(en) Black Rose Anarchist Federation Statement and Video on #BlackLivesMatter Movement

VIDEO: Anti-Racist Praxis and Anarchism: Notes on Ferguson and Beyond iAnti-Racist Praxis 
and Anarchism: Notes on Ferguson and Beyond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jb_HDd2IHk 
---- The police murder of Michael Brown has sparked a national movement for racial justice 
marked by strong anti-authoritarian tendencies. What can anarchists learn from ongoing 
popular struggles against racism and police murder? How can anarchists and anarchist 
thought help to expand resistance beyond the tired reformist calls for new mayors and new 
police chiefs to target the underlying nexus of white supremacy and state violence behind 
the constant killing of black youth? ---- Come join the New York local of the Black Rose 
Anarchist Federation for report-backs from Ferguson and a panel discussion on anti-racist 
praxis and anarchism with dedicated anarchist militants from across the northeast.

Speakers:

Lou DeJesus (Black Rose/Rosa Negra, Buffalo, NY) is an anti-state Communist from Buffalo, 
New York. She works on prisoner justice, prison abolition, mass incarceration, and support 
for Cointelpro-era and current political prisoners. Lou is interested in coalition 
building across traditional barriers.

Natajah (B.L.A.C.K., Rochester, NY) is an anarcho-communist living in Rochester, NY. She 
is a founder of the local organization B.L.A.C.K (Building Leadership and Community 
Knowledge) and works on issues of police brutality, education, mental health, and 
individual empowerment that affect Black communities.

Moderated by Senia Barrag?n (Black Rose/Rosa Negra, New York, NY).

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Expanding the Struggle: Notes on the Future of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement?by Black 
Rose NYC

An unprecedentedly broad, decentralized, confrontational, and leaderless movement has 
arisen in response to the police murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and too many 
others. With the back-to-back non-indictments of Officers Darren Wilson and Daniel 
Pantaleo, we have witnessed a powerful rage against the impunity of the police and their 
disrespect for Black life that has sparked a surge of activity not seen in recent times in 
NYC or across the US. What began as an isolated outburst in Ferguson has surpassed initial 
concerns about the longevity of the protests by quickly becoming one of the most profound 
American social upheavals in recent decades.

Many have said, ?People are mad today, but will they still be mad next week?? Massive 
mobilizations over the past few weeks?-taking over streets, bridges, tunnel entrances, 
places of business, train and ferry stations, sometimes with planning, other times with no 
prior planning at all?-have allowed us to answer that question with a resounding YES.
But if we don?t expand the struggle, there will come a week when the answer is ?no,? and 
we risk a return to normal. Or if we are seduced into believing that the police can be 
reformed into submission with superficial policy initiatives like body cameras or civilian 
review boards, we may believe that we have fixed the problem only to witness more Michael 
Browns, more Eric Garners. At the end of the day, the police are the physical extension of 
the state and capital. So how can we continue the momentum while targeting the underlying 
systems of oppression behind the white supremacist state violence that has outraged millions?

The Movement

Since Michael Brown?s murder, an anti-authoritarian leaderless movement has emerged 
energized with the confrontational #ShutItDown mentality. In Ferguson, demonstrators have 
staged confrontational sit-ins in front of police stations, taken over streets and malls, 
and burned police cars. Protesters in New York City marched and successfully shut down 
five of the city?s bridges, two of its tunnels, two of its highways, the ferry terminal, 
Grand Central, and other transit hubs.

As opposed to the traditional image of the hierarchical, monolithic social movement 
directed from above by a handful of charismatic visionaries, we are witnessing a rapid 
proliferation of knowledge and experiences that is allowing protesters to apply methods of 
disruption to their local circumstances without looking upward for direction. As the 
conflict unfolds, more and more people are seeing beyond the false good cop/bad cop binary 
and thinking of the entire police force as the enemy.
The current decentralized movement of working-class African-American men and women and 
their many diverse supporters is in direct conflict with white supremacy. They proclaim 
#BlackLivesMatter, because combating the ingrained state violence that supports white 
supremacy and erases and destroys Black bodies is the ultimate goal. If you think this is 
just about a few cases, about just one individual cop versus one individual victim, you?re 
wrong.

Containment

The NYPD has allowed these marches and die-ins to happen. DeBlasio and Bratton, in 
conjunction with dozens of cities across the country, have devised a policy of containment 
and surveillance in response to the recent wave of protests.
Containment has allowed protesters to congest the traffic in the city. Bratton?s strategy 
is to allow the fire of the protesters to burn itself out by not providing it any extra 
tinder to burn by cracking down. The strategy is informed by the intelligence gathered by 
NYPD detectives observing the conflict on the ground in Ferguson.
Instead of busting heads right away, helicopters buzz overhead and tag protesters that 
step out of line; fire trucks and ambulances drive through marches scattering and 
dividing protesters drawing power away from marches and actions. The NYPD is trying to 
make us tired, uncomfortable, and, above all, trying to make us stop.
However, the NYPD containment strategy is not hands off. The cops arrested 328 people 
during the first three days after the Eric Garner decision. They used pepper spray, sonic 
cannons, and good old fashion clubs when they felt they could. Beneath the NYPD?s veneer 
of civility and respect towards protesters lurks the full power of state violence. Cops 
are still cops.

Expanding the Struggle

Shutting down business as usual through marches and die-ins is an important first step 
toward magnifying popular outrage at police terrorism and crystallizing resistance into a 
movement, but, especially considering De Blasio?s containment focus, we must raise the 
stakes by enhancing the depth and scope of our actions.

What if students followed up walkouts with strikes and occupations until the killer cops 
were prosecuted? What if all of the thousands of people who flooded the city turned to 
their co-workers and organized die-ins at work? What would happen if the growing 
mobilizations for a $15 minimum wage or decent work conditions at Walmart pushed beyond 
the narrow agendas of the union bureaucrats to affirm that #BlackLivesMatter at work as 
well as in our communities? Or if environmentalists could affirm that their movement is no 
less racialized than any other, and spend more time addressing the fact that communities 
of color breathe air that is 40% more polluted, and less time on photo-ops with Leonardo 
DiCaprio?

To uproot white supremacy from a society whose racism is historically ingrained, we have 
no choice but to expand the struggle into all areas of our lives and recognize how it 
thrives on capitalist exploitation, heteropatriarchal violence, and state control. And so, 
while we affirm the importance of intermediate demands that defund, restrict, and push 
back against police abuses in developing this popular movement, and stand in solidarity 
with those who promote them, we must remember: as an institution designed to protect the 
rich and enforce a de facto system of racialized terrorism in working class communities of 
color, the police cannot be reformed! The only solution is a popular revolution of 
strikes, occupations, and mass resistance to abolish the class society that spawned the 
police into existence in the first place.

original article:
http://brrnnyc.tumblr.com/post/105024009466/expanding-the-struggle-notes-on-the-future-of-the

by Black Rose Anarchist Federation/Federaci?n Anarquista Rosa Negra NYC