun
.
atrifying Baguio and its environs. o
n M
settlement as a project of
u” Filipinos across unruly and untamed
pes adanao. These settle
haps Tlonggo o
Visayan settle
S
s are
unambiguously settler colonial, thei
ild
onticrs by the Spanish, American, and later post colonial state
t
state by
p
apparatuses. Settl
ng to settle
0 defeati
colonialism also played a part i
communist insurgeney: rebels were offe
Mindanao where they became the shock troops for genocide and
state building. especially against Moro (Muslim) and Lumad (neither
§
g the
d free land to setle in
ristian nor Muslim) peoples and tribes.
With those who have clear positions social relations of Indigeneity and
settler colonialism, identifying settlers and Indigenous commu
somewhat clear. But what about me and many other Filipinos whose
es are
anc
estors *were* indigenous but have become Christianized and
colonized?
1 posit that most of us socalled Filipinos are post colonized subjects,
spec
in o
cally *post-colonized creoles’. We bear the trauma of colonization
e not
collective memory and even in our mixed blood. We a
wholesale colonizer
like White people, but we are not Indigenous either.
Although this does not mean that post colonized creoles do not have the
capacity to *hecome*® settlers we absolutely can when we enter in a
colonizing social relation with Indigenous peoples such as he
in Indigenous land like with Christian settl
[
extent as Indigenous communitic
there are no Indigenous comn
ng seile
in Mindanao or in the
rdilleras. But the point is that we are also not colonized to the same
. In places such as Metro Manila where
ties. however, we cannot characte:
ourselves as settler
s without being in relation to Indigenous communitie
. By
rtue of a
m
As post colon
extension, Bas Umali cannot posi
colonized o
we cannot posit Indigenous anarchi
an Indigenous ana
hism by v
While his concept of *pangayaw® is
ncestry ooted in
Indigeneity, my comrade noted Bas Umali is still divorced from an
Indigenous context and takes *pangayaw* from Indigenous cultur
without giv . however, docs
not
ng back o Indigenous communi
invalidate the value that Indigenous anarchists such as those in the
Indigenous Anarchist Federation (IAF FAI) find in Umal
i's work.)
So the
. what does it mean to be a post colonized subject? What does
mean to be creole? What does anarchy look like in a post colonial /creole
context? What are the prospects of decoloni cd
ation for the post color
ereole? More than just a eritique of Bas Umalis appropriated indigenci
these questions have serious implications for anarchism in the
post colonized and underdeveloped world, particularly for the so called
hilippines and Southeast Asia.
Phil 1 Southeast A
When in contact with Indigenous communities. creoles become settle:
colonists. In this sense, the ideas of decolonization as land back is quite
applicable. Decolonization in this regard is the c
Indigenous lands, the cessation of colonial logic on Indigenous peoples
and their lands, and recognizing Indigenous stewardship.
ole respect of
18
But outside these settler colonial zones, what is creole decolonization?
Historically speaking. creole decolonization was the transfer of
ippines.
ifested when the United States of Ame
al overlord 10 a creole state. In the Phi
sovercignty from a color
this creole decoloni
zation m
fo ppincs its autonomy and later independenc
however, we recognize that the new e
mally gave the Phi
anarchists and abolitionists
ons and features: the
state continued to reproduce many colonial institu atu
ons, the settler colonies,
centralized state apparatus, the police, the pri
the plantation log
Before colon
«
witha ¢
ation the state and its appendages s
mply did not exist
ole decolonization was merely the replacement of a colonizer head
ons of colonizal
cole head, all institus on still in place.
The projeet of decolon
fon s woefully incomplete as long as the state
ing patte
apparatus, creole settler colonialism, and other colon s
clago socalled as the Philipy
es s not
continues 1o exist. The arch
“decolonized” by virtue of having Filipinos in charge of the state
zation as an expli ding.
espe pracess of state bui
fally if we sce colon
In'this sense, decolonization for the crcoles of Metro Manila is the
#undoing* of the state, *undoing* of wage labor, the *undoing* of the
police and prisons. Colonization imposed these things upon us. so
decolonization means the doing away of these things. This does not mean
that decolonization is the return to an Eden before colonization, which is
go back. Rather. decolonization is the
impossible. We can neve
recognition that the structures instituted by colonization are not
iggle for a way
permanent or inevitable features of society and thus st
out
The national democrats and other leflists in the countr
ation is - the undoing of what color
misunderstand what decoloni
did 10 us. They still want “national democracy.” therefore a state, police.
all things
of a Maoist type where the imperialists and their
pr rgue for
sons, wage labor
nstituted by colonization. They &
“national liberation’
compradors are kicked out and a national democrati
national industriali
state oversees
ation, with nationalized industy
y. wage labor, police,
prisons... Decolonization is not thi
capital.
or that group in charge of the state and
But neither is decoloni;
ation for post colonial ¢
of Indigencity. OF course we need to
coles the appropriation
nstate our relationship and
connection to the land and by
Nor
wage labor, police, prison:
i land back for those who are Indigenous.
decolonization *merely* our current society but without the state,
a, but keeping in place the
et cete
anti ccologi al cconomic extract
living.
cal pol ist apparatus and ways of
vism or localism. As
Nor is decolor omantj
i
ization a vulga
blood not only contai
I
creoles, ou ns the marking of trauma, but also of
om China, Amer;
cosmopolitanism. We have roots f
Cebu, Zamboanga, &
cosmopolitanism would also mean the reaffirmation of *interconnection®,
ca, Tlocos, Cagayan,
ation in the context of this
ad Manila. Decoloni
espe nsular enelosure of horders
fally as a hybridity liberated from the i
and the nation state system.
1t is here that we can then sketeh what a decolonial anarchism is for
post colonial ereoles: not just the land bank for Indigenous communitics,
but also liberation from the structures and institutions that colonialism
has put in place and all that entails. Specifically for the Philippines and
Southeast Asia, decolonial anarchism means restoring the
cosmopolitanism of the sea routes and opening the national enclosures.
20
Tmpo
post colonized subjects¥, not appropriative of Indigens
antly, we do decolonial anarchy “*as creoles* and as
Our creolized
cultures may have the traumatie scars of colonialism and Christianization,
but it is not something *merely* the product of colonial state building. It
eflective of a cosmopolitan past as the gateway to China and the
is also
Americas and a resiliency of spi
rit that persists despite the weight of
Empire upon it.
Anarchism and ana
chy may have its roots in the European and Atlantic
has walked around the world even before Le
proletarian milicu, but
reoles like José Ri:
n
did.
al. Isabelo de los Reyes and Lope Santos
ngaged with and took bits and picces from anarchism to inform thei
militane al authorities. Like how ¢ ed colon
ol
againstcolon
populations would indigenize Christiar
indigent nd creolized. Rizal would take point from the Proudhonist
tradition, de los Reyes and Santos would take point from Malatesta (and
Mar
the indigent
ty. anarchism was s
y
red o
). Decolonial anarchism in the Philippines would mean continuing
narchi
ion and creolization of &
ed color
Furthe ial populations would practice may
‘more,
co ronage to
ree from the state. One such
leave the colony to create rebel peripheries
chellion founded
act of rehel marronage with the Dagohoy
communities in the hoondocks of Bohol that lived free from the Spar
colonial state for 75 years. Even the Maoists continue this tradition of
marronage with their own rebel peripherics, though they are not without
problems as they want “national democracy” with their own state.
Howeve
sketching this decolonial anarchy on our own creole
post coloniality is not the same thing as Maoism’s and national
des
wocracy's nationalism and desire for a national state. While we cannot,
of course, dismiss nationalism out of hand, given nationalist decolonial
struggles for common and communal dignity, we cannot also dismiss how
21
leftists use it 1o justify right opportunism with the ranks of the ruling
I
wocracy acted as the left wing of the Rodrigo Duterte’s fascism.
1d should be specific to context, but it must
class on the basis of nationalism against imperialism. This is how national
des
Decolonial anarchism can a
not be dazed by parochial illusions.
nd settle
Decolonization for those neither Indigenous a in the Philippines,
then, is an anas to our nature. It is one tha
of our history and post coloniality, one that moves beyond the nation state
system and restores the cosmopolitanism and hybridity and overcomes
the parochialism of the nation. Decoloni ized
and ¢
1 anarchism is one indig
ed 1o f umstance and context of the people.
chy is one that works hand in hand for la
col the specific ci
Decolonial anay nd back for
those with homelands and ancestral domains, and one that restore
s ow
ad without succumbing to appropriation.
relationship with the la
But decolonial anarchism and anarchy is still a project in flux, not just in
and the global south. These
the Philippines, but ac
oss Southeast Asi
in the continuing conversation on its
notes are only one p
indigenization and creolization.
on SRA
Eulogy For Hou
For the na long time, T opencd my organizing ¢ maj
an_invitation 10 a membership oricntation for another organization,
. 1 received an unexpected message informing me about the
. Texpeeted
however
shutdown of the Houston Chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association
("SRA’
1t wasn't wholly unexpected, the chapter had been bleeding in terms of
felt some sort of so
A mix of emations swept over me, but row.
activity foi
over a year, and for months now, less than a handful of people
attended the weekly meetings. The Chapter Central Committee had put
forth a "death date” that already passed months ago. and I suspected the
only reason why it came now was that everyone remotely involved in
ising; i
ahaze of bur
organ 1 the Houston SRA finally decided to pull the trigger through
out.
1t might be a faux pas as an anarchist. specifically one that disavows left
u somewhat of a sectarian, to mourn the passing of a chapter of
ation. However, it was precisely because of my
ity and i
the Socialist Rifle Assoc
experience in the Houston Socialist Rifle Association that shaped me into
becoming the anarchist I am tods ings of
left unity, and the drawbacks of a burcaucratic socialist organization
1 first hand experienced the fa
through the Houston SRA. Beyond that, T had a long history with the
Socialist Rifle Association in general.
As a brown person in America, [ always knew that my existence was
under threat. Especially as someone who was born after 9/11, 1 was
intimately familiar that because of my brownness, I was seen as a
ud 1
bal abuse and marginalization because 1 vaguely
“terrorist”. 1 was one of the few South Asian students in my school
%
looked "middle eastern”. In fact, a common "joke"
cquently faced v
in my middle school
was that I was "most likely to become a terrorist”, and this pereeption was
23
not helped by my inept social skills which was significantly exac
by my Autism and ADHD.
ow wh
This fear conti 1 Donald Trump got cleeted on a
wed o g
platform of xenophobia. The mask fully slipped off, and it was clear that
1o some, in order to "Make Ame: meant "Make Ame;
ca Great Again',
White Again”. T was 11 years old at the time, and incredibly disillusioned
at the time, I decided that libe able politics for me.
sm was no longer v
A system that fundamentally allowed open white supremacy in
mai
stream politics despite decades of so called "progress” was not a
system 1 could be invested in. I turned towards left wing politics. [
ed this new world view of
searched on the internet fo
spaces that embod;
me across a few subreddits (I know, I was a redditor.),
mine, and 1 ¢
including the Socia ically
myself, "Well,
i
surprise and excitement, I found the Socialist Rifle Association.
t Rifle Association. T speci
f there's a conservative organization called the National
o call thinking to
t Rifle Association.”
fle Association’, the ialis o my
e ought 1o be a So
1 followed the subreddit sinee then, but it was not the catalyst of my
politi i h
likeminded people on other areas of the internet, but I still held the desire
om other conversations
cal - development. That came
1o learn self defense 1
om a left wing perspective. I saw posts praising
community defense organizations like "Redneck Revolt”, and the thought
ed
of leftists actually fighting back against an cmboldened and milita
right appealed to me immensely. T joined a Socialist Rifle Association
pectives on fireai
Discord and mostly lurked there. T gleaned some pers ns
and commu vom a lefiist perspective, and [ was happy o be
ity defense
in a space whe
advocated.
self defense against white supremacy was especially
assoon as |
1 joined the actual Socialist Rifle Association a few years late
ing. it felt important
turned 18, In the aftermath of the George Floyd Upr
21
10 he part of a space that actively taught ma ed people to defend
themselves from oppression. It was almost the biggest space and most
accessible space for that information. After a brief discord video
inte ed the Houston falist Rifle Association.
view. 1 joi
“hapter of the So
Life got in the way. especially as T was starting college. I never became
active until a particularly traumatic breakup,
of my frce time was to be spent organizing. I took stock of all the leftist
nd I decided the best use
organizations I joined at the tim
apter of the SRA.
and 1 decided to throw myself into the
Houston C)
A cos of mine was dr
¢ memor g nearly an hou
with some of my high school f
oag
ds who were also like
n range for a
ange da
minded. We were some sort of affinity group and we wes
excited, but also ves
e especially
scared. We were black
adicalized. We were all very
and brown teenagers, and the day before we all went to Academy 1o get
some ammao for the expropriated 38 Special Revolver that a friend took
from his far right god fathe
We were quite late to the range day, and no one was there to introduce
themselves to us. The range day organizers left us to our own devices, a
bunch of young black and brown teenagers, with 38 special in a plastic
bag to figure out membership. By the time we got to the range, almost
nge day organizers let us shoot the last of
¥
everyone left. But one of the r
his 9mm out of his €
/ Pistol. It was my first time shooting. The gravity of
the situation set in as I loaded the magazine, my hands trembling and my
ne,
palms were especially clammy as T wrapped my hand around the grip.
The comrade who owned the pistol casually showed me how to properly
hold it and how to properly stand. My finger pulled the metallic trigge
and a ferocious bang escaped. and I flinched greatly due to the loud
sound.
There was something to be said about political power flowing out of the
barrel of a gun. As the sl 1d the casing fell on the wooden range
coursing through my veins. I fashioned myself a
evolutionary” at the ng that
6th, the Geo
le reset s
bes
ch, 1 felt pow a
“serious
me. and to me,
was the first
e Floyd
step to living out my heliefs. In between Januar
Uprising, the Pandemic, and other developments, me and my friends felt
like we were preparing to fight on the barricades. After I shot the C:
fi us, flinching like [ had. We also loaded the 38 special and
one by one, shot the revolver
my
iends took tu
- A suceessful
nge day by our me
neel
Afiter that range day. I started regularly attending the chapter
Desparate to throw myself
ngs.
ried off as a notetaker. |
apparently impressed the Chapter Central Commitiee with my usage of
to work. 1 sta
the basic Google Docs minutes sheet template, and I got
the cultu
ned into
c of the local chapte
Lalso helped set up their mutual aid distribution project. It was primarily
going out to encampments and handing out supplics. We were
la
ather
inexperienced so we ended up having to car
fences. over gates, and handi
& out water and other supplics. We cven
handed out canned goods too, which reflecting back on, was
¢ boxes while hopping
well intentioned but rather silly.
Linterviewed people for the membership welfare commitice, an internal
body within the organiz
ng that instances of racism, transphobia, and sexism didn't occur.
ation responsible for mediating disputes and
o
st
Despite this, there were a few occassions were such instances happened,
which led 1o a few blowups within the org. An organization that primarily
organized around fircarm training unfortunately attracts lefists who
cd 10 shed their machismo. T remember a few confrontations
tion over this. This experience taught me to look out for
never lear,
in the organ
such tendencies in organ
ng spaces.
20
The stark differences
ideology withi
1 the Houston Chapter stood out as
well. Everyone from anarchists, social democrats, to hardeore stalinists
existed withi
the chapter and it was the source of a lot of contention
the organization. People often debated both in the voice chat and in the
channels, and it caused further st
rife. Fully committed to left unity, 1
never participated in these discussions despite calling myself an
anarchist, and 1 tried to be amicable with all sides
Afte
Seeretary. T helped organize their biweekly meetings, and started hosting
ange days. Despite being a full time college student, T committed to
hosting biweekly range days. which helped hone my marksmay
I'm especially ely grateful for the comrades
showed me how to shoot, how to clean my guns,
in the usage of fircarms,
i
. 1 was voted ntral Committee as.
1 as part of the Chapter €
zation who
n es
n 1 the organ
ad overall be competent
On asi
milar note, my membership in the Houston SRA helped create
. 1 have cither lost
ng
unatel
many long term relationships. While unfo
fell out
ith some people, I've created a few long last
relationships that exist to this day. Without the Houston SRA, T don't think
contact, o
Iwould have heen as a prolific organizer that I am today.
On a bigger note. it can be argued that the Houston SRA sharcs a big
responsibility in the formation of SCAO. L and a few of the members took
over the Houston SRA's unhoused distribution program, and formed
Houseless Distro, creating SCAO. The lessons 1 learncd from SRA have
definitely transfe
ed over to SCAO. To some extent, SCAO does owe part
of its birth to the Houston SRA.
While 1 spend a lot of this culogy talking about core memories and
positive aspeets of the Houston SRA, 1 think i's important to note its
failings. The constant infighting that happened in the Houston SRA was a
product of the SRA's inherent big tent organizational style. While othes
organi
big tent model, I think that the SRA. through the natu
tion that organizes around fi
tions such as DSA still continue to move forward in spite of its
© of being an
ms and self defense, attracts
organi:
dogmatic people. Furthermore, the constant issues of machismo,
and the usual instances of sexual assault and abuse, that wer
e partic
more dangerous in the context of a
rearms based organization.
The Houston SRA started dying shortly after some of its most committed
members decided that the SRA was too burcaucrati
or not ideological
s that the chapte
e sulted
nough for their goals. This
n several spl
d from. While there were a few mutual aid events. o
never recove
socials, o
eve
range days, they started becoming few and far between.
Personally, my observation of the conflict within the Houston SRA helped
me move past big tent politics. 1 also was frustrated by the constant
and I decided to foe:
scandals coming out of v
onSCAO
ious chapter: s my efforts
stead.
1 know a few comrades that decided to stay and try to weather the stor
Their commitment to the organization even ycars after peak activity in the
chapter is admirable. T am especially sympathetic because they put so
much time and effort to keep the chapter going. However. T think in some
ways, maybe fircarms advocacy on the left has evolved since the
Maybe
the Socialist Rifle Assoc model of organizing isn't as viable or
as it used to be.
popular
An unfortunate by product of the SRA, not just the organization but its
culture cultivated of a sort of left wing gun culture that in some way
mi
ors the right. Fetishi
tool, worshipping the acsthetics of COMBLOC nations. and the idea that
community defense only extends to the individual act of buying a gun arc
tion of weapons as a commaodity rather than a
28
issu
that I saw repeatedly in not just the Houston Chapter of the SRA, or
even the Socialist Rifle Association, but ac
oss left wing spaces that
advocated for armed self defense.
Furthe
more, organizing in Houston is perilous. "Houston” as a region
extends more than 50 miles, and hav
ng a consisient organization that has
ng activitics is a challenge. Organ
come and go. the
the fi
reocen ations and local formations
r days a
e like grass and they bloom like the flowers of
1d. 1 think it might be a bit naive to think that the Houston Chapter
would go on for especially a long time.
Howeve
» I echo the sentiment in the message sent out 1o all members of
the Houston Chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association. The closure of the
chapter is not a loss. It has lead to the formation of multiple local
organ
tions, and it has taught many marginalized people how to shoot,
and how to defend themselves.
Mhat is a feat that is worth noting
itservesa
regardless. While my heart aches at the closing of this chaptes
lesson that organi
mean defeat. We can learn from the failur
Socialist Rifle Asso
ns aren't permanent, and that closure docs not
s of the Houston Chapter of
fon, and come up with questions on how we can do
better by ourselves and marginalized people.
Dare 1o Struggle. Dare to Win.
All Power to the People.
29
Ektin Ekdo - Do we want to protect each other, or just
Do we want to protect cach other, or just ourselves?
The question comes as a comrade writes:
There has never been an anti colonial movement in Britain from colonised
peaple.
Uprisings, sure. Fleeting moments with little support to be found
The Movement .
“No Justice, No Peace” heard on the same streets where those in pow
continuc 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 faseists between the anti fascists & the ‘lonely’ fascist.
“There’s security here and I don't eves
know who they are!” proudly
exc
med by a community ‘anti fascist’ organiser
A protest steward faces a crowd of de ar
sters, tells them solemnly tells
them that the police won't take anyone away
A van drives off with a minor in-tow
30
Instead of sceding you've been ceding and now there's no land left to
grow
orgoto
“Labhor all violence™ said only
%
om 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?
e contradiction at best.
People who love britain, but abhor fa
iscomfort grows, alongside avoidance.
lless.
Conflict continues reg:
Ina world full of still violences, willingness and determination to
distance yourself from violence won't save you, but it's easy and
ist when violence is distant.
comfoy
ng 1o be a pacil
Commu
ity is as necessa
contains.
There are communities beyond what is state sanctioned or aceeptable.
Will we stand on what we mean, or will we muddy things for personal
gain. comfor
1f you let your
cnemies/adversaries or even the people you are trying to
tactics, then who is winning?
move decide or guide you
“What and who are you tr
ing to save?”
If you are speaking fo
self, speak for yourself
Do not speak to condemn me for things you are unwilling to do
Do we want to protect cach other, or just ourselves (and britishness,
inexplicably)?
poet of da soil - A 4™
1" 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 th World by MerriCatherine and Kiksuya Khola
(make maps out of tha ashes - tha ancestors guide us)
33
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, bri
bu
stol and glouceste
n
niggas who brought babylon 2its knees
and they remembe
and they're afraid
its why no matter what u vote these parties all hate immigrants
‘Il see TSG vans at every rally
nship don't mean anything when they can remove it
the casicst way 2 find out if you're british s 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 pe
red training g
itentiaries
mosques decla
but when it comes 2 te;
ro
what 10 august race i
if not PREVENT harassing childr
And 1in 3 BLK mothers dying
And BLK kids are x more likely 2 be sexsably-sssasbed strip scarched
beeause NHS and Met Po
white supr
ferent
but think back
think back
think back
20111985 - 2001 - 1981
flame
eve s pu
1976 carnivals they made pigs scatta by chanting soweto
time 2 make pigs scatta by chanting harcl
by chanting brixton and barking
ng peckham and palestine
tower hamlets and haiti
Is and moss side
chan
o
oydon and congo
postcolonial peoples
chanting world black revolution
and fourth world uprising
36
h world(?)
d world oppressions as a first world problem
eve
curopean country with a black underelass
babylon and that muslim underclass
Tha kweer niggas that know refuge in the erevices of the thi
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
n the ends a pipeline 2 p
st or eriminal
every school
tha ppl called terro
we be fourth world - tryna end tha fi
al colonies
trapped inside inter
while our motherlands celebrate independence
aviour
posteolonial peoples who reject white
the only gods we know are our hands
solida
ty is awkward but tha yutes know it best
2011 or 202
tha real anti fascists - tha trotskyists could neva
we be tha ones that makes devils seatta be i
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 /@poetwar
38