"...However, too many in the current anarchist prison support tendencies have united with (...transcriber can't hear the word here sorry) left sectarian tendencies, and instead of fighting the state itself, have gravitated to mere support for certain prisoners, and given up the militant line of razing prisons as a whole.

The united states since the 1970s have created the largest prison system in the world, as has been pointed out. When I was in that prison system, and at the time it was 350,000 prisoners at most, and now we've got it in the millions. Even if we just count prisons themselves--we just count prisons and not jails, and not immigrant detention centers, you know, youth or whatever. If you add all this stuff together, you may be talking about 7 million people. But just as far as the penitentiary system, we can say that there are 2.3 million people in the american prison system.

But where has the mass outrage and protest been? Well, it's been swallowed up by academics, corporate financed social justice groups, and white radical protest groups. Prison abolitionists have lost their way from fighting mass imprisonment, to calling for and accepting reforms with authoritarian leftists-- anarchists, I'm talking about. We should be rallying people all over the world in opposition to american state slavery, and building a revolutionary civil war to overthrow the carceral state. Not just holding it up to public ridicule. Only by smashing the entirety of the state itself, especially the american empire, can Black people and all oppressed people be free..."

--excerpt from Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin speaking on The Black Autonomy Podcast, Episode titled: Prison Abolition and Struggle Against Mass Imprisonment.

https://blackautonomy.libsyn.com/prison-abolition-and-struggle-against-mass-imprisonment

#Abolition #PrisonAbolition #Autonomy #LorenzoKomboaErvin #BlackAutonomyPodcast #Anarchism #MovementCapture #Cooptation

"The very means of class control by the rich is the least understood. White supremacy is more than just a set of ideas or prejudices. It is national oppression. Yet to most white people, the term conjures up images of the Nazis or Ku Klux Klan rather than the system of white skin privileges that really undergrids the Capitalist system in the U.S.

Most white people, Anarchists included, believe in essence that Black people are 'the same' as whites, and that we should just fight around 'common issues' rather than deal with 'racial matters,' if they see any urgency in dealing with the matter at all. Some will not raise it in such a blunt fashion, they will say that 'class issues should take precedence,' but it means the same thing. They believe it’s possible to put off the struggle against white supremacy until after the revolution, when in fact there will be no revolution if white supremacy is not attacked and defeated first.

They won’t win a revolution in the U.S. until they fight to improve the lot of Blacks and oppressed people who are being deprived of their democratic rights, as well as being super-exploited as workers."

From Chapter 1of Anarchism and the Black Revolution, subheading "Defeat White Supremacy!" by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin

#LorenzoKomboaErvin #Anarchism #WhiteSupremacy #ClassReductionism

"Many whites believe this lie of reverse discrimination against white people. This belief is embraced by many duped white workers, who consider 'reverse discrimination' to be at least partly responsible for the economic problems so many of them are suffering from today. Such beliefs propelled Ronald Reagan to his two terms as U.S. president. Reagan tried to use this racist propaganda line to precipitate a rollback in the civil rights gains of oppressed nationalities.

The racists claim the concept of reverse discrimination suggests the wholesale discrimination against Blacks and other racially oppressed groups is a hoax. Baldly stated, the idea is that the passage of the 1964 Civil rights Act ended discrimination against Blacks, Latinos and other nationalities, and women, and now the law is discriminating against white people. The racists say racial minorities and women are the new privileged groups in American society. They are allegedly getting the pick of jobs, preferential college placements, the best housing, government grants, and so on at the expense of white workers. The racists say programs to end discrimination are not only unnecessary, but are actually attempts by minorities to gain power at the expense of white workers. They say Blacks and women do not want equality, but rather hegemony over white workers.

An Anarchist anti-racist movement would counter such propaganda and expose it as a ruling class weapon. The Civil Rights Act did not cause inflation by 'excessive' spending on welfare, housing, or other social services. Further, Blacks aren’t discriminating against whites: whites are not being herded into ghetto housing; removed from or prohibited from entering professions; deprived of decent education; forced into malnutrition and early death; subjected to racial violence and police repression, forced to suffer disproportionate levels of unemployment, and other forms of racial oppression. But for Blacks the oppression starts with birth and childhood. Infant mortality rate is nearly three times that of whites, and it continues an throughout their lives. The fact is 'reverse discrimination' is a hoax. Anti-Black discrimination is not a thing of the past. It is the systematic, all pervasive reality today!"

Anarchism and The Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Chapter 1 under the myth of reverse racism

#LorenzoKomboaErvin #AntiRacism #Anarchism #WhitenessIsViolence

"I have always felt that underground guerilla movements like the Black Liberation Army, Weather Underground, and New World Liberation Front should have attacked fascist movements and assassinated their leaders. If we cripple the fascists in this fashion, we can smash the entire right and begin to smash the State. This is the only way to stop fascists. Death to the Klan and all fascists!"

#LorenzoKomboaErvin in Anarchism and the Black Revolution

How the Capitalists Use Racism- From Chapter 1 of Anarchism and the Black Revolution, by #LorenzoKomboaErvin

"The fate of the white working class has always been bound with the condition of Black workers. Going as far back as the American colonial period when Black labor was first imported into America, Black slaves and indentured servants have been oppressed right along with whites of the lower classes. But when European indentured servants joined with Blacks to rebel against their lot in the late 1600s, the propertied class decided to “free” them by giving them a special status as “whites” and thus a stake in the system of oppression.

Material incentives, as well as the newly elevated social status were used to ensure these lower classes allegiance. This invention of the “white race” and racial slavery of the Africans went hand-in-glove, and is how the upper classes maintained order during the period of slavery. Even poor whites had aspirations of doing better, since their social mobility was ensured by the new system. This social mobility, however, was on the backs of the African slaves, who were super-exploited.

But the die had been cast for the dual-tier form of labor, which exploited the African, but also trapped white labor. When they sought to organize unions or for higher wages in the North or South, white laborers were slapped down by the rich, who used enslaved Black labor as their primary mode of production. The so-called “free” labor of the white worker did not stand a chance.

Although the Capitalists used the system of white skin privilege to great effect to divide the working class, the truth is that the Capitalists only favored white workers to use them against their own interests, not because there was true “white” class unity. The Capitalists didn’t want white labor united with Blacks against their rule and the system of exploitation of labor. The invention of the “white race” was a scam to facilitate this exploitation. White workers were bought off to allow their own wage slavery and the African’s super-exploitation; they struck a deal with the devil, which has hampered all efforts at class unity for the last four centuries. The continual subjugation of the masses depends on competition and internal disunity. As long as discrimination exists, and racial or ethnic minorities are oppressed, the entire working class is oppressed and weakened. This is so because the Capitalist class is able to use racism to drive down the wages of individual segments of the working class by inciting racial antagonism and forcing a fight for jobs and services. This division is a development that ultimately undercuts the living standards of all workers. Moreover, by pitting whites against Blacks and other oppressed nationalities, the Capitalist class is able to prevent workers from uniting against their common class enemy. As long as workers are fighting each other, Capitalist class rule is secure.

If an effective resistance is to be mounted against the current racist offensive of the Capitalist class, the utmost solidarity between workers of all races is essential The way to defeat the Capitalist strategy is for white workers to defend the democratic rights won by Blacks and other oppressed peoples after decades of hard struggle, and to fight to dismantle the system of white skin privilege. White workers should support and adopt the concrete demands of the Black movement, and should work to abolish the white identity entirely. These white workers should strive for multicultural unity, and should work with Black activists to build an anti-racist movement to challenge white supremacy. However, it is also very important to recognize the right of the Black movement to take an independent road in its own interests. That is what self-determination means."

#Autonomy #AntiRacist #Anarchy #TheInventionOfWhiteness

While a state prisoner, #LorenzoKomboaErvin read for 10 years about anarchy (in part because of meeting Martin Sostre who was also imprisoned at the time) before starting to write Anarchism and the Black Revolution.

Learned this on the Black Autonomy Podcast, episode titled, "Live From Detroit: Black Anarchist Legacies Part I."

#BlackAutonomyPodcast #Abolition #Autonomy #Anarchism

Two weeks from today Firestorm will have the honor of hosting an incredible online panel for the release of historian Garrett Felber's new book with AK Press. "A Continuous Struggle" chronicles the life of Martin Sostre, an under appreciated legend in the history of anti-prison and Black freedom movements.

Garrett will be joined by writer William C. Anderson ("The Nation On No Map") and revolutionary elder Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin ("Anarchism and the Black Revolution"). Together they'll discuss Sostre's incredible life and legacy as a jailhouse lawyer, revolutionary bookseller, yogi, mentor and teacher, anti-rape organizer, housing justice activist, and original political thinker.

Don't miss this event! You can sign up and find a copy of "A Continuous Struggle" at https://firestorm.coop/events/3372-the-revolutionary-life-of-martin-sostre.html. Can't make the event live? Register anyway and we'll send you a recording when we post it!

#BlackFreedomMovement #BlackAnarchism #PoliticalPrisoners #BlackPower #FeministBookstore #PrisonAbolition #MartinSostre #LorenzoKomboaErvin #FirestormCoop (- L)

Grupo de Estudos Lucy Parsons
Depois de tanto tempo, a Biblioteca Terra Livre volta a fazer mais um grupo de estudos. E olha, que saudade que estávamos de encontrar pessoas e debater e conversar sobre anarquismo!

Dessa vez, escolhemos nomear o grupo de estudos, e o nome escolhido foi Lucy Parsons. O nome da céle
https://bibliotecaterralivre.noblogs.org/post/2023/09/21/grupo-de-estudos-lucy-parsons/
#GrupoDeEstudos #AnarquismoERevoluoNegra #GrupoDeEstudosLucyParsons #LorenzoKomboaErvin

Think of a little piece of land, ten feet on a side. What could you do with that? Live on it, for one thing, with no need to pay anyone, landlord, bank, or government, for the privilege. Unfettered access to even a small piece of land can immediately double your income or allow you to work half as much. ... You could conduct all kinds of economic activities, support yourself and maybe your family. Make your contribution to the dazzling, intricate, miraculous informal economic life of Los Angeles without risking everything by breaking laws ... What if a whole community had unfettered access to a bigger piece of land? What could they do with that?

https://chez-risk.in/2023/06/23/the-nose-the-grindstone-and-the-monkey-wrench-how-we-can-build-autonomous-economic-zones-in-los-angeles-without-changing-a-single-law/

#LosAngeles #LA #LAPD #Anarchism #AnarchismAndTheBlackRevolution #LorenzoKomboaErvin #MunicipalPolitics #LocalPolitics #Capitalism #TheRulingClass #PoliceAbolition #Abolition