Statement in support of the Furguson rebellion by locals of Black Rose / Rosa Negra
Anarchist Federation: Endorsed By: ---- END POLICE BRUTALITY PVD -
endbrutalitypvd.tumblr.com; ---- BLACK ROSE / ROSA NEGRA BOSTON -
rosanegra.boston@gmail.com; BIBLIOTECA 451 - ---- library451@gmail.com; ---- BLACK ROSE /
ROSA NEGRA LOS ANGELES; ---- BLACK ROSE / ROSA NEGRA PROVIDENCE ---- ///// Please share,
use, and get in touch if you'd like to endorse or talk more. Find this statement &
selected readings in printed pamphlet form, distributed by Radical Ideas for a Moribund
Society (rifams-distro.tumblr.com) ---- 'The colonized subject discovers reality and
transforms it through his praxis, his deployment of violence and his agenda for liberation' 1
We are writing to express our unconditional support of the Rebellion in Ferguson, MO, a
working class city of 67% Black residents and 94% white police force. On Saturday August
8, 2014 Michael ?Mike Mike? Brown, an unarmed 18 year old Black teenager, was executed by
an unnamed police officer. Following the execution by multiple gunshots, the people of
Ferguson? friends, neighbors, and family of Michael Brown? converged to mourn their
beloved and express their rage in a uprising that began with powerful, documented analysis
and agitation.1
We support the rebellion and uprising of the people of Ferguson, MO because, in the words
of DeAndre Smith2, this type of response is ?exactly what?s supposed to happen when
injustice is happening in your community.?
We want to be perfectly clear that we believe resistance to police is always justified.
The police exist to protect and serve whiteness, an ideology of supremacy that needs to be
abolished in order to obtain freedom. Ferguson has given us evidence of this straight from
the horse?s mouth, as police with riot gear and barking dogs yelled to demonstrators: ?All
you fucking animals, bring it.?
We reject the notion that the unnamed officer who shot dead Mike Brown was a bad apple, a
case to be reviewed. The problem is not of a rogue police officer acting out of line; the
problem is the police. The modern police force evolved from slave patrols in the 1700s and
continue to systematically control, assault, and murder Black communities. As DeAndre
Smith recognized, this is a problem rooted in economics. This country was built by
enslaved Blacks on the plantation and made possible by the theft of Indigenous land, and
continues to thrive in the neoliberal present day with more Blacks now in prison or
confined in ghettos, being killed by police. Indeed, as Frantz Fanon says, ?the colonist
derives his validity, i.e., his wealth, from the colonial system.?
Furthermore, we reject the bourgeois myth of respectability that claims Michael Brown?s
life is not worthy of being mourned unless he was in some way ?innocent?, when our racist
society has systematically stripped Black bodies of innocence and marked them as
?criminal?. We celebrate each existence and mourn the death of every Black life lost. We
stand against the ideology of whiteness that allows for the devaluing of Black lives.
The government response in Ferguson has been to create a barbaric, militarized police
state working to sustain itself and quell the people. They have been trained by the
Israeli Defense Force which maintains an Apartheid state and a genocidal program of forced
removal of Palestinians from their historical land.3 Media blackout, rubber bullets and
teargas deployed on assemblies of people and directly into residential neighborhoods,
warzone gear, ear piercing crowd control tactics, cancelling the first day of school.
These responses are the direct responsibility of the police, and we strongly reject media
claims that state otherwise. Police declared a no fly zone in Ferguson for the reason of
?providing a safe environment for law enforcement activities? ?- they have made their
interests clear. That is why the people of St. Louis and Ferguson have not backed down.
They militantly retain their dignity and continue to fight back with efforts resulting in
St. Louis Police having been pulled from the ground in Ferguson.
How many more black lives? ? Michael Brown, shot dead by police on 8/8/14; Ezell Ford,
shot dead by police 8/11/14; John Crawford, shot dead by police 8/7/14; Eric Garner,
killed in a chokehold by police on 7/17/14: lives stolen, Black August.
Renisha McBride, Islan Nettles, Trayvon Martin: killed in the name of white supremacy,
misogyny and transphobia. Lives stolen, Black August.*
The lines have been drawn, we refuse to turn down in the face of racist, capitalist
violence. The people of St. Louis are standing up, this rebellion is part of an agenda for
liberation? and through organizing, rebellions can become revolutions. Communities
everywhere are working against violence, criminalization, and displacement of working
class people; this is the time to build connections in struggle. Once again we look to
DeAndre Smith, ?I mean, I don?t think it?s over, honestly. I think they just got a taste
of what fighting back means.?
1) Quote from Frantz Fanon?s ?Wretched of the Earth?. Photo of Ferguson protestor
returning a teargas canister to sender
2) Link to video of pre-riot agitation
3) Link to video of Smith?s analysis & transcription
?I?m DeAndre Smith. And this is exactly what?s supposed to happen when injustice is
happening in your community. When you have kids getting killed for nothing, when they?re
out here minding their business? you can lock ?em up, you can teach them, you can mold
them, at the same time, you ain?t got to kill them. He ain?t got no gun in his hands. Why
you kill him? You said Trayvon had a hoodie on, you didn?t know what was going on with
him. He didn?t have no hoodie on. His hands was up when you shot him! So what?s your excuse??
?I was here, I was out here. That?s all I can say. I was out here with the community.
That?s all I can say. I was out here standing side-by-side with the community. I mean, I
don?t think it?s over, honestly. I think they just got a taste of what fighting back
means. I think they got a taste of? (other voice inaudible) ? IN St. Louis. The last state
to abolish slavery. And they think they still have power over certain things? I believe
so, cuz they doing stuff like this, and getting away with it. People ain?t sayin nothing!
They not doing nothing, across the country. They not going for it here! Saint Louis ain?t
going for it!
?This is how they eat here. This is how they receive money. Businesses. Taxes. Police
stopping people. Giving ?em tickets, taking ?em to court, locking ?em up. That?s how they
make money in St. Louis. Right? Traffic?everything is all about money in St. Louis, right?
So when you stop their flow of income. When you stop their?their, their, whole everything,
their business, what they organized, they have certain things in a certain way. Right,
(making quotation marks with fingers) ?secret society? type of deal, right? We?re gonna
eat and you guys are gonna starve. Gentrification, put you in a certain neighborhood by
yourself, and see if you can starve in a proper way. It?s not gonna happen, not in St Louis.?
4) Report on St. Louis Police Department visit to Israel
5) Sentence structure referencing Marilyn Buck?s poem ?Black August?
Links at: http://agendaforliberation.tumblr.com/
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Black Rose / Rosa Negra - NYC
Text
Mission Statement
In early November of 2013, elected delegates from various class-struggle groups convened
for two-days in Chicago to form an anarchist federation within the United States. Years of
project collaboration and discussions between these radical groups demonstrated that
geographical distances can not, must not, deter mass working-class organization. Upon the
democratic creation of our Constitution and Points of Unity, we have come together to
share education, strategy and resources as Black Rose Anarchist Federation.
Our mission statement:
We are an organization of revolutionaries who share common visions of a new world - a
world where people collectively control their own workplaces, communities and land and
where all basic needs are met.
A world where power and participation flow from the bottom upwards and society is
organized for peoples? aspirations, passions, and needs rather than profit, racial
prejudice, patriarchy, or imperialism; and where we live sustainably with the planet.
We believe that this vision can only be brought about through the revolutionary power of
the working class organized in the workplaces, community, schools, and streets to
overthrow the state and capitalism and build a new world from the bottom up.
As those actively seeking to construct this vision we are inspired by the traditions of
anarchist-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, feminism, queer liberation, abolitionism,
anti-racism and their history of global struggle for liberation. We believe in the need
for a political home from which to organize ourselves and put forward our vision. We
believe in the need to create spaces for the development of new revolutionaries that allow
the grouping together of similarly minded militants.
We see the need to build a specifically anarchist organization united around a common set
of ideas, strategy, and practice. We believe that political organization should speak to
the needs of our time, and act as a catalyst in struggles to expand their revolutionary
potential. Political organization should be a vehicle to build, contribute to, and learn
from social struggles.
If you want to get involved, or simply want more info, contact us at
blackrose.rosanegra@gmail.com
We invite everyone interested in the possibilities for liberation and direct democracy, to
organize with us in our common struggles. We can continue the building of radical
counter-power in the U.S and solidarity internationally.
H.W-Secretary
Black Rose Anarchist Organization
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