Land Back not because we need to hand over all the "real estate" to indigenous landlords, but because the life-giving land must no longer be "real estate" & landlords must not exist.
Land Back because it was the conversion of "land" into "property" that led to destruction of all that lives on the land: people, plants, & animals alike.
Land Back because imposing colonialist rule on this place creates endless, ongoing suffering.
Land Back because this must once again become a place of life.
The idea isn't just for "property" to change hands.
The idea is to rewrite what it means for something to belong to us.
The idea is to stop hemming in the native peoples of this land, stop stealing the water, stop burning & cutting & destroying, & start stewarding.
It's time to stop grabbing & taking. It's time to call a halt to all of this violence & begin again. Land Back because we CANNOT possess it.
When indigenous folks say "land back" it's not because they want to become the capitalist overlords.
They know better than anyone what the cost of the capitalist project really is.
The idea isn't to elevate others to the status of oppressor. The oppressor stamped out other ways of living, so it's time for the oppressors to stop calling the shots.
Land back because we have to start again, without the systems built to oppress & exploit this land & its inhabitants.
Land back because we have seen what happens when profit motive determines everything.
Land back because it's obvious that the indigenous people who currently fight to protect waterways & preserve the natural world are much better fucking equipped to make determination of what is to be done to care for & rejuvenate life here.
Land back because those who see land as the host of life, not an exploitable resource, are the people we desperately need to learn from RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.
I was thinking a lot about Land Back yesterday. I think it lines up with this:
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.
The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.
The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back
— Anonymous, "The Goose and the Common"
@artemis Sorry if you've already said this (you're writing faster than I have time to read this morning) but part of the problem is that white people don't have a concept of thriving, only winning. We assume there has to be an oppressor. Someone in charge. The best we can imagine is collective, democratic oppression.
So when someone says we need to change the system, all they can imagine is that we're just changing who gets oppressed and they fear it will be them.
Artemis
Violet Madder
Ⓐ Consciousness Revolutions 🏴
Faith, Purple haired feminist 🧋 
