"While we were on the ground in the fight, we didn't foresee how the divergent strategic impulses were contrary to the point of fracture. We couldn't maintain cohesion because the processes became mutually exclusionary. Everyone talked about respecting diversity of tactics but the non-profits and respectable Indigenous organizers didn't want to include radical autonomous actions they had no control over."

From pages 86-87, No Spiritual Surrender, Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred by Klee Benally, in the chapter that discusses the movement to prevent "treated" sewage water used to make snow for skiing on a peak sacred to the Diné people.

I don't really know shit about fuck, and maybe there's a warning here that we (people who haven't historically learned from, joined the struggle of, or validated the experience of Black and other Indigenous autonomous people) might do well to actually listen to.

#NoSpiritualSurrender #KleeBenally #Autonomy #AutonomousAction #NonProfitIndustrialComplex

Today is the official start of my season to encourage the abolition of Xtian supremacist holidays.

Let’s reclaim our sacred, heretical, liberatory spiritual practices, stolen for over 500 years by colonialism, capitalism, states, and yes, Christianity.

#NoSpiritualSurrender
#InDefenseOfTheSacred
#PomegranatesOfPossibility
#RitualAsResistance

For freely gifted versions of readable and print-ready PDFs of a recent zine titled “Ritual as Resistance” to add some inspiration to my encouragement here, see @sheerspite or search for it on the now-dormant It’s Going Down website at:

https://itsgoingdown.org/ritual-as-resistance-18-stories-of-defending-the-sacred/

(photo: the utopia of pomegranates falling from the skies—well, trees—in Athens, Greece, October 2025)

Friendly reminder: I’m still seeking submissions for the next zine I’m curating, titled “Ritual as Resistance: Defending the Sacred.”

Length: 125 words, give or take
Deadline: May 11
Email to: cbmilstein {at} yahoo [dot] com

Please share this “call” far and wide!

I’m looking for concrete examples of rituals you’ve held space for and/or participated in; that draw on your own cultural practices and/or ancestral traditions; that blur the lines between sacred and rebellious, or shake up what the spiritual+political feels like; and especially, that are collectively and/or publicly done. (See fuller description in my previous post.)

Here’s a sample of one that I’ll be using in the zine, as inspiration and to offer a sense of what I want (though please note, I am NOT only looking for Jewish rituals—though we anarchist Jews love our rad rituals!):

“Fascists sticker-bomb your neighborhood. This hurts. Not merely because the memory of eleven people killed at the Tree of Life building—your childhood shul—still lingers, but they’re crafty bigots. They deliberately drop provocative flyers on people’s doorsteps to try to break solidarity between Palestinians and Jews. This inspires you to counter with agitprop. The ritual technology of prayer, in Judaism, allows us to make the most mundane moments holy. The eating of bread and sipping wine. Through the language of our ancestors, we make these acts sacred, connecting us with all who’ve performed them across the axis of time. You arm yourself with new ritual implements: a paint scraper, sharpies, and wheat paste, along with an extending pole for higher spots. Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, even these moments where we cover up white supremacist drek can be holy!”
—Anastasia bat Lilith (@stormbringer_press)

(photo: glimpse of an elaborate, bilingual grief and ritual space that I and three beautifully caring anarchists set up for the whole weekend during the May 2023 @montrealanarchist)

#RitualAsResistance
#DefendingTheSacred
#TryAnarchismForLife
#NoSpiritualSurrender (with love and blessed remembrance to Klee Benally)

#NavajoNation Dishonors Legacy of #KleeBenally: Agrees to #Uranium Transport Through #Navajo Communities

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, February 3, 2025

"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.

"The deadly trucks from the #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain uranium mine in the #GrandCanyon will pass through the #Havasupai's homeland, and then past the homes of #Paiute, #Dine' and #Hopi in Arizona before reaching the dumping ground: The Energy Fuels #UraniumMill in the #WhiteMesaUte Community in Southern #Utah.

"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.

"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai #Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,

"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/02/navajo-nation-dishonors-legacy-of-klee.html
#WhiteMesaUte #EnergyFuels #HaulNo #BuuNygren #IndigenousAction #IndigenousResistance #NuclearColonialism #ReaderSupportedNews #Dine #RestInPowerKleeBenally #NoUraniumTransport #DefendTheSacred #ProtectTheSacred #UraniumMine #NoNukes #NuclearFreeWorld #NoNuclear #NoWar #NuclearWaste #NoMoreTransportationOfUranium
#NoNuclearWeapons #NoNuclearPowerPlants #NoUraniumMining #UteNation #NoUraniumMining #Navajo #Havasupai #GrandCanyon #NuclearWeapons #InformedConsent
#EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife

And last, but not least, not a music video, but a plug for #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender

"No Spiritual Surrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred is a searing #AntiColonial analysis rooted in frontline experience. Klee Benally (#Diné) unrelentingly agitates against #colonial politics towards #IndigenousAutonomy and total liberation of #Nahasdzáán (#MotherEarth)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6wWXP7_KmY&pp=ygUSa2xlZSBiZW5hbGx5IGNvdmVy

Available now from Detritus Books
detritusbooks.com

406 pages | $20
Nonfiction | Paperback
Available in select bookshops.

#RestInPowerKleeBenally #HaulNo # #IndigenousAnarchy
#NoUraniumMining #DefendTheSacred #NoMiningWithoutConsent #DefendMotherEarth #SaveOakFlat

#KleeBenally Honored as #NuclearFree Futures Awardee 2025

via #CensoredNews: "Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of #UraniumMines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the #NavajoNation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, 'No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'" [Order Klee's book at the link at the end of the post.]

In addition to Klee, those honored by #BeyondNuclear include the @uraniumfestival founders #MárciaGomesDeOliveira and #NorbertSuchanek, #SPUdayakumar, #EdwickMadzimure, and #JoannaMacy. Klee's award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/klee-benally-honored-as-nuclear-free.html

Order Klee's book here:
https://detritusbooks.com/products/no-spiritual-surrender-indigenous-anarchy-in-defense-of-the-sacred
#NuclearFreeFuture #UraniumFilmFestival #NoNukes #NoUraniumMining #NoSpiritualSurrender