International Statement: We Denounce the Imperial Offensive on Venezuela

This statement was prepared and signed by member organizations of the Latin American Anarchist Coordination – Coordinación Anarquista LatinoAmerica (CALA). Black Rose/Rosa Negra (BRRN) was invited to sign the statement as a sibling organization.

The Latin American Anarchist Coordination and sibling organizations condemn the threats of direct intervention in Venezuela by the US government, driven by the Trump administration.

These attempts and threats of intervention are not isolated incidents, nor are they a temporary response to alleged problems of “security,” “drug trafficking,” or “terrorism.” On the contrary, they are part of a long history of imperial interference in Latin America and the Caribbean, the effects of which have systematically fallen on the oppressed peoples and classes of the region.

The story is well known: every time the United States has invoked these pretexts, the result has been social devastation, loss of sovereignty, and violence. Panama in 1989, Iraq in 2003, and multiple interventions in our region show that this is not about “defending democracy,” but rather about political, military, and economic control. In the case of Venezuela, these threats come on top of more than a decade of economic blockade that has hit the daily lives of the people hard, deepening shortages, precariousness, and the deterioration of material conditions of existence.

In this respect, it is essential to emphasize that imperialist aggression does not punish ruling elites, but instead falls directly on the popular sectors. Blockades, sanctions, military intimidation, and financial suffocation are not “surgical” tools: they are mechanisms of economic warfare that seek to break the resistance of an entire people, discipline them, and force them to accept a subordinating order.

A recent and striking example of this logic is the act of piracy and blatant theft of a Venezuelan oil tanker by armed US military personnel, which was detained and appropriated under the protection of unilateral sanctions. Beyond the legal technicalities with which Washington attempts to justify these actions, what is evident is an exercise in modern piracy: the use of military, judicial, and financial power to appropriate resources. This is not only an attack on the Venezuelan state, but also a direct aggression against the people, because every shipment seized, every asset retained, and every property confiscated deepens the living conditions imposed by the blockade.

What’s more, their disregard for the lives of the people is evident in the absolute ease with which they launched explosives at fishing boats off the Venezuelan coast, taking away not only those people’s livelihoods, but also their lives and their right to defend themselves against unproven accusations. The massacre was televised and celebrated by those at the top.

These types of actions clearly reveal what the “international order” defended by the United States means today: a system in which major powers arrogate to themselves the right to decide who can trade, who can produce, and who deserves to be punished. International law is selective, flexible for allies, and brutally rigid for those who do not submit. In this context, the seizure of ships, the freezing of assets, and economic sanctions function as weapons of war, even though they are presented as administrative measures.

The recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado follows the same logic of cynicism and double standards. These types of awards do not express universal values, but rather geopolitical alignments. Far from representing a genuine defense of the rights of the Venezuelan people, this recognition operates as a political gesture by imperial powers toward a leader who has openly endorsed sanctions, economic blockades, and threats of intervention. The Venezuelan right wing, far from offering a way out for the working classes, thus presents itself as a necessary partner in a strategy that deepens social suffering and dependence.

The explicit reappearance of the Monroe Doctrine in recent US government documents and statements only confirms this course of action. The old slogan “America for Americans” — that is, for Washington’s interests — is once again being asserted without euphemisms, reinstating the idea of Latin America as a natural zone of domination. This threatens not only Venezuela, but all the peoples of the continent, by legitimizing interventions, economic pressure, coups d’état, and the forced alignment of governments that stray from imperial interests. A prime example of this has been the Trump administration’s unprecedented intervention in Argentina in recent months, specifically in domestic economic policy, the foreign exchange market, and even the electoral process, giving a sudden boost to Milei’s government.

In the current context, the United States is no longer an unchallenged power, but it remains a central player in a world order based on violence, plunder, and imposition. Its growing aggressiveness also reflects its own internal crises and its need to reaffirm its control over strategic territories rich in oil, minerals, water, and biodiversity. Latin America, once again, appears as the spoils and rear guard of an imperial project that remains deeply dangerous.

Defending people’s self-determination—dominated, exploited, and oppressed classes within so-called “national” contexts—does not imply idealizing governments or denying internal contradictions inherent in the Venezuelan process, of which we are critical, but rather rejecting foreign intervention outright and affirming the right of every dominated, exploited, and oppressed class to fight for the improvement of their destiny without threats, blockades, or occupations. In this sense, we affirm that organization in the face of this situation cannot come from above or be delegated to state structures, but can only be built from below, through popular organization and the direct participation of those who sustain daily life under conditions of siege.

The case of the looted ship, like the economic blockade as a whole, shows that imperialism does not seek to “correct” governments, but rather to subjugate entire peoples through hunger, isolation, and collective punishment.

In Venezuela, as in the rest of Latin America, even amid the difficulties caused by bureaucratization, limitations, and tensions with the state that tend to weaken grassroots organization; communes, territorial spaces, and forms of popular organization sustain daily material and social resistance in the face of the blockade, shortages, and imperialist aggression.

Our struggle goes beyond the borders imposed by states and unites us with all oppressed classes. The imperialist government of the North has taken a xenophobic, racist, and persecutory stance toward migrant communities within its territory. The attack on Venezuela is ideologically based on the racism that is inherent in the US state—as in other states—and that radiates internally and externally in favor of the dominant classes of that country.

In the face of this offensive, as anarchists we denounce the US government and maintain that the solution will not come from stronger states or disputes between powers, nor from the so-called international organizations created by and for states, but from the construction of a strong people, organized from below, with political independence and a real capacity to contest power.

The history of Latin America shows that every advance of imperialism has encountered resistance even in adverse conditions. This sustains dignity and the capacity for a collective response. It is the material basis of popular power from below.

In the face of imperialism neutrality is not possible. Either you are on the side of domination, plunder, and war, or you are on the side of the oppressed.

Our commitment is long-term but clear: to strengthen popular organization, deepen resistance, and build from below an emancipatory horizon for the oppressed classes of the world.

Imperialism will not pass!

Long live those who fight!

Coordinación Anarquista Latinoamerica (CALA)

• Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) – Uruguay
• Federación Anarquista Santiago (FAS) – Chile
• Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira (CAB) – Brazil
• Federación Anarquista Rosario (FAR) – Argentina
• Organización Anarquista Resistencia (OAR) – Argentina
• Organización Anarquista Tucumán (OAT) – Argentina
• Organización Anarquista Cordoba (OAC) – Argentina
• Organización Anarquista Santa Cruz (OASC) – Argentina
• La Tordo Negro – Organización Anarquista Enterriana – Argentina
• Organización Anarquista Impulso – Argentina

Sibling Organizations

• Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN) – USA

International Statement: Solidarity with the Struggle Against War in Sudan

This statement was written by members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra’s International Relations Committee and endorsed by member organizations of the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism (ICOA).

Black Rose/Rosa Negra continues to work closely with members of the Anarchist Groups in Sudan (AGS), supporting their organizing and education efforts on the ground.

With the fall of el-Fasher in Sudan, the world has seen a terrifying glimpse of the unfolding genocide in Sudan. Out of the authoritarian reaction against the 2019 Sudanese revolution, twin monsters have emerged which are devouring the country, leaving bloodstains large enough to be seen from space.

More than 150,000 people have died in Sudan since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) began fighting a civil war in April 2023. The war has forced 12 million from their homes and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In the RSF’s assaults, Black, dark-skinned, non-Arab people are being targeted again and again, betraying a racist and genocidal intent behind their quest for control.

The capture of el-Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen large scale sexual violence carried out against women and children. Healthcare facilities and workers are being targeted. There are reports of young women being rounded up and assaulted. These patterns mirror what we have seen in past genocidal campaigns.

While the news is dominated by the genocidal rampages of the RSF, on the other side of the front lines the SAF has been carrying out killings, disappearing activists in prison, and allowing Islamist gangs to grow and terrorize the people. Although there is more stability in the SAF-held areas, it is the illusory stability of a blood-drenched dictatorship.

In the face of these ongoing atrocities, we hold up the memory of our four comrades from the Anarchist Group in Sudan who were martyred in el-Fasher: Faisal Adam Ali, Radwan Abdel Jabbar (“Kahraba”), Adam Kibir Musa and Abdel Ghaffar Al-Tahir (“Al-Sini”). We call for active solidarity with those struggling for peace in Sudan. As our comrades said,

“Direct struggle against power carries a steep price: our lives and our freedoms. Your comrades in Sudan chose not to remain silent — that is the nature of revolutionaries. We want peace and call for peace and the rejection of war, yet the most horrific expressions of racist authority in Sudan, imperial domination, and international rivalry are manifesting themselves. Therefore we ask you to expand support campaigns worldwide: our comrades have a right upon us — their defense of el-Fasher is a defense of all revolutionaries.”

Governments that claimed to support a ceasefire, including Egypt, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and others, have failed in their promises and have done nothing to protect Sudanese people. What happened in el-Fasher was expected because no meaningful action was taken.

When Sudanese people try to flee for safety from the terrors of conflict, they face hostile borders across North Africa, Middle East, Europe, and anywhere they turn. The border policies of countries that refuse access to Sudanese refugees, condemning them to starvation and massacre, must be seen as a key component of the ongoing violence. And in a moment when Trump is simultaneously ending Temporary Protected Status for South Sudanese while welcoming white Afrikaaners as supposed victims of a fantasy “genocide” in South Africa, the racist underpinnings of this border system cannot be denied.

Still, the Sudanese people are resisting barbarism and carrying forward the fight for freedom even in these conditions. Despite the harsh conditions, the resistance is alive in Sudan, through the remnants of the revolutionary neighborhood councils, independent militias, and soup kitchens. Our comrades in the Anarchist Group in Sudan represent a revolutionary militancy that was forged through the revolutionary struggles before the civil war began in 2023. Those outside Sudan should work to not just oppose the war, but to make practical connections with the independent organizations of the dominated classes in Sudan. We specifically call for Anarchist solidarity and support to the Anarchist Group in Sudan.

The war in Sudan could not continue without the involvement of external power. For generations Africa has been the site of colonial contestation, with foreign governments dividing up the natural resources of the continent for their own benefit. The colonial approach to Africa continues in full force to this day. However, with the decline of the US’s global hegemony, the space is now opening for newer regional powers to scramble for a piece of Africa. The main external engines of the bloodshed in Sudan are Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which support the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE – home of Dubai and Abu Dhabi), which supports the RSF, and appears to be the biggest foreign power in the Sudanese civil war.

The UAE sends limitless supplies of drones to the RSF, and what it takes home in return is very clear—about $2.3 billion of gold taken from Sudan in 2022, along with agricultural products and other natural resources. While Sudanese starve and die, there are billions of dollars of gold being smuggled out, funding another profitable war for global capital. The UAE’s complicity in genocide in el-Fasher is clear, and it does not come as a surprise from a country that was still using Black African slave labor up until the mid-20th century, and continues to rely on the super-intensive racialized exploitation of Black and South Asian migrant workers.

While the RSF has no offices or embassies, the UAE has political and business interests around the globe. With tourism accounting for 13% of the UAE’s GDP, global public opinion can have a material impact on their economy and force them to rethink their foreign policy decisions. The UAE knows that it needs to continue diversifying its economy away from reliance on oil revenue, and so invests heavily in improving its public image to encourage tourism and investment. For example, the “Dubai chocolate” craze was carefully promoted by the UAE government so that when people think of “Dubai” they think of luxury and exotic treats, not of a repressive dictatorship built on slave labor at home and genocide abroad. Working class organizations can target the visible outposts of UAE interests to draw attention to their role in anti-Black genocide, puncturing their fake self-promotion narrative and causing a powerful economic impact.

Of course the UAE is not the only complicit actor. Our comrades have reported that UK-made weapons have found their way into Sudan, likely via the UAE. We must pressure all states to enact an arms embargo on countries that are supplying the warring sides in Sudan. The UK also has a historic complicity, as the anti-Black racism of the RSF forces builds on the legacy of Britain’s divide-and-conquer colonial rule in Sudan.

Through the Palestine solidarity movement, we have seen that the real key to international solidarity is building the organized power and political consciousness of the working class. Without the power of mass organization, international solidarity becomes the same small circle of activists moving from issue to issue, “raising awareness” without creating a material impact. The docker strikes in Italy were made possible by decades of class struggle. But the dedicated, slow, rooted organizing of class power through many struggles built the capacity to put meaningful international solidarity into practice. The most effective thing that we can do for freedom in Sudan is to fight for revolution at home against the global racist imperialist war machine.

With the global solidarity of the dominated classes and our revolutionary organizations, we can support our comrades struggling for freedom and survival in Sudan, stop the genocide, end the war, and continue the unfinished work of the Sudanese revolution.

Signed by members of the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism:

Black Rose / Rosa Negra (USA)

Midada (Switzerland)

ACG – Anarchist Communist Group (Britain)

Embat (Catalonia)

Die Plattform (Germany)

UCL – Union Communiste Libertaire (France)

OAC – Organización Anarquista de Córdoba (Córdoba, Argentina)

FAR – Federación Anarquista de Rosario (Rosario, Argentina)

OAT – Organización Anarquista de Tucumán (Tucumán, Argentina)

ORA – Organización Resistencia Anarquista (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

OASC – Organización Anarquista de Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, Argentina)

La Tordo Negro – Organización Anarquista Entrerriana (Argentina)

–

And by the Anarchist Group in Sudan

From Black Rose Anarchist Federation

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=25535

#africa #anarchism #blackRoseFederation #especifismo #sudan

International Statement: War Between States Means Death for the People

The following is a statement written and endorsed by members of the Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA) and sibling organizations across the Americas, including Black Rose/Rosa Negra.

Violence in the Middle East continues to grow exponentially. The war profiteers, the main partners of neoliberal capitalism, impose death on those below, while they become richer with the investments of their States. This action is actually a strategy of world domination, of appropriation of wealth and territories, of oil and gas… and a great windfall for the interests of the arms industry.

The United States, along with Israel – its partner in this onslaught – spread their ideology of arrogance, intimidation and violence. They don’t need a complicated narrative to spread it, it’s enough to stoke fears of nuclear war and to put forward a few slogans: “good against evil,” “the fight against terrorism.” The media and social networks, controlled by these same interests, reproduce this ideology and censor dissent.

After allowing the puppet state of Israel to carry out unlimited attacks on Iranian territory, the United States has now entered the conflict. This marks the realization of an obsession held for decades by many members of the U.S. ruling elite: the desire to overthrow the Iranian regime. This obsession stems from the strategic defeat the United States suffered in 1980, when its chosen puppet was overthrown during the Iranian revolution. But more significantly, it is driven by the new imperialist strategies the United States is trying to advance. These attacks on Iran—led by Israel, the United States, and NATO—are taking place while China, as a consolidated power, and Russia, a state constantly seeking European power status, wait and play their hand in a scenario of overflowing international tensions and an exponential increase in class struggle.

Before the world’s wide open blind eyes, the Palestinian territory is devastated and its population exterminated. A besieged area, an apartheid.

Now, Iran is being attacked, a regime that is troublesome not because it is autocratic but because it does not follow imperial interests, and because it is also a key geopolitical area in the Middle East. Iran defends itself but its civilian population is massacred.

New technologies of war proliferate, always to the detriment of the people. New generation drones and missiles that hover over the defenseless population, over children and the elderly… Technology so ‘precise’ that it does not find terrorists, but thousands and thousands of innocent victims every day.

We must also remark on the absurdity of the situation. Those who dropped the atomic bomb yesterday are the guardians of ‘peace’ and ‘democracy’ today. The presumed legitimacy of international institutions, such as the United Nations, breaks down as we observe their absolute inability to intervene in these conflicts.

Moreover, not only do these institutions not serve to defend oppressed peoples, instead they offer legitimacy to those who make war, as we have seen in the most recent G7 statement, which holds that Israel’s attacks on Iran are its right to self-defense. In other words, by attacking Iran, Israel is getting its hands dirty against a state that is advancing in nuclear capability, something that pleases the countries of the global north because it keeps the current hierarchical structure of the international system untouched.

What is clear is that this is the most vile and cruel face of capitalism, a new historical stage of articulation that captures the worst of lived experiences, but that tries to mask itself, sometimes, in the name of democracy and freedom–while at other times more plainly raising the banner of white supremacy.

We are facing a system of death, but we know that in the face of oppression there is resistance. That the people suffer, but also rise up. That international solidarity manifests itself in mobilizations in various parts of the world and that a clamor has arisen to stop this genocide. And that in the face of so much barbarism, we anarchists are outraged, we are in solidarity, but we also propose to fight for a new world.

WAR BETWEEN STATES MEANS DEATH FOR THE PEOPLE!

STOP THE ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN GAZA!

STOP THE U.S. AND ISRAELI WAR ON IRAN!

Signatories:

Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA)

• Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)
• Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU)
• Anarchist Federation of Rosario (FAR)

Sibling Organizations of CALA

• Anarchist Organization of Córdoba (OAC)
• Anarchist Organization of Santa Cruz (OASC)
• Anarchist Resistance Organization – Buenos Aires (OAR)
• Anarchist Organization of Tucumán (OAT)

Supporting Organizations

• Black Rose / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation [USA]
• Vía Libre Libertarian Group [Colombia]
• Anarchist Federation of Santiago (FAS)

source: Black Rose Federation

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=19934

#anarchism #antiWar #blackRoseFederation #federation

Campaign: Help Buy a Printing Press for Anarchists in Sudan

Since February 2022 Black Rose/Rosa Negra (BRRN) and other members of our international network of anarchist political organizations have been collaborating with the Sudan Anarchist Federation (SAF), which started organizing shortly before the revolutionary upheavals that began in 2018. Thanks to the many comrades who donated to our previous fundraiser, we were able to support some SAF comrades to escape dangerous situations and continue their work, both inside and outside the country. Tragically, at least one comrade, Sarah, was lost to the murderous and femicidal deprivations of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). We honor her memory and all of the revolutionary martyrs who have died in the struggle for freedom in Sudan.

Now, despite the hardships, a number of members of the SAF have managed to regroup in a stable area of Sudan and are in a position to restart clandestine political work. We are asking for international support to support them in re-establishing their activities and developing enterprises that can financially support their members, many of whom are internally displaced in an area with a wrecked economy.

The plan from our comrades in Sudan is to establish a commercial printing press that will be run as a workers’ cooperative in order to provide a sustainable livelihood, and as a tool for printing political educational materials. In Sudan it is nearly impossible to import revolutionary texts, and internet activity is heavily censored and monitored, so it is important to help develop the local capacity to print texts for distribution.

Our comrades can only succeed in this project with international solidarity. The estimated costs for this project are $15,000. Any extra money raised will go to the general treasury of the comrades and be used for organizational expenses, such as helping displaced comrades travel home. With support from friends of freedom around the world, we can easily meet these needs and support the survival and growth of anarchism as a potent social revolutionary force in Sudan.

Please give now! If you cannot give, please share the fundraiser widely!

Source and Donate here: Black Rose/Rosa Negra – International Relations Committee

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=19048

#africa #blackRoseFederation #northAmerica #Solidarity #sudan

What is (Organized) Anarchism? — Black Rose Federation

We present this translation of a booklet produced by our Argentine sibling organization Federación Anarquista Rosario (FAR) as a basic introduction to our tradition within the anarchist movement.

Translation by Enrique Guerrero López

Introduction

For a long time, our organization [FAR] has had the intention of creating an introductory piece on Anarchism, and especially of our current, Especifismo. Mainly because there are different interpretations of Anarchism, fairly widespread, established as a kind of “common sense” that we believe are significantly different from our proposal. Lately Anarchism has been associated with a “rebellious” lifestyle, rather than with a project of struggle and popular organization that aims to achieve a socialist and libertarian society.

This material is introductory, and therefore implies curtailing topics that should be taken up elsewhere, particularly by those who wish to deepen what has been engaged with here.

Our intention is to root this project in the various social sectors that suffer the consequences of Capitalism, seeking to add more comrades to the struggle for a new SOCIALIST AND LIBERTARIAN1 world.

UP WITH THOSE WHO STRUGGLE!

Where Does Our Proposal Come From? (Some History)

Anarchism emerged as a current of socialism at the end of the 19th century in Europe and then, thanks to the phenomenon of immigration, it spread throughout the world. In our country [Argentina], during the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, it was one of the predominant ideologies of the working-class. At that time, exploited workers sought to resist the living conditions imposed on them by the capitalist class, and at the same time they yearned for another social arrangement without exploitation or domination.

The IWA (International Workingmen’s Association) brought together workers and revolutionaries from Europe, and from various countries around the world, to outline a strategy to fight against the system. In that organization, also known as the First International, the figure of Mikhail Bakunin stood out, who argued with Karl Marx on the strategic orientation of revolutionary struggle. The main difference between the two was in relation to the State. Marx argued that the State could be an instrument for the liberation of the working class, while Bakunin proposed that Capitalism and the State were two sides of the same coin. Although this was not the only difference, it was the most important and led to the breakdown of the First International. The field of Socialism would be divided between Marxists and Anarchists.

Anarchism would not go unnoticed in the history of the struggle of the oppressed. It has been the protagonist of great processes of social transformation, such as the Libertarian Makhnovist Ukraine, anarchist contributions to the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Social Revolution, and the Commune of Manchuria, among others.

What Do We Fight Against? (How We See the System of Domination)

AGAINST CAPITAL
In today’s society, the phenomenon of economic exploitation is so characteristic that it has led some currents of Socialism to think that it is the defining feature of the historical moment in which we live, to the point of thinking that it determines all the rest of the forms of domination. In other words, everything that happens in a capitalist society is explained solely by the economy.

For our part, while we do not believe that exploitation mechanically determines our existence, we do not ignore the importance of this phenomenon, which, in the emergence of our ideology, has been the articulating axis of the organizations and resistance of the oppressed class. What is exploitation? Basically it divides society into classes. Thus we find on the one hand the owners of the means of production and the land, called: Bourgeoisie, Employers, these are the Exploiters. On the other hand there are those who own nothing but their labor power: the Proletariat, the Workers, these are the Exploited.

Through a series of historical processes, capitalist society, since its birth, has created and recreated this structural inequality, also drawing from inequalities inherited from previous historical moments. In this system the Bourgeois “freely hire” the Workers and in exchange for their work they give them a “wage.” This is always less than the wealth generated by the Workers, but enough for their survival. In Capitalism then, the Bourgeois have the freedom to accumulate wealth, and therefore to live in great luxury. Workers, for their part, have the freedom to sell their labor power and thus are barely able to achieve subsistence. This is a conception of freedom, which, as we will see, is absolutely opposite to the one upheld by anarchism.

AGAINST THE STATE
In the current context, defining the State is complex, since throughout history it has changed and perfected itself as an institution of domination.

The State acquired different functions and forms, becoming an increasingly important and constitutive element of the capitalist system.

Schematically, we can say that the State is the institution that suppresses the people’s ability to decide how to administer and carry out social life. The State always works for the operation of the system of domination, intervening in social conflict, guaranteeing the privileges of the powerful and seeking to bring the entire political life of society into its orbit.

If we think about the changes experienced through time, we find that in the 19th century the state had a purely repressive function, but for much of the 20th century it was

becoming a more “friendly” institution for society, guaranteeing certain essential services such as healthcare and education. This adopted form became known as the Welfare State. But the Welfare State did not arise from the goodwill of the rulers, rather it can be explained as a product of a clever maneuver by the dominant classes to contain social struggles, which had generated a significant challenge to Capitalism. It has now been several decades since the State was transformed into what is usually called a Neoliberal State, where its role has focused primarily on ensuring the functioning of the Market.

Despite these changes, the State never abandoned its repressive function, since it holds what is known as the “monopoly on the legitimate use of force,” that is to say, that it has the legal capacity to repress the population to impose its decisions. Nor did it stop trying to control society in various ways, especially in its protection of the exploitative social arrangement which produces wealth and privilege of the Bourgeois.

Today the Neoliberal State primarily assumes the form of domination through social control. This mechanism enables the possibility of highly unequal societies, with highly controlled areas where wealth and power are found, and areas of exclusion, generally located on the peripheries. Excluded populations live in these areas, where the State intervenes in a dual sense: through social containment with welfare policies and through militarization and repression. Over time, social control is assumed by the general population to be normal, incorporating into everyday life the logic of surveillance, allowing the State to transfer this function to society.

It is also important to analyze so-called “democracy” at this point, which, through the fiction of political participation through voting, has the effect of legitimizing the unjust functioning of today’s society. Any possibility of social transformation is subject to the logic of bourgeois democracy, which in practice generates apathy and depoliticization, since the people “delegating” the resolution of their affairs to professional politicians—who centralize this task—lose all connection to and responsibility for social decisions. It must be admitted that these operations aimed at legitimizing the functioning of capitalist society have been relatively successful. Thus, a certain part of the left today is institutionalized, and all its practice is meticulously regulated by the State. From Marxism this orientation is justified by understanding the State as a neutral instrument, which, in the hands of the workers, can serve to achieve Socialism. History shows otherwise, with the experience of the Soviet Union and others that ended up leading to yet another variant of Capitalism.

AGAINST PATRIARCHY
Patriarchal oppression is sustained through asymmetric power relations and uses mechanisms to generate, develop and perpetuate the domination of heterosexual men over women and other gender identities. Over time these differences in power have crystallized in our culture, giving rise to the existence of roles and values assigned to the feminine (for example, weak, caring, sensitive) and the masculine (for example, strong, hard working, intelligent). School, Family, Work, the State and other institutions educate us to assume these roles, while those who do not fit into them are discriminated against in different areas of life. Likewise, everything related to the feminine is undervalued, and that translates into a lack of access to rights and participation.

We can say that Femicides are the most visible expression of patriarchal violence, however there are other violent mechanisms that are unleashed on women’s bodies, which have important effects on the reproduction of the system of domination. Problems such as Sex Trafficking, the Violation of Sexual and Reproductive Rights — that is, the elimination of bodily autonomy — high levels of Sexual Harassment both within the family and public, and Wage Discrimination are just some of the many expressions of Patriarchy. While it is more evident in the cultural sphere, Patriarchy operates in an economic dimension, since, within the gender roles imposed by this form of oppression, women in general attend to domestic tasks (eg, feeding, cleaning, caring for children and the elderly) but without any remuneration or recognition. This is very relevant because social reproduction is key to the functioning of the system. Even in Capitalism this unpaid work is essential for the functioning of the market, since it allows people to arrive well fed, rested, and prepared to be exploited.

Now, in a Capitalist System where everything is measured in money, it is thanks to Patriarchy that domestic work is understood as an uncompensated obligation, since this mechanism of oppression appeals to the moral imposition that falls on women to assume these tasks for the mere fact of being women.

AGAINST COLONIALISM, IMPERIALISM AND RACISM
Throughout history, Capitalism expanded, creating institutions and social forms that did not exist before. Borders and Nation-States emerged from this process. The notion that political authority must perfectly coincide with a clearly determined geographic space and borders is an invention of Capitalism; this notion did not exist before.

The idea that the spaces occupied by a State must coincide with a Nation, that is, with a group of inhabitants with a common culture and identity, is also new.

As we know, the region in which we live is going through a colonization process that began in the 15th century, with the arrival of conquerors from Europe. This meant the possibility of expanding Capitalism, through the looting of common goods and also the standardization of the world, imposing on the peoples of these lands the culture, laws and language of the conqueror. The ideology of Nationalism is part of this process, which occurred through systematic violence and genocide against indigenous and black populations.

From this process, Racism was established as a mechanism of cultural and political domination, dividing society into castes, where races considered inferior occupied the lowest echelons. We can assert that this form of Racism endures to this day.

The initial phenomenon of Colonization began to transform itself and its economic and cultural dimension took on a greater intensity through what is known as Globalization. In this way, a world with central countries was configured, where most of the technologically advanced industrial production is found, and peripheral countries from which natural resources are extracted at the expense of peoples and nature.

In today’s world there are various Imperialist World Powers that compete for the territories and markets of the world. This cuts through the reality of the peoples on a daily basis, since these imperial projects intervene not only through the military dimension but, as we said above, their presence is important economically, politically and culturally.

Some expressions of this form of oppression can be found in: the presence of foreign military bases in different parts of the country and region, in the looting of common goods and economic dependence, in the colonization of culture, in the interference of the transnational control and surveillance apparatuses, in the action of international NGOs that impose welfare. In turn, the local State itself operates with a colonialist logic, repressing and starving native populations, denying them their right to self-determination.

What Do We Propose? Toward a Socialist and Libertarian Society

We aim, as final objectives, at the destruction of the Capitalist System of Domination and the construction of a Socialist and Libertarian Society.

The destruction of the system of domination can be framed in the pursuit of a revolutionary process of rupture with the current social order, which occurs in parallel with the construction of the society we want.

A break with domination as a model of power, and the construction of a model of Popular Power, necessarily leads us to discard statist and institutional routes in our strategy since these are contradictory with the objective of social revolution.

That is why we advocate Self-Management, Libertarian Federalism, Anarcho-Feminism and Anti-Colonialism as methodologies of social organization, which can transform the power model of domination and turn it into one of Popular Power.

We propose, therefore, a federal organization of society, organized from the bottom up through basic bodies of discussion and decision making, which are coordinated with each other through delegation, forming a dynamic, decentralized and directly controlled society. The objective of Federalism is a new institutionality, where there is no place for any kind of privilege, be it economic, social or political. It is an institutional framework where the revocation of delegates is immediately assured and where, therefore, there is no room for the usual political irresponsibility that characterizes Representative Democracy.

This is a practice and an institutionality that must reflect the rights and obligations of all members of society. Their right to be elected and elector, and also their obligation to report back in an effective, practical, daily way. This must be applicable both for the broadest global bodies as well as for bodies at the grassroots.

In the economic sphere, this process will go hand in hand with the abolition of private property and socialization of all the means of production, all that is produced and all the resources vital to humanity. Building a new egalitarian society carries with it a distribution of the collective product of our labor based on the determination of needs and the distribution of work equitably according to individual capacities. Guiding all economic activity towards the sustainability of life, understanding that the economy also includes all actions related to the reproduction and care of people and that this must also be carried out within a framework of respect and protection of the natural world of which we are part.

In the political-cultural sphere, the destruction of Patriarchy and Racism in pursuit of a just society—which does not discriminate based on people’s gender or race—will not only imply questioning of our existing social relationships, but also require the construction of other types of relationships, alongside the specific struggles of social movements.

But we understand these organizational models in relation to the processes of struggle, and with the particularities of each place, taking into account cultural integrity, language, ways of life, and ethnic identities. Thus, we do not think of a revolution as a homogenizing phenomenon of society, but rather, as one precisely capable of making those individual, collective, cultural, regional, etc. particularities blossom, so that they do not deny others and so that they recognize and strengthen each other in these differences. That is why we advocate anti-colonialism as a perspective and methodology of action that aims at people’s cultural self-management.

How Can We Achieve Our Objectives?

Especifismo proposes organizational action through two parallel paths: the path of Anarchist Political Organization and the path of Social Organization for the class struggle.2 We chose this organizational method because it respects the specificity and dynamics of each space of struggle, making social spaces remain open to comrades of different ideologies, in addition to the fact that the political organization can function cohesively without being tied to the dynamics of social struggles.

The anarchist political organization practices Federalism and is therefore deeply democratic, with decisions being made from the base. Collective Responsibility and Discipline are also emphasized, that is, carrying out agreements, consistency and constancy in the daily life of militants. The organization functions based on collective agreements for which Theoretical, Ideological and Strategic Unity is fundamental. At the same time, it carries out Social Insertion in spaces where the class struggle takes place to become a motor of these struggles.

To carry out social insertion, which implies organization at the social-political level, the organization is divided into fronts: Union, Neighborhood, Student, etc. It is on this terrain where the struggle against the system of domination takes place, resisting the oppression of Capital, the State, Patriarchy, and Imperialism. This is where a project of Revolutionary Rupture with the system is built.

This project is built from the perspective of Popular Power, which implies that social struggles are carried out with a combative method of construction from the base, with the leadership of popular organizations. Class Independence is extremely important in this sense, in order to maintain autonomy from the State and Capitalism. For this reason, the method of struggle that we propose for the popular field is that of Direct Action, which forges a Strong People in the daily struggle and resistance.3

It will be the task of the political organization to promote mobilization for short-term demands within the social milieu, articulated with the project of radical transformation of society, with a view toward building a Socialist and Libertarian society.

For Socialism and Freedom

Organized Anarchism or Especifismo is a conception of Anarchism that emerged in Latin America in the 1960s from the impetus of the FAU (Uruguayan Anarchist Federation). Especifismo is a historical form of organization that is related to a broader tradition of Anarchism called Organizational Dualism, which proposes anarchist organization at two levels: an ideological-political one, specifically anarchist, composed of the Political Organization and another a social-political level composed of Social or Mass Organizations. We have already seen this proposal in the conceptions and practices of Bakunin and Malatesta.4

We aim at a change in the social structures that sustain Capitalism by deploying a method of building Popular Power which is developed in the daily class struggle. For this purpose, in addition to organizing ourselves politically as anarchists in the FAR, we play an active part, strategically and collectively, in Unions, Neighborhood and Student Organizations, etc.

“…high politics is not the origin point (…) or reason behind our struggle. The origin is in the pain and longing of that great humanity of which our people are a part.

Because we know that man [sic] is a social being, we want him [sic] to develop his [sic] capacity and put it at the service of society, because we want all decisions that concern society to be assumed and resolved in a social way, because we want wealth not to be individual or of a few but social, of all, that is why we call ourselves Socialists.

Because we trust more in agreement than in imposition, in knowledge than in coercion, in freedom than in authority. That is why we are libertarians.

But we’ve already learned that labels are sometimes misleading. That is why we do not dedicate ourselves to labeling the struggle of the oppressed. There may be people who identify themselves in a similar way who do not know well what they want, and there are also those with other names, or sometimes even without knowing how to give it a name, seeking the same thing.

We call all those who, without pettiness, in their own way and in their measure, fight for these ideals.”

Gerardo Gatti
Definitions of a Comrade
Buenos Aires, June / July 1975

The contents expressed in this booklet are not intellectual speculations carried out in spaces far removed from popular reality, rather they are systematizations of years of struggle and organization, which function as working hypotheses and point to an accumulation of experiences toward the construction of a revolutionary strategy in the anarchist sense. Therefore, its reading, and its necessary rereading throughout the militant trajectory of each reader, implies a commitment to the cause of SOCIALISM AND LIBERTY.

Notes

source: Black Rose Federation

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18766

#anarchism #blackRoseFederation #especifismo #platformism

Introduction

Every year, Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN) holds a national Convention in a different city somewhere in the United States. Delegates from Black Rose Locals gather to debate and deliver the votes of members on proposals that would substantively change the structures or direction of the organization; collectively reflect on our past year’s organizing failures and successes; and deepen crucial relationships among our militants from Locals spread across the country’s wide geography. Since adopting our first comprehensive political program Turning the Tide in 2023, our Convention has also served as the venue for revisiting certain elements of this core document.

From August 9th through 11th, the Bay Area Local hosted militants from across the country in Oakland, CA for our 2024 proceedings that marked a particularly important milestone: a decade since our organization’s founding.

To offer a lens into our organization’s internal life and share some of the lessons we learned during this landmark Convention, what follows is a brief summary of each day’s proceedings.

Day One

Our tenth national Convention was opened with remarks from the federation’s outgoing secretary. Following this, attendees read aloud greetings received from our sibling organizations across the globe, including:

• Organização Socialista Libertária (Brazil)
• Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira (Brazil)
• Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (Uruguay)
• Federación Anarquista Rosario (Argentina)
• Federación Anarquista Santiago (Chile)
• Grupo Libertario Vía Libre (Colombia)
• Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (Australia)
• Geelong Anarchist Communists (Australia)
• Anarchist Communists Meanjin (Australia)
• Black Flag Sydney (Australia)
• Union Communiste Libertaire (France/Belgium/Switzerland)
• Embat (Catalonia)
• Batzac – Joventuts Llibertàries (Catalonia)
• LiZA (Spain)
• Federación Estudiantil Libertaria (Catalonia/Spain)
• Perspektive Selbstverwaltung (Germany)
• Têkoşîna Anarşîst (North East Syria/Rojava)
• Perhimpunan Merdeka (Indonesia)

Our comrades’ celebratory messages not only heartened us but reminded us that Black Rose / Rosa Negra is part of a living, vital, and growing worldwide current of organized anarchism inspired by the Platform and especifismo.

Next up was an organizational history panel, where former members of California-based Amanacer, Miami Autonomy and Solidarity (MAS), Northeastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (later, Common Struggle), Workers Solidarity Alliance, and Common Action recounted their experiences in these regional anarchist organizations during the rapprochement, or unification, process that established Black Rose/Rosa Negra. Veteran militants explained how our history begins from a culmination of a years-long process spurred by invitational Class Struggle Anarchist Conferences (CSACs).

Beginning amidst the 2008 financial crisis, CSACs intended to cohere an anarchist strategy and practice beyond the limits of the period’s summit-hopping protests. Conference coordinators did not set out to forge a national organization, but by the close of the 2010 proceedings in Seattle it became increasingly clear that the basic level of unity between participating organizations warranted a serious exploration of the question. Buoyed by 2011’s surge of social movement activity in the Wisconsin Capitol protests and the Occupy Movement, as well as the popular social explosion in reaction to the racist vigilante murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012, members of MAS strongly appealed for national organization at what would become our inaugural Convention in 2013. After many years of careful construction, BRRN would publicly debut in 2014.

More than just a trip down memory lane, the panel emphasized lessons hard learned by militants who share many decades of accrued experience between them. Their reflections reminded us of a central reason we emphasize the need for political organization: to reposit collective memory that can be transmitted from one generation of militants to the next.

If you are interested in reading more about the process that birthed Black Rose/Rosa Negra, we recommend our history page and this more detailed account of the rapprochement process that birthed our organization.

Afterwards, the organization’s national elected officers shared reports and reflections from their one-year terms. These administrative, immediately recallable roles are structured in such a way that they wield no ability to alter the collectively determined course of the organization.

Day One closed with a panel discussion from members of the organization’s Housing and Territorial Sectoral Committee and organizing highlights from BRRN Locals around the country. In the latter session, BRRN militants emphasized the importance of deep organizing in solidarity with Palestinian national liberation. Deep organizing entails not just passively attending marches and demonstrations as a political organization, but working consistently within our sites of social insertion—the workplace, the neighborhood, the school/university—so that we can effectively bring fighting mass organizations in these sectors into struggles that they may not typically recognize as their own.

Day Two

We began Day Two with discussion and debate on updates to our conjunctural analysis. Conjunctural analysis is the practice of assessing the various social forces and conditions at the local, regional, national scale that are coalescing to shape the present moment, allowing us to identify strategic opportunities to tip the balance of power. Although our organization has previously undertaken efforts aimed at ‘naming the moment,’ this was the first time that the exercise was directly and systematically incorporated into adjusting our limited-term strategy.

In their assessments of the conjuncture, delegates shared what members around the country had identified as important factors bearing on the present, including, among others: a national cost-of-living crisis squeezing social reproductive capacities; simultaneous erosion of legitimacy for certain State institutions like the Supreme Court with renewal for others; and the continued slow decline of U.S. hegemony abroad coupled with the explosion of a domestic anti-imperialist social movement demanding a ceasefire, arms embargo, and in some cases full-throated support for Palestinian national liberation. A more detailed and complete conjunctural analysis derived from this Convention session will be published at a later date.

After wrapping our preliminary conjunctural analysis, the Convention body moved to critically self-assess our progress on our limited-term strategy. Reports from Locals helped us identify where we had made significant advances toward our objectives—including around increasing our rank-and-file concentrations in the building trades, public education, service, and healthcare industries; spearheading or playing crucial roles in organizing the unorganized; gaining ground in localized fights against the construction of new ‘cop campuses’; and further developing our relationships with sibling organizations internationally—as well as where we have fallen short or failed, requiring a recalibration in strategy.

Convention proceedings on Day Two ended with Sectoral Committee breakout sessions for participating delegates to further discuss and refine how to implement our national limited-term strategy in each respective area of organizing.

In the evening, we threw open the doors to the convention hall for a public panel discussion and party. Reflecting on their past year in campaigns, the panel of speakers featured Enrique, a Southern public high school teacher fresh off a successful union campaign; Dera, an organizer salting at a shop in the service industry, and Alex, a member of faculty who has been organizing on her public university campus around the Palestine solidarity movement.

With around 70 people in attendance, the panel’s facilitator framed the organization’s theory of strategy.

“We aim to build popular power,” Cameron, himself a rank-and-file union steward, explained. “For us, popular power means the creation of fighting social movements animated by principles of class struggle, class independence, self-management, internationalism, democracy, and direct action. History demonstrates that it’s fighting movements built on this basis that can challenge the state and capital…not only to wrench reforms from them in the short term, but to build the necessary power to kickstart a revolutionary social transformation that can topple them both.”

Answering the facilitator’s questions, panelists discussed the wins, losses, and lessons learned from their organizing efforts. Alex emphasized the need for rooted, on-the-ground organizing around shared needs, rather than cliquing up with others based solely on common ideology: “To make progress in what I’m doing, I’ve had to work with people in my workplace who are far from radical.” She continued, “That even means bringing along people who, for example, consider themselves staunch Democrats.”

Dera, a college student who was also active in sustaining the encampments on her campus last school year, spoke to the transferability in lessons between that setting and her current salting effort for an independent union campaign. “I’m taking lessons from student organizing into the workplace, like emphasizing participation in our decision-making processes, meeting people where they are at and really getting to know what people’s motivations and fears are to build their confidence so they can act together collectively,” she said. Dera also plans to take her salting experiences back to campus where she can organize student-workers and student-tenants to exert real leverage on university bosses.

After some questions from the audience, the panel broke down their side of the stage to make way for People’s Disco DJ Jared G to set up his turntables. Over beers, attendees and BRRN delegates talked, danced, and enjoyed themselves late into the night.

Day Three

The final day was devoted, in the main, to the delivery of membership votes by Local delegates on proposals, constitutional amendments, and nominees for national administrative officers. While not quite as exciting as Days One or Two, this portion is crucial to keeping alive the directly democratic processes that sit both at the heart of our organization and our vision of the world we are fighting to bring into existence.

As our tenth national convention drew to a close, delegates said their goodbyes, no doubt tired from the long weekend but enjoying in equal measure a deepened commitment to one another and to the “long and patient work” of building toward a social revolution that will abolish class society and the system of domination which keeps it in place. “Black Rose is my political home” said one delegate as they left to catch their flight, “without you all, I would be fighting alone.”

Onwards, Together

From our prehistory through to the present, members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra have faced more than our share of obstacles, made mistakes or missteps, and sometimes struggled to find direction. Through it all, though, members—who are the organization—have approached our work with honesty, humility, camaraderie, and a commitment to our organization’s principles. We believe that this is evident, most importantly, to those who we are embedded alongside in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and schools.

As our organization enters a period of growth, we invite those who share our principles, agree with our program, and are engaged in long-term organizing to reach out to us at blackrosefed.org/join. Don’t fight alone.

FOR POPULAR POWER!
FOR LIBERTARIAN SOCIALISM!

Black Rose / Rosa Negra

August 2024

source: Black Rose Federation

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/28/black-rose-rosa-negra-10th-national-convention-report/

#anarchism #blackRoseFederation #northAmerica #platformism