117.-anarkata-part-2-study-solidarity-spirit-struggle.pdf
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Study, Solidarity, Spirit,
Struggle

‘The Anarkata Turn, pt. 2

Nsambu Za Suekama

10/13/2020
Contents

Reflection One
Reflection Two
Reflection Three

Reflection Four

u

18

22
Yesterday, Indigenous People's Day, was also the one year an-
niversary since the publishing of Anarkata: A Statement. Ireflect
on the work of Afrofuturist Abolitionists of the Americas around
the Statement, I think about my personal journey from the Black
Lives Matter world to the universe of Black Anarchic Radicalism,
and what the Anarkata Turn and can offer to BARs during this
recent wave of anti-police/anti-cop demonstrations.
Reflection One

During the summer of rebellions, 2020, a group of Anarkatas
set a table up ona street corner, hung an RBG/Pan African flag
up, pulled out some bats just in case any transphobes wanted
to pull up and act funny, then sat a riot shield with the sankofa/
"go back and fetch it” symbol on the sidewalk next to us. We
started to plop items on the table to pass out: laundry deter-
gent, tissue, water bottles, some food, and of course masks. We
poured libations and played some rhythms on a djembe for the
ancestors, and we laid a few reading materials called "zines”
out, so people could learn about the mutual aid and revolution
ary politics we was moving in. Folk started to come through, to
grab the resources we were helping to redistribute in our com-
munities. They would dance to the drum with us, chop it up,
rap about radicalism with us, and express a shared belief that
this was "a good thing” to do, and that we had to "show up" for
ourselves, and that in the end "we all we got.” It was real good
vibes, real “kritical kickback” type antics like my crew often
does.

One day, a gentleman approached our distro table, curious
to take some of the supplies for himself. Of course, we let him
know he totally could because “these things come from our
labor anyway, so we should be sharing them among each other”
(as my comrade always says). The man noticed something on
the table as he reached for detergent. “Anti-capitalism, he said,
referring to one of our zines. "What's that?” he asked,

“It's what we're doing” one of my SQuADsiblings said. The
man did not respond favorably to that. "Oh, you're trying to
force something,” he replied, seemingly upset. "Well, no. You're

6
completely free to take the items without reading our stuff” He
‘was told. Which is true, One of our approaches is that we don’t
pressure folk about our politics. At the same time, we will make
it clear how we roll and why and invite others to work through
Black Anarchic Radicalism (BAR) with us. We try not to move
“like a Jehovah's witness” (as one of my fellow cats often jokes),
pulling a little "bait-and-switch” kind of thing where mutual
aid is in forcefully in exchange for either some pamphlet or
stated ideological persuasion. Yet, we don’t move on a "trojan
horse” radicalism either, where folk are not told from the gate
what we are about and why we stand in it.

‘The man proceeded to still argue with us, however. He
compared us to dictators. He started to talk about how anti-
capitalists have taken away people’s autonomy before, He
vibed with what we were doing, but he felt like we should
have simply been building from "love, like Jesus did,” essen-
tially asking us to remove the Black Anarchic Radical polities
from the entire activity. This was not shocking to hear. Our
people are often being told that it threatens our "freedom"
when we move on a political wavelength that consciously
and concretely pushes against the dominant system. This is
why Black revolutionaries of all stripes often get perceived as
people who are angry, vengeful, power-hungry, evil creatures
(especially those of us who are disabled or trans). Our polities
get called dictatorial, authoritarian, controlling, manipulative,
despite all evidence to the contrary, in spite of the fact that it is
mainstream ideology/systems which fits all those descriptions.
‘Then, when bourgeois ideals do make room for our politics,
they always limit us to abstract or affective, empty concepts
like "love" or "treating people fairly” to liberalize what we are
about (that's what the man did).

Liberalism helps to manage revolution, to scare us from im-
plementing the praxis which we understand helps in our collec-
tive journey to self determination. As an idealistic project, ad-
ditionally, liberal thinking will always reduce things to an very

7
limited version of what “autonomy” means. Abstractions like
love are inspiring, but you cannot exactly implement a praxis
that both challenges the enemy and upholds concrete steps
for liberation with just love (especially not when ideas of love
are commonly informed by patterns of submission, coercion,
abuse, etc.) Unfortunately, there are some iterations of anar-
chism which also stumble into these same assumptions, so that
the work which Black Anarchic Radicals do is re-interpreted as
us trying to “impose” something on people because we move
on revolutionary stuff.

‘The news media, and religious leadership, and entreprene-
groes and celebrity/bag-chasing activists, they also push
this same lie about Black (anarchic/autonomist) revolution-
aries. We had a summer of rebellions, where Black people
of many persuasions and backgrounds went and burned
down precinets, attacked police, looted and redistributed the
products, and destroyed property that we do not own yet that
is the basis of our life at the brink of survival and destitution.
All such activity was framed as having come from “outside
agitators” and anyone who encouraged rebellious activity
was accused of speaking about things that were not part
of or in the best interests of the average Black person. So,
Black radicals got painted as malevolent agents obsessed with
“forcing an agenda” onto other Black people. People would
even go so far as to recast our politics as "white like as if
real Black politics can only ever be pacifist, boujie-aligned,
heterosexist, transphobic, and pro-Amerikkka.

How we speak of Black freedom, autonomy must be taken.
out of a liberal/idealist narrative, At the end of the day, Black
people do have an interest in anti-capitalist struggles. And
‘we have our own deep and ongoing histories of participation
therein, Some of us may not be as familiar with the exact
details on why we have these radical tendencies, or why we
need them based on the history and material conditions—but
that does not mean these wavelengths don't exist. And those

8
of us setting the record straight about these facts are not
imposing anything, but rather we bring clarity where it is
needed or asked for. A revolutionary is no more wrong for
sharing the insights of Black radical tradition than a djeli/griot
would be wrong for delivering sacred knowledge to their com-
munity. Both roles are necessary and should be understood as
grounded in the life of our people.

I saw this proven during the demonstrations. A lot of people
who even now don’t consider themselves organizers felt acti-
vated by the economic and other violences they witnessed dur-
ing the pandemic and from the police this year. They decided to
lead rallies, speak outs, protests, and get in touch with mutual
aid practice, and more, Some of them became frustrated with
integrationist and reformist elements in the “activist” world,
who seem to want to improve the system and pursue a seat
at the master’s table rather than burning the master’s house
and developing a better world in its place. Many people began
to appreciate anti-cop/anti-prison struggle and its connections
to struggles against colonialism, and sexism, and against trans-
phobia, against ableism, and they even went so far as to call
out the hypocrisy of the Left who leaves these questions un-
addressed (despite their extreme importance to anti-capitalist
struggle).

‘This did not happen at the same time or same pace or lo
tion for all aspects of this year of rebellions, but it did happen
for many people, for reasons that Black people have a vested



interest in: our liberation struggle. And as people developed in
these political orientations, some of them encountered Black
Anarchic Radicals, like my crew, who could help folk nurture
their appreciation of our struggle, Having spent a bit more time
in theoretical study and practical experience with revolution-
ary activity, BARs could support the age of rebellion by provid-
ing a somewhat more consolidated entrypoint to anti-capitalist
thinking and practices. For me, "Anarkata” is how I help folk
focus these political understandings, methods, and understand-
ings, in a way that is:

1) intersectional, centering the most marginal, especially
Black trans and disabled folk,

2) anti-hierarchical, confronting all forms of domination,
especially the government/State system

3) Pan-African, fighting for all Black lives, throughout the
globe

4) truly revolutionary, confronting capitalist and colonial
society, practice, institutions through class struggle.

All of these stances have become somewhat relevant or im-
portant to Black political discussions in some way shape or
form, due to the Black Lives Matter age, from 2014 til now. This
istrue even in the face of certain things about queemess, hierar-
chy, Black struggle, capitalism that have gotten watered down,
by the liberal organization which bears the name Black Lives
Matter. Ihave directly witnessed that Black Anarchic Radicals,
and the conscious relationship building, education, and sup-
port we bring to our communities, is aiding in the process of
heightened revolutionary, in bringing clarity and setting the
record straight about the real radicalism. That is why one of
my fellow kitties once observed: “the 2020s will be the decade
of wild things Man cannot house”

10
Reflection Two

Now, Black Anarchic Radicals do not lord ourselves over
anyone, by the way. We do not elevate ourselves above
people, as if we are superior. Like Kwame Ture said, "the
job of the conscious is to make (people)... conscious of their
unconscious behavior” When he said this, it was because he
was acknowledging that the so-called “unconscious” (those
who aren't considered "woke" or who don’t see themselves as
such) will strive for freedom. Our people will quickly mobilize
against our oppression, like we have seen with these protests
and uprisings. A cop kills a person and boom, folk are out in
the streets, and social media really helps get that process going
pretty quick. The role of a revolutionary, however, based on
Ture’s reminder, was to simply help those mobilized cultures
of opposition get organized as revolutionary propositions. We
are not imposing, but there is some coordination brought to
the constellation of organic subversive activity. The Black
radical traditions passed down by our revolutionary ancestors
helps us to provide that, and it is important for no other
reason than the fact that we have to somehow guard the lane
against cooption, Our people's everyday anti-establishment
tendencies are like fire within Black life; and bourgeois/colo-
nial interests are constantly working to douse the flames.
Soon as the master sees that the enslaved is ready for smoke,
Man will do everything to keep his power, and the main
way this happens is by preying on ignorance to our history,
the mistakes and victories of the past, or our ignorance to
what is really at the basis of our oppression. Distractions and
promises for crumbs from the table can get real enticing unless

uw
we have a boundary drawn that helps us keep the radical
energy, and consolidate toward autonomy instead of toward
integration/assimilation. In short, there is nothing coercive
or authoritarian or brainwashing or evil about certain folk
helping to nurture the fires being used to burn the plantation;
facilitating a more cohesive understanding of our struggle and
what it takes to get free is extremely necessary and completely
in line with ~ essential to ~ what real Black autonomy is
about.

‘Throughout the BLM age, both within and against the BLM
circuit, there was small-scale/localized community building
that happened with this in mind. Many dedicated, loving peo-
ple held ourselves and those around us to a truly revolutionary
narrative and called us to a truly revolutionary practice. T
remember how I got pulled into this journey.

Twas a young, Christian pacifist. I was doing a lot of arts-
based advocacy around educational inequity and environmen-
tal issues. It was my high school years. And then, one day, Isaw
a young man named Dorian Johnson crying out for the life of
his friend Michael Brown, who the cops killed and left for dead
in the streets. Something shifted for me, and I realized that
needed to look more to Black-centered politics outside of the
advocacy world. There had long been a separatist bent in my
spirit, but it was Ferguson, it was summer 2014, that moved me
to listen to it more. I got involved in a Black nationalist organi-
zation not too long afterward, and I started to seriously move
through the prison/police struggle in a newer, more focused
way.

T wasn't necessarily abolitionist at the time, but I certainly
understood that the carceral system and the courts were about
“keeping poor Black people “in our place” (as my parents put
it) ~ and not about solving crime.

I wasn’t necessarily a communist, but I understood that the
capitalist economy was environmentally destructive at its root,

2
because of its focus on profits, and that it was the basis of Black
people's poverty (and wars and violence) all across the globe.

I wasn’t necessarily a feminist, but I understood that all
kinds of labor in our community was unfairly being pushed
onto women and other marginalized genders by cis/het men
in our community, often without pay, all while respect and
full leadership was being denied to these populations in order
to help straight men feel better about their own suffering on
the plantation.

I wasn’t necessarily an anarchist, but I understood that
the government system was not a universal arrangement,
that other systems existed outside of it, and that this current
system was founded in Europe, on the bones of Indigenous
people, and the backs of struggling enslaved African people in
particular,

Thad a loose, not fully formed constellation of understand-
ings. I still carried it with me into my Black nationalist expe-
rience, as we organized phone zaps to yell demands at politi-
cians, as we wrote letters, as we held conference calls, as we
snitched on racists to their bosses to get them fired, as we or-
ganized relief campaigns in the wake of natural disasters, as
we developed educational experiences about food justice and
other topics. [have met plenty of Black nationalists who made a
lot happen on limited political understanding too. As my under-
standings began to get informed by the practical work, I real-
ized that [had some studies to do. The organization called itself
Black nationalist, but none of us knew what that meant, really.
Thad to learn, During that time I encountered feminist insights
and literature, socialist insights and literature, anti-colonial in-
sights and literature, anarchist insights and literature, aboli-
tionist insights and literature, Practical experience along with
study helped my understandings consolidate into principles,
and principles began to turn into methods and frameworks

Eventually, [was being considered for leadership in the orga-
nization I was part of, most specifically as someone who could

1B
engage in political education. I was bringing Assata Shakur,
Malcolm X, and Huey P. Newton into the equation, because
I started to notice that, while the organization claimed to be
Black nationalist, we needed to get to a cohesive basis on what
that was supposed to mean. I wasn’t trying to force homogene-
ity, but I knew that we needed ideological unity to address all,
of the transphobia and misogyny and the liberalism/reformism
that was present in the organization. I could relate to those
people who didn’t show up with a fleshed out set of princi-
ples, methods, understandings about Black radical traditions —
because I had not either — but it was also apparent that lead-
ership in this organization wasn’t doing a good job helping
facilitate that growth for people. I had matured into that pro-
cess somewhat independently (with help from a few sibs); but
a complementary process, an actual implementation of clear
revolutionary ideas was missing overall.

‘This became apparent to me once the organization had to
discuss whether we should distance ourselves from the BLM
organization or continue to organize through that banner.
Some felt like it would be a strategic mistake as BLM’s name
had a lot of visibility we could use; other people in the
organization thought we should because the organization had
donations from white rich folk. Disagreement in
healthy and vital, but in our formation, the lack of ideological
basis meant our disagreement was all over the place and got
nowhere, so that some people (mostly straight men) began to
identify BLM with right-wing narratives about George Soros
and a “gay agenda while others (mostly straight women)
began to link it to politicians and hopes for legislative or
electoral gains for us. I realized then that Black nationalism
could be simultaneously conservative and progressive, but
still not revolutionary, and that gender issues were a central
conflict in why that was a problem on either side. I tried to
infuse our organization with more political education around
both feminism and Pantherism, to address these issues and

ctivism is



4
move us toward a more radical orientation, but ultimately I got
burnt out by the cisgenderism/binarism of the organization
and the role that played in its bourgeois ideological inertia,

While I had hoped that I could guard the lane against
bourgeois tendencies, I could not effectively do so when I
also lacked a thorough basis in revolutionary politics. Yes,
I had been studying, and held certain leanings (feminist,
anti-capitalist, anarchic, anti-prison), but as yet I had not
grown into a materialist proposition to ground these oppo-
sitional modes of organizing. I might have been trying to
educate about Black radical traditions in the organization, but
also lacked a firmer grasp of what they had to offer, and I
lacked a community of folks to study with and arrive at those
conclusions with, [also had my own contradictory willingness
to build with other bourgeois institutions to some degree
(such as nonprofits). This limited my capacity to explain and
effectively challenge some of what I was seeing wrong in the
Black nationalist organization I was part of,

‘When I left Black nationalism and moved into Black Anar-
chic Radicalism, I gained that community of revolutionaries,
and it was this move out of political isolation that helped
me grow in my principles, methods, understandings. It was
Anarcho-Pantherists, Insurrectionists, Pan-Africanists, and
Fourth Worldists who taught me, who I learned with and
from, who I also began teaching. They introduced me to
transfeminism and mutual aid and militancy. We learned
about Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Marsha P. Johnson, Claudia
Jones, and Lucy Parsons.

Studying with these revolutionaries helped to clarify why an
abolitionist politic made the most sense for Black liberation. It
moves us toward autonomy and self-determination when we
take charge of our safety from the prisons/police who only ex-
ist to suppress us.

Studying with revolutionaries helped to clarify why wom-
anism makes sense for Black liberation, It moves us closer to

15
autonomy and self-determination when we center the over-
looked, the vulnerable, the most disrespected, those at the bot-
tom of hierarchy.

Studying with revolutionaries helped to clarify why disabil-
ity justice makes sense for Black liberation. It moves us closer
to autonomy and self-determination when we remember that
all our bodies and brains are valid, that itis institutions which
exclude us, that we are not failures deserving to be warchoused
or killed, but people who get to take the resources we need to
live our best lives.

Studying with revolutionaries helped to clarify why trans/
queer struggle makes sense for Black liberation. It moves
us closer to autonomy and self-determination when we
understand that the basis of a community's power is not (hny-
per)sexual reductions, not making love nor romance either, or
any visions of anatomy and biology taught to us by colonizers,
but the material organization of society.

Studying with revolutionaries helped to clarify why Pan
Africanism makes sense for Black liberation. It moves us to
autonomy and self-determination when we remember that
our bodily captivity would not be possible without the earthly
captivity of our Homeland, and that liberation of both from
nmillitary rule through communism is essential to the life of our
people and our plane.

And studying with revolutionaries helped to clarify why
communism makes sense for Black liberation. It moves us to
autonomy and self-determination when we make sure that
the means of production, how we use and move around the
earth's resources, are not in the hands of a ruling few who
can force us on a hamster wheel just to survive, all for some
market and money that don’t really exist.

Finally studying with revolutionaries helped to clarify why
anarchism in particular makes sense for Black liberation. Be-
cause it moves us to autonomy and self-determination when,
as Kuwasi Balagoon said it best, "the society as a whole not,

16
only maintains itself at an equal expense to all, but progresses
in a creative process unhindered by any class, caste or party”

Now I could integrate my experiential knowledge, and the
principles, methods, understandings I already had and had
gained ~ and merge with a vision of where our power lies, how
to take it back. Understanding how oppression contradicts
the root of our empowerment, and what would ensure our
empowerment in its place, is what it means to harness a
revolutionary proposition around our cultures of opposition.
‘To know both what we are fighting against and what we fight
for.

7
Reflection Three

Looking back, I am sure that if I had had a contingent of
Black Anarchic Radicals with me, as I was rolling through the
Black Lives Matter world, we could have shook things up in my
old Black nationalist organization. We would have been able
to struggle together with our kin about important ideological
questions, and guard the lane against integrationist (both con-
servative and liberal) practices and thinking. Regardless of my
‘own experience, however, I know for a certain that there were
many Black Anarchic Radicals who did shake things up in the
BLM world. I can tell from the events I witnessed in this up-
rising that many Black Anarchic Radicals have been helping
make it clear that just because BLM called themselves “lead-
erful” and “decentralized” didn't make them anarchist, or just
because they had queer women leaders did not make them fem-
inist or queer liberationists, and just because they were criti-
cal of socialism did not mean they weren't actually bourgeois
agents.

Even as Black Anarchic Radicals spend time setting the
record straight like this, other Black Anarchic Radicals feel
that an additional element is needed to further build the move-
ment work we are nurturing. A complementary approach,
something that augments, supports, elevates these necessary
smaller-scale struggles and upheavals. This approach would
add some more popular education and mass level activity to
the equation. It would hold a mosaic of genuinely Black, anar-
chistic, and radical understandings, principles, methods in the
air for interested people to look to, learn from, adapt, imple-
ment, challenge while they are building from/within/against





18
the BLM age. This approach would help with making clear
what anti-hierarchical, intersectional, material approaches to
anti-colonial/anti-capitalist struggle looks like. More people
will be thirsty to get that clarity anyway, and have been
thirsty for it. Because Black people will be trying to take up
anarchistic politics for themselves and on their own terms due
to the material conditions of today:

"Surface level changes in the laws/politics and
even cultural consciousness of global society have
failed to fully guarantee us freedom, even if we
have a few measures of safety. Over the last few
decades, we have begun to experience a wider
and wider gap between rich and poor all over
the world, and mass environmental destruction,
as well as steady genocides against our people
through the corporations, prisons, police, hos-
pitals, schools, and the military. Representation
of our people within white systems/media has
not promised us anything worthwhile at all,
and often times our representatives betray the
interests of the collective for their own benefit.
And xenophobic narratives continue to be sown
in our communities in order to divide us so we
can throw our most vulnerable siblings under the
bus and betray each other. Many legal protections
are often denied anyway and even being rapidly
taken away. All of this has left our people and
the entire planet vulnerable to death and desti-
tution, And meanwhile, the liberatory traditions
that were so impactful in the 60s/70s, are still
being suppressed and marginalized — labelled
‘terroristic’ and suffering widespread repression.”

‘That augmenting force, as I understand it, is what the
Afrofuturist Abolitionists of the Americas have been calling

19


“Anarkata” But it goes by other names, and could shift and
change moving forward as the struggle continues. The Afrofu-
turist Abolitionists of the Americas helped put out Anarkata
A Statement to give us a taste of that approach. As we read
in the Statement: "The following document is ... intended to
be a jumping off point for anarchic Black radicals to cohere
our diverse thoughts together... We hope that [the Statement]
is used to better inform and enrich the local Bla
work already taking place.”

Anarkata is not meant to be a label all Black Anarchic
Radicals claim; and the Statement is not a sacred text speaking
for all our experiences as revolutionaries, But both the term
“anarkata” and the Statement are a launching pad for helping
people begin to lean into a Black Anarchic Radical conscious-
ness they may or may not have already been considering,
but without the liberal/whitewashed confusion that the word
“anarchism” has historically run into. This confusion is what
wwe see, again, when the “outside agitator” narrative is thrown,
around to discredit Black unrest or when BLM uses the term
“decentralized” while still being part of the nonprofit industry
and holding onto a de facto hierarchy.

‘The “Anarkata Turn” is here to play a strategic and popu-
lar/mass-oriented role, to help Black Anarchic Radicals already
doing the necessary work in our local/organic contexts of dis-
tinguishing fake anarchisms from the real deal. This fact is
proven not just in my own experience, but in accounts that
Thave heard from individuals who are not part of the Afro-
futurist Abolitionists of the Americas and do not build in our
immediate circuits. Most specifically itis kitties from the rust
belt regions of the country who have reported being looked to
for some sort of guidance or more clear insights about Black
autonomy. Folk are coming to them for support in building
radicalism away from the snares of nonprofits, historical “Left”
organizations, and other institutions which claim to be Black-
centered, or anti-hierarchical, or revolutionary but then end up

k anarchist



20
failing the most marginal of Black, especially trans, disabled, in-
carcerated, immigrant working/lumpen class individuals. This
happened for my crew all throughout the summer of rebellion
and itis a process I foresee happening again as more unrest and
upheavals overtake this kkkountry at the hands of the Black

I believe there were more organized and radical as well as,
intersectional (margin-centering) upheavals in this 2020 wave
of BLM protests than the earlier wave precisely because of the
sustained relationship building that Black Anarchic Radicals
have continued to do. [also believe that if we merge that neces-
sary local work with some degree of popular education and at-
tempts to build some kind of mass-level autonomist culture, we
can really push the struggle forward even more. That is what
Anarkata means for me, in an age when anarchism is becom
ing increasingly relevant to Black rebellion and revolution, but,
is mystified in the popular imagination.



21
Reflection Four

When I'm out doin street work, and I'm building with folk
in the shelters or who are housing insecure, and we are chill-
ing and laughing, and we are learning together and thinking
about our struggles with property, police, prisons. And we real
and serious about some of the ways we can imagine address-
ing these contradictions. Where there is talks about riots, talks
about taking over stuff — about re-appropriating spaces for our-
selves. Talks about growing food, talks about educating our
kids by our own authority. And talks about fighting rapists
rather than bringing sexual assault narratives to police who do
nothing about it anyway. Talks about developing safe houses
and escape plans for domestic abuse victims. Talks about us-
ing susu practice specifically to orient resources toward our
disabled and elderly community members who often get over~
looked. Or talks about forming cooperatives to meet our mate-
rial needs outside the boujie boss-worker relationship. When
wwe rap about these things, an "Anarkata” wavelength, even if it
doesn't speak to all aspects of my Black Anarchic Radical think-
ing and experience (for example, I am heavily influenced by
‘Third Worldism and Wynterian counterhumanism), it helps me
tie together helpful reminders about radical action in one place.
So when we rap about these things, an "Anarkata” wavelength,
even if it doesn't speak to all aspects of my Black Anarchic
Radical thinking and experience, helps me push conversation
towards Black autonomy and self determination. Especially for
folk who might be completely unfamiliar with Black radical tra-
ditions altogether, an "anarkata” wavelength can help me say
to folk that I'm connecting with that in whatever we do, how-

22.
ever it looks, if we are wishing to move toward autonomy and
guard the lane against integrationist failures, we will need a
basis in four things: study, solidarity, spirit, and struggle.

1. We will need to actively develop cultures of learning that
strive both to develop revolutionary consciousness while
also striving to undermine hierarchy within us at every
step. Study.

2. And our community work must be grounded in concrete,
‘material support for the most marginal, from our own
authority, by us, for us, from below. Solidarity.

3. Third, we will need to get somewhat consistent with
routines and rituals for rest, recuperation, healing, and
wellness because this allows for sustainability and
nurturance as we participate in revolutionary activity.
Spirit

4, Finally, we must train for and practice various ap-
proaches to personal and community defense, striving
to integrate militaney with care work and Black
feminist/Disability justice as well as transformative
frameworks. Struggle.

A taste of how to implement these four pathways (study,
solidarity, spirit, struggle) can be seen in the Anarkata Praxis
section of the Statement. It starts by first naming the organic,
autonomist activity already happening among houseless Black
trans and queer folk. It suggests that we ground ourselves in
what communities are already doing, and it asks us to begin
“consolidating” these “cultures of opposition” into a "revolu-
tionary proposition.” This implies relationship building and ide-
ological struggle, from below, but starting with those on the
margins. The free initiative and leadership capacity already be-
ing catalyzed by Black trans women and other maGes in par-

23,
ticular is highlighted first, from radicals or non-radicals, and it
is suggested we support and unite there.

While doing this, making accommodations for disability,
and helping to grow access and accessibility — these become
foundational, essential. It is suggested that any spheres of
activity that we move on as Black Anarchic Radicals be those
affecting disabled Black folk, and that in all our revolutionary
movement building, Disabled leadership, care work, and
working to meet one another's needs is grounds for our radi-
calism. Mutual aid, which is now a buzzword, unfortunately,
is brought into the equation. Rather than just being a crisis
intervention tool, or just a replacement for charity, mutual
aid is used in the same vein as "survival pending revolution”
programs, With STAR and the Panthers as inspirations, mutual
aid suggestions in the Statement has a focus on both solidarity
economics and political education. Importantly, mutual aid
arises from an understanding that the government's welfare
programs are part of, as the BLA noted, the same "protracted
war" (with the cops, prisons, hospitals, schools) against our
people. Mutual aid in that sense is about demonstrating
what we can/need to do in real time, helping us raise our
understanding of why we need aid, and showing up for each
other concretely (especially those being failed by the system
the most).

It is while doing the above ~ engaging marginal cultures of
intervention, community work, self-activity, accommodation,
accessibility, and implementing mutual aid practice - that we
then begin to talk about militant self defense. Self defense
here is framed as guarding against both internal and external
threats, The internal threats: bag chasers, entreprenegroes,
clout chasers, boujie niggas, neocolonial puppets, sellouts,
"Black faces in high places” and all the abusers, the trans-
phobes and homophobes, violence against children and in
the home, predatory gang cultures that betray the proto-
revolutionary roots of many Black street organizations. The

24
external threats: of course, the nazis, KKK, neofascists, and
related groups, but also the cops and all law enforcement, the
military included. Each has to be addressed concretely and
through frameworks and strategies, and the Praxis section
names a few suggestions

“keep the peace” brigades, domestic violence
intervention, communal foster care, emergency
shelter for abuse victims, localized emergency re-
sponse crews, martial arts classes, armed QTGNC
brigades, freedom schools that protect our kids
from the school-to-prison pipeline, modern under-
ground railroads, and communal arms training.
police watch groups, self-defense brigades, mar-
tial arts classes, and community arms trainings,
[slubterfuge..”

Clearly this is a holistic vision of defense, that can be ex-
panded upon to address medicine and food concerns, childcare,
and others. In this way, the Praxis section shifts away from the
tendency toward fetishizing gun violence in revolutionary cir-
cles. But, the Praxis section of the Statement does not shy away
from the question of armed struggle: it suggests the need to pri-
oritize giving arms to non-cis men and marginalized genders
over cis men. It also affirms the history of blagillegalism, where
Black folk have turned to means outside the law to pursue lib-
eration, including theft and expropriation of resources from
bourgeois institutions to return to the people (on some robin
hood type antics), and riots, sabotage. The Statement speaks on
armed struggle from a decentralized perspective, rather than a
centralized and hierarchical approach; it also highlights why
revolutionary leadership has to spread the capacity thereof to
others, especially through political education.

Political education encompasses practical, theoretical, and
experiential knowledge and can be gained through strategic

25,
mobilization or other direct action as well as study. In this
decentralized complex, the Praxis section suggests free asso-
ciation, local approaches, horizontalism, direct democracy,
cross-regional collaboration,integrated with flexibility to
discern when more or less rigid formations have to be erected
or disbanded based on material conditions.

None of these offerings are exhaustive but they are surely
a wide-ranging account of multiple different Black Anarchic
Radical methods, principles, understandings being put in con-
versation with each other. The point of suggesting these forms
of praxis is so that, working together, we might catalyze revolu-
tionary activity in the cohesive (rather than atomized) fashion
that the simple reminders "study, solidarity, spirit, struggle”
signifies. Too much revolutionary community work of today
has fallen victim to the capitalist habit of isolating certain vari-
ables from the totality they operate in, reducing one factor to a
consequential or inconsequential factor they may or may not
play. Sometimes this is because people might take a preferred
from of praxis they are more skilled for, comfortable with, etc.
yet participate in it without linking or coordinating as part of
a larger holism. The Anarkata Statement is therefore also ask-
ing Black Anarchic Radicals to correct some of our own sub-
jective errors, idealist approaches we might be taking in our
immediate work, because none of us have everything , and the
atomized, isolated approach hinders our growth.

‘There are, of course, more ways to catalyze Black Anarchic
Radical activity than have been pulled together in the State-
ment. The Statement is simply an offering. And it has proven
useful during the summer of rebellions. When abusers got
outed in movements, when Black cis men got called out for
jumping a Black trans woman at a demonstration, when other
Black trans women continued to be to be attacked during
the uprisings, when the blue check and blavity blacks pulled
up to shame rioters and push their opporcoonist bs, when
‘Trump declared illegality of anti-fascism and anarchism, when



26
militias began to invade protests to hurt and let out gunfire
on our people, when the liberals came thru to push their Vote
Biden and Kamala nonsense, when demonstrators throughout
‘Africa and the Carribbean took to the streets against police
brutality, ecocide, and other struggles abroad and in solidarity
with us — the Statement and the Anarkata Turn in general
helped provide a space to think about diverse Black Anarchic
Radical perspectives on these issues.

Black Radical Traditions as a whole have enough responses
to these things, to push us toward Black autonomy. People
should ground themselves in these various Black revolution
ary tendencies, getting familiar with them. And also, if you
are looking for a certain political frequency that helps you pull
Black revolutionary alternatives into conversation with each
other, for the modern context of struggle, in a way that sup-
ports the local/on the ground struggle of Black anarchic radi-
cals ~ that’s what Afrofuturist Abolitionists of the Americas’
work around "Anarkata” is here to help us do,

‘And we do it for nobody but the ancestors, the nomads, the
priests, the pirates, and for the gworls, the street queens, the
maGes, the rioters, the hood niggas, the single mamas, and all
the wild Things that Man cannot house.

And for all those forgotten and unprotected

for all those who cannot love or live as themselves freely

all those who fought and died for our freedom,

for all our people, wherever we are, and our homeland, and
our planet

and all beings, even those who aren't human, and all those
treated as less than human

for all those whose brains work different and whose bodies
work different

and all those in prison or on the street

and for all power to all the people.

27
The Anarchist Library
Anti-Copyright

Nsambu Za Suekama
Study, Solidarity, Spirit, Struggle
‘The Anarkata Turn, pt. 2
10/13/2020

hittps://redvoice.news/
study-solidarity-spirit-struggle-the-anarkata-turn-pt-2

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