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Tag: anti-colonialism

Some Initial Thoughts On Unity Of Fields

Posted on by neversleep

[I am writing as an insurrectionary anarchist in the u$a and speaking to that context]

Unity Of Fields is a counter-info project that emerged in August of 2024. They describe their project as “a militant propaganda front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism.” It used to be Palestine Action US and has since changed its orientation. It has a website and some social media accounts, some of which have are banned at the time of this writing, they seem to be most popular on Telegram. Although it links to mostly anarchist sources for technical knowledge, Unity Of Fields does not seem to be an anarchist project and their political reading and media suggestions are all over the map. They suggest classic decolonial texts by Fanon and Cesaire, Black liberation writings from the BLA and BPP, texts from various Palestinian resistance factions, as well as authoritarian communists like Lenin and Mao among others.

Mostly their website is a clearing house for news, action analysis, and communiques. Many of the communiques posted are original submissions though they also repost from other counter-info projects and from social media. They also post some of their own original writings to their website. The fact that they post sketchy criminal stuff and link to technical advice on how to better carry out insurrectionary forms of struggle is probably a large part of why they are discussed in anarchist circles at all.

What does the emergence of a project like Unity Of Fields mean for us as anarchists? For one thing Unity Of Fields expands some spaces we occupy as anarchists — the combative struggle space and the digital counter-info space. We are clearly not the only ones re-coloring walls, opening windows, and carrying out our little sabotages and then writing about it, though at least for now others seem to look to our collective knowledge and experience for technical guidance. We are sharing a struggle space, one which is not limited to riotous moments and combative demonstrations, with other rebels who have made themselves visible to us. We are being included (at least some of the time) in a dialogue with other rebels through the sharing of our words and news of our actions, and anarchists have shared writings from Unity Of Fields on our own websites.

Local struggles against zionism, imperialism, and colonialism are visibly taking on more destructive, decentralized, anonymous, and autonomous approaches, a long-term dream of insurrectionary anarchists, yet new questions arise for us. How do we want to contend with other rebels with whom we have ideological differences and tactical similarities? How do we avoid getting lost in the vanguardist, unifying, nationalist tendencies that often accompany revolutionary leftist approaches to combative struggle? Are we interested in conspiring with these others outside the spontaneity of spicy demonstrations, occupations (and potentially riots), and if so how?

As anarchists we both seek to expand and connect anarchic forms of struggle yet also hold a healthy skepticism of unity with people who don’t hold anti-authoritarian views of freedom. Our history includes many betrayals by the left and progressives, from peace policing at demonstrations to executions and imprisonment from newly established revolutionary governments. The question of who to coalesce with and why is not an easy one, and one that is best addressed on a case by case basis. The appearance of Unity Of Fields potentially facilitates the dialogues and understanding that can help us better decide if and how we want to team up. As anarchists can often find ourselves isolated from others who we may have some political parallels with, the opening up of a “militant propaganda front” is a bridge to dialogue and learn across. This is not a call to join forces with anyone on the basis of being anti-zionist or anti-amerikkkan, it’s simply a reminder to always be analyzing the changing terrain around us and to think critically as we carry forward our struggles.

“Towards The Last Intifada” and “Towards Another Uprising” seem to be the beginnings of a dialogue among anarchists that address some of these questions. I look forward to more.

Relevant Readings:

Unity Of Fields: Opening Up A New Front
https://unityoffields.org/?p=370

Towards The Last Intifada
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/10/17/towards-the-last-intifada-a-statement-on-palestine-by-anarchists/

Towards Another Uprising
https://actforfree.noblogs.org/2024/10/21/towards-another-uprising/

Archipelago – affinity, informal organization, and insurrectional projects
https://resonanceaudiodistro.org/2017/06/08/archipelago-audiozine/

Voices from the Front Line Against the Occupation: Interview with Palestinian Anarchists
https://blackrosefed.org/interview-fauda-palestine/

PS: Some Thoughts On Spectacle

Many if not most of the actions posted to Unity Of Fields are accompanied by some visual media, usually photos, sometimes videos. I want rebels to consider some pitfalls of spectacularizing our struggles. Every photo or video is another crumb for the state to eat up as part of their investigations. Digital media can offer up metadata about where and when and what kind of device it was recorded on if not properly removed. Footage that shows rebels gives the state valuable information, such as number of participants, approximate time of day, whether any passersby were present, as well as biometric data even when a person is masked. Height, skin tone, gait, approximate weight, and other information can be determined from even grainy footage.
Additionally there are the downsides of understanding our struggles in a quantitative way. This approach may blunt the qualitative changes that participating in struggle can bring us individually and collectively. Of course propaganda is useful, the seductive appeal of revolt is made easier with imagery, and these things must be weighted out, no struggle will be pure. I want to remind us that though this is the path that is being worn into the ground, it is not the only one, and should we choose it let us choose it intentionally.

Submitted anonymously over email.

no peace

Posted on by neversleep

Reflections on Columbia, the Student Intifada and the Culture of Counterinsurgency

28 October 2024 – by Anonymous

“The concentration of violent power in the hands of the few can occur unopposed if it is done quietly, if unnecessary provocation, which can set a process of solidarity in motion, is avoided—that is something that was learned as a result of the student movement and the Paris May.”

— The Urban Guerilla Concept, The Red Army Faction 1971

 

On 30 April 2024 — the 56th anniversary of the 1968 Columbia University mass arrests — the New York Pig Department besieged Harlem, locked down the entirety of Columbia’s campus, swept the Gaza solidarity encampment, and raided Hind’s Hall. This raid marked the end of the spring of the Student Intifada. Those of us who were at the barricades are still reeling from the experience. There are few moments in our lives where history opens its doors to us. Taking the leap through is disorienting, but the responsibility to make sense of this conjuncture falls squarely on those who take the leap.

Journalists and pundits have chimed in endlessly on the Student Intifada with a particular focus on Columbia University. Many of these pundits were nowhere near the action nor the partisans who made the action happen, thus they often get the basic facts of the action wrong. As one rebel once advised, “No investigation, no right to speak.” Additionally, the political orientation of the commentariat necessitated the silencing and erasure of the most radical flank of the movement. This flank played a vital role in not only the uprising at Columbia, but in the direction of the movement nationally. This essay is an attempt to both correct the record and offer up some political perspectives from a segment of this radical flank.

The next sequence of the Student Intifada remains elusive but it is important that interventions are made to push the movement in the correct direction. A minority with the correct revolutionary line is not a minority.

Continue reading “no peace”

Call for Autonomous Acts of Rage Against Colonization Everywhere on monday october 14th 2024

Posted on by neversleep

“We will need each other to make sure that the flames, if they were to come, clear the area that we will live in together. We will need to clear it of the fuel that would end up repeating the problems we are currently having. We will need to make sure that the seeds, nutrients and soil are scattered beyond our ability to control.” Aragorn

We don’t just want a cease fire, we want the Right of Return for all Palestinian people, for water to flow, and the traditions to stay alive. We can’t get back the countless lives lost, but we can honor and avenge them. And we will.

For the end of the struggle that is settler colonialism everywhere. Where the land is stolen, consent violated, the old ways forgotten – let it burn.

We hope that every colonizer who robs the lives and dignity of the land and the people on it understands that their great-grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren’s children are not going to be here because of their violence and indeterminate destruction.

We will still be here fighting for the next seven generations, but we will never forget the slaughter, and we will remember to make sure those grandchildren stay afraid of all that is wild.

The united states government now “recognizes” indigenous people’s day alongside columbus day. we must make this impossible to reconcile. We will remain illegible to them, and unknowable to all but each other and the stars above, the water below, and all that of the earth fighting back. We call out to the brave and the humble – all that is striving towards life, while defying management, capture, and domestication with a strength they could never know.

find the connections, funders, manufacturers, advisors, politicians, gentrifiers, and all enemies of the people and the earth. you know who they are.

find some friends and haunt those motherfuckers ghosts

Submitted anonymously over email.

September 10 Black Bloc: Full Communique

Posted on by neversleep

Protesters in black bloc marched in NYC [on September 10] to demand an end to genocide, colonialism, & police states. Protesters chanted the names of Aysenur Eygi & Tortuguita & redecorated corporate property with anti-colonial artwork. NYPD cops later made multiple brutal arrests. Below is a communique released by some of the protesters:

 

When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.’ – Franz Fanon

To Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump, your goals aren’t new, or the way you achieve your goals. It was always domination by brutality, by dividing and isolating, by dehumanizing and villainizing. Just look at how you treat our Palestinian siblings, how you bring those same colonialist and imperialist methods here, and begin to slowly implement them to oppress poor working class communities and the marginalized groups that make up those communities. You murder with our tax dollars, brutalize and kill those who are fed up with their oppression, and proclaim you’re the truth and law of the world.

Aysenur Eygi did not deserve to die, while not the first, we know she won’t be the last. Even though her death was at the hands of the IOF, the rifle and bullet they fired were made and supplied under the orders of Biden And YOU.

Kamala, you say nothing will change under your administration, but that isn’t up to you. If nothing will change, then we will make that change.

Trump, you’re what you’ve always been, a snake pretending to be a wolf. Your mask fell years ago, and the record is clear, you’re a scam artist, a con-man, and a wannabe fascist dictator. We will let you know now, that your fascist movement will break against our shield walls, and crumple in our city’s streets.

Meanwhile, corrupt mayor Eric Adams and his allies cut community funding, line their pockets, and starve New Yorkers. We, this NYC black bloc, made up of revolutionary New Yorkers, will feed them.

In this city corporate greed reigns, and the interests of landlords, hedge funds, and the rich elites fuels every crisis. They’ve spent decades militarizing the NYPD, building cop cities, sending them abroad to train with the IOF, investing and donating mass surveillance tech, pushing budget cuts, and funding every other piece of their police state. All on the dime of poor working class New Yorkers, and all of it to keep your fellow New Yorkers brutalized, isolated, starved, and exploitable. Manipulating us to blame migrants, and to bring back the militarized ICE into our neighborhoods, all while turning our precious city into a personal playground for the rich and powerful, inevitably ending with the destruction of our communities, the dispossession of its people, and their displacement. Leaving cheap pockets of labor to exploit and cater to their every need.

But no more!! We call on all New Yorkers to join us in the streets, to take action like we have, and put an end to this police state, this corrupt administration, the corporate greed, and the suffering so many of us have endured by their hands. To Eric Adams, his admin, the NYPD, and their financial and political allies, the Feds are encircling, they smell the rats nest, and so do we. Even if they don’t stop you, the people are waking up, we’re rising, and we’ll be prepared to drive the final nail.

For Community
For Gaza
For Liberation

Against Colonialism
Against Police States and Cop Cities
Anywhere

Fuck ICE and the NYPD
Solidarity to the Resistance Everywhere

 

Found on Social Media (@AshAgony twitter)

Follow the Fires: Insurgency Against Identity

Posted on by neversleep

By Haraami

The following essay was adapted from a talk that has been given in slightly different forms at three gatherings in three different regions of the U.S. in the last six months. It emerges from the broader efforts of some nonwhite revolutionaries based in and around the Southwest who are using talks, workshops, and discussions in an attempt to combat liberal and otherwise counter-revolutionary forms of identity politics which present themselves as militant and anarchist.

Here, Haraami offers a diagnosis of how counter-insurgent forms of identity politics leverage scenes and milieus as incubators of insular and fickle social competition and calls upon revolutionaries to focus instead on fidelity to uprisings and practical questions of revolution. You can download a zine version of this article here.

Source: Living and Fighting | Submitted anoynmously over email

Continue reading “Follow the Fires: Insurgency Against Identity”