It Could Happen Here - The Life and Theory of Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin ft. Andrew, Part 1

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Andrew and Mia discuss the work of Black Anarchist revolutionary Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin and his theories of organizingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. Hello and welcome to another episode of It Could Happen Here with me, Andrew, of the YouTube channel Andrew Rizzo. Today I'm joined by Mia and today we're going to be discussing another leading figure in the black radical tradition. If you've heard the episodes on Kwasi Balogun, you know exactly what's up. Today I've got the first part in a two-parter about Lorenzo Camboa Irvin and his vision for revolution. Irvin's life has been one of resistance, resilience, and radicalism. His contributions to the anarchist movement,

especially his work on Black anarchism, even to this day with his ongoing podcast, continues to inspire activists around the world, myself included. So Mia, what has your experience been with uh lorenzo combo urban and his work yeah so i i've read anarchism the black revolution which i really enjoy i i've listened to not all of but like a pretty good amount of the black autonomy podcast that he runs which is great and so yeah i'm i'm i'm excited to talk about him awesome yeah he

really is a fantastic and necessary figure in this you know broader movement especially now uh for those who don't know uh lorenzo combo even was one of the earliest founders of the black anarchist movement uh which was a distinct tradition born out of the history of black radical politics in 1970s like black anarchism is not just oh we are throwing on an adjective onto anarchism there's a history behind it and there's a distinct tradition that accompanies it there were anarchists historically who were Black who were not part of this Black anarchist tradition. And, well, of course, Black anarchists who weren't part of those earlier movements. most notable sort of go-to examples is Lucy Parsons was a very important anarchist figure in the sort of the peak of the movement, at least in the US in the, you know, early 20th century.

But although she was Black, her contributions don't necessarily contribute to that sort of Black anarchist lineage. So let's get into Irvin, right? Born in 1947, by the time he was 12, Lorenzo Campello Irvin had joined the NAACP youth group and participated in sit-in protests that helped to end racial segregation in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was later drafted during the Vietnam War and served in the army for two years, where he eventually became an anti-war activist. And in 1927, when he was 20 years old, after his involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lorenzo Cumbo Irvin joined the Black Panther Party as a rank-and-file member.

Two years later, he hijacked a plane and fled to Cuba while he was on the run for attempting to kill a Ku Klux Klan member. But instead of receiving support as some Black radicals had received when fleeing to Cuba, Cuban authorities had jailed him, deported him to Czechoslovakia, and eventually he escaped from Czechoslovakia to East Germany before eventually being caught, tortured, and brought back to the United States. And then after being drugged during his trial, he was handed two life sentences by an all-white jury in a redneck town.

Tough break, as you can imagine. Irvin had very quickly become disillusioned with the dictatorship he had experienced in Cuba and the socialist countries he visited. And during his time in prison, he reflected on his life and found an alternative method for black revolution, distinct from the form he found in the Panther Party. Now, Irvin wasn't the first person to criticize the Black Panther Party's style of organization. One of the splits between the East Coast and West Coast Panthers

was on what form of organization they would take. I discussed that a bit in the Kowase by Lagoon episodes. And then, of course, there were other figures who came out to the Black Panther Party with their own criticisms, including, if I remember correctly, Asata Shakur and also Don Cox. While in prison, Irvin had begun receiving anarchist literature. And he also was starting to pick up what another black anarchist who he was briefly imprisoned with at the time, Martin Sostra, was putting down.

Martin Sostra is what I believe one of the first major black anarchist figures in that sort of 1960s, 1970s period. And so him being imprisoned with Sostra at the same time sort of really helped Irvin to understand exactly what anarchism meant and how it applied to a specifically black experience and black context Irvin was also inspired by Peter Kropotkin everyone's favorite Russian former prince and ultimately Irvin adopted the ideology of anarchism.

His case was soon taken up by the Anarchist Black Cross and the Helper Prisoner Opposed Torture Organizing Committee, which led to an international campaign that petitioned for his release. Irvin's writings on anarchism and the Black Revolution, which was written in prison, gained immense popularity and so he was released in 1983 after serving nearly 15 years in his book he emphasized that anarchism is the most democratic effective and radical way to obtain freedom for the black community but the black people must be

free to design their movement without the approval of North American anarchists. He believed that black people and other people of colour would be the backbone of the American anarchist movement of the future. The first edition of Anarchism and the Black Revolution was published quite a while ago. It's still the edition that is available in the anarchist library, which you can check out. But it is, I would consider it to be a sort of a rough early edition um there are certainly some typos and editorial mistakes and stuff that were addressed in the most recent edition uh that was published in i believe 2021 um and edited with some help from William C. Anderson,

who also is another leading figure in the modern Black Anarchist movement, having written works like Nation on No Map. Irvin took and still takes a principled stance against capitalism, white supremacy, imperialism, colonial oppression, patriarchy, queerphobia, and the state, recognizing that the government is one of the worst forms of modern oppression. His emphasis on intersectionality has played a crucial role in the shift away from class-exclusive analysis in the American anarchist movement, and today he remains active as i said recording a podcast called black autonomy with his wife and fellow former panther dronina so today we draw on from evan's book anarchism

the black revolution to delve into his picture of revolution in north america and beyond i think one of the strongest strategies for the development of a black revolution would be a black labor federation, as Irvin discusses in his book. Black labor has been a critical economic factor in America since the country's inception, and it was through the toil of black labor, beginning with slave labor in the old south and extending to sharecropping, farm labor, and migration to the north for factory jobs that the foundations of the American nation were built. However, as is obvious, black workers have been routinely excluded from that share of the wealth of the American nation and routinely excluded from the trade unions that struggled to regain some of that wealth like for example the

american federation of labor the national colored labor union the national colored farmers alliance and the brotherhood of sleeping car porters as well as the league of black revolutionary workers and other unions and associations of black workers were then formed to represent these interests that were being left out and not at all brought to the table. Black workers were very much instrumental in the Congress of Industrial Organizations campaign of strikes and sit-downs and other protests to organize unskilled industrial workers, but they didn't get to enjoy the benefits of their pivotal role. but they didn't get to enjoy the benefits of their pivotal role. Most of the black population is working class and black industrial and clerical workers still hold significant potential power in the struggle for black liberation.

A lot of these workers have already been organizing to defend their rights at work and advocate for their interests even if union leadership is conservative even if they won't challenge management, even if they're not even unionized. We see as well in modern times, a lot of black figures stepping up to organize these unions. The first union to be organized in Amazon was spearheaded by a black worker, Chris Smalls. was spearheaded by a black worker chris smalls and workers black workers across history have already been creating union caucuses and creating independent labor unions where necessary to push for their specific interests because i mean the unity of black workers and the rest of the

working class is essential to combat and overthrow capitalism but there needs to be a recognition within that unity of distinctly black interests and a distinctly black history which is why black caucuses within unions are able to take up the mantle of struggles that unions have turned a blind eye to such such as discriminatory hiring, firing and promotion practices and, you know, lack of equal treatment. I think these caucuses could even go further, as Irvin also argues, to democratize their unions, to eliminate some of these discriminatory practices and to really push for the radical fighting spirit that has been lost in some of these sort of reformist union structures the black caucuses and also the workers more

generally should be stepping up to demand democratic control of the union to demand equal treatment to demand affirmative action to demand full employment demand shorter work weeks to demand the right to strike the demand to shorter work weeks, the demand for the right to strike, the demand for social security and unemployment compensation, demand for livable minimum wages. Of course, all of these accomplishments or demands are really sort of short-term benefits that would still retain a capitalist structure but they're necessary nonetheless especially when unionization is at an all-time low historically one of the things that even also advocates for which i'll get into more in the future is this idea of unions advocating for companies to put aside funds specifically for programs to rebuild inner

city communities and provide work for black workers um and he also talks about worker self-management of industry by factory committees and workers councils and um elections by workers themselves but the main idea that he's pushing for at least in terms of black the black working class and black labor is as i mentioned a black labor federation both on a national level and on an international level a national black working workers association would serve as both a revolutionary union movement for workplace organizing and a mass social movement for community organizing, combining tactics from both the labor and the black liberation movements to multiply their numbers and build their strength and turn their unions into these militant class struggle instruments. into these militant class struggle instruments. An example that we can see in history during the late 1960s

was the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, which was organizing black auto workers out of the Dodge Revolutionary Movement. Sorry, let me rephrase that. One example of that type of organization could be found in the league of revolutionary black workers which organized black auto workers during the late 1960s the league had grown out of a major affiliate of it out of a major affiliate the dodge revolutionary movement and it was a black labor federation that existed as an organized alternative to the united auto workers which had been excluding black workers the league was also a very major

force on the streets as it was in addition to organizing its workplaces organizing college campuses and black inner city areas but its potential was stifled, unfortunately, by political faction fights among the leadership. There was a division between those who wanted to take a more Marxist-Leninist approach to the organization compared to those who wanted to take a more democratic approach to the organization. There was a lack of a solid enough organized base in the factories. There was significant company and united auto workers and state repression. Of course, organized racism, a lack of cooperation among white workers and other reasons that eventually led to the league splitting into mutually hostile factions that would die after less than five years of existence. Classic organized in history story. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill.

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Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot.

Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend, and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series,

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I don't think that we should look at these failures and use them as an opportunity to give up. I think we look at these failures and we them as an opportunity to give up. I think we look at these failures and we use them as learning opportunities, use them as opportunities to recognize, oh, we can do something like this, but not exactly like this. Yeah. And make sure that Baba Venkian is never involved at any point in the process. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, we still need these sorts of labor organizations and associations and unions

um we still need black workers spearheading these sort of organizations to organize other black workers and their communities to support the strikes and workplace organizing will be necessary for significant changes um and of course we need the groups to be established to avoid the pitfalls and ideological squabbles of Marxism-Leninism but beyond just the sort of American approach because in case those of you who don't know I'm not living in America, I'm not American

which is why Irvin also addresses and advocates for an international Black Labour Federation to wield the collective power of Black workers globally that have been universally oppressed and exploited. Around the world, as a racial group, Black workers have been oppressed as workers and as people. And this dual form of oppression um is really what emphasizes that need to organize for our own rights and our own liberation

um in african and caribbean countries including toronto bego there are um labor federations and labor unions but a lot of them are reformist, a lot of them are government control, and there's a lack of militancy. There's a lot of collaboration with the government and with companies they're supposed to be organising against. And so it's necessary to have an organisation with an internationalist scope that is pushing for solidarity,

that is pushing for radical change. And so I think that's the that's the real strength of an international black labor federation you know that idea of increased solidarity across several countries uh the idea of strengthening our collective bargaining power and ability to organize better working conditions of course we'd also have the benefit of shared resources and the benefit of greater visibility to the issues that we are facing in the workplace and in society and then of course there would also be the ability to exert using that visibility and resources and solidarity to exert greater political influence however you know an

international black federation we still struggle with political barriers particularly in countries that are actively hostile to that sort of organizing of course the powers that be would do everything in their power to keep such a struggle from being able to attain and maintain any kind of momentum or power the constraints of time and energy and resources and engagement may also prevent such a federation from gaining ground but i still i still think of all those issues that we should keep in mind if well developed i think that national regional and international caucuses can do a lot to implement significant changes. In fact, one strategy that Irvin advocates for is something that I believe an international Black Labour Federation or any kind of international Labour Federation

will be necessary to help to organize. And that would be a general strike. Because the vast majority of the black community consists of working class people in the US because many of them are engaged in manufacturing and medical service and communications and food production and retail

a lot of blue collar work that really makes the country go around really makes them an essential component to the capitalist economy and of the american economy um i think it positions them as really really key players in any sort of protest campaign that would involve forced racism and class oppression. And it could go even further beyond just stepping up and striking for demands in the workplace, control over the workplace. It could also go a step further and accomplish even more revolutionary goals.

And it would, of course, involve using tactics like industrial sabotage and factory occupations and sit-ins and slowdowns and wildcat strikes and other weak stoppages that would help to reassert our collective power of course as i'm always really careful to emphasize when I bring up general strikes they're not easy to organize um a friend of mine Alki he has a video on his youtube channel about general strikes and how they work and some of the history is some past general strikes um so that's I think that's required reading quote unquote reading to definitely check out um but yeah general strikes are not easy to organize they're not something that you could just call for on reddit or twitter or facebook or wherever you know it takes serious community and workplace mobilization it takes significant planning it takes strike committees and support committees um because and even defense committees when employer employers may be trying to retaliate

against striker workers or um blacklist or fire workers yeah and i would also say like something that i i think people okay there's not a delicate way to say this like look if you're going to be engaged in like a long-term serious general, you're going to have to do things like you're going to have to start seizing stuff. You're going to have to start committing theft in order to make sure that people can eat. Exactly. You're going to have to start appropriating stuff. Yeah, exactly. It's not just standing around in a picket line, you know?

Yeah, exactly. It's not just standing around in a picket line, you know, like a general strike is extremely involved and invested. You don't get, usually, you don't get two chances to do a general strike, you know? like you have that chance. And after that, they usually, if you feel you usually introduce legislation or put things in place to ensure that something like that never happens again. Yeah. Or you get like, there was a thing that used to happen back when,

you know, back in like the early 1900s when these happens a lot was you would get these general strikes, but you know, they would kind of, they would be be like like two days long and there's this great malatesta quote from oh it was 1924 i think where he's talking about how he's talking about the factory occupations that that started in italy in the the like during the the two red years and he has this line that goes general strikes a protest no longer upset anyone neither

those who take part in them nor nor those against whom they are directed if only the police had the intelligence to avoid being provocative they would pass off as a public as any public holiday one one must seek something else we put forward an idea the takeover of factories exactly exactly like you have to step beyond oh is this legal is this legal and look into oh what can we make possible you know yeah um i mean i don't mean to be flippant you know like it's difficult it takes so much organization and coordination of a large group of people there's always the

issue of scabs it can have significant consequences for workers who depend on their wages to survive and to support their families it can have a lot of ripple effects and it can also involve workers ending up going to it can have a lot of ripple effects and it could also involve

workers ending up going to jail or just losing their jobs. But still, it's a powerful tool that if we can recognize, if we can start working towards, if when people were calling for strikes

back in 2016 and 2017 and 2018 and 2019 and 2020 and 2021 and 2022, if all those years where we spent calling for general strikes, more effort was being put in to actually put the foundation in place for general strike to occur, then 2023, we would be prepared to support a general strike in a long-term way in a way that would actually signify you know revolutionary change in our lifetimes i mean don't be disheartened dear listener there's still potential for such a thing to occur it just takes preparation and organization and speaking of things to take preparation and organization another one of irvin's tactics is a mass tax boycott

you know people should refuse to pay any form of taxes to the government be it federal income estate or state taxes while they continue to be exploited because as he would argue you know the wealthy and their corporations pay next to no taxes while the poor and workers pay the brunt while they continue to be exploited. Because as he would argue, you know, the wealthy and their corporations pay next to no taxes while the poor and workers pay the brunt of taxation and do not receive any benefits in return. You know, all these taxes on income and goods and services, but communities are still suffering. And that money ends up going to fund the Pentagon

and defense contractors and consultants who get to, you know, loot the government for their own gain. So part of a black radical movement, or the black revolution as Irvin argues for, is a mass tax resistance movement to boycott taxes. Similar to the peace movement's war tax resistance, taking all the taxes that would have gone into personal property

all the taxes that would have been reaped from personal property and income tax and stocks and bonds and funneling that towards community development funneling that towards community projects and organizations as with any revolutionary action

significant legal consequences would be involved in that of course you know i think such a tactic needs some serious mass support and backing behind it to succeed and even then i don't believe it should be the backbone of any movement i think it's more so like an accessory in the event of a meteor rupture a single tool in a broader arsenal like i don't think the entire movement should be built off of tax avoidance you're just going to get a bunch of people thrown into prison there has to be a lot more to it than that when i look at the sort of cost benefit analysis like yeah it'll get a lot of federal attention but if it's not properly implemented i don't really see many immediate

benefits for the long-term goals of the movement i mean i could be wrong but it's not a tactic that i would personally favor um unless such a struggle is already in existence and in its later stages another type of boycott that's um even references is of course, the regular conventional, unconventional sort of boycotts used during the civil rights movement. A lot of black consumers would boycott particular merchants, public services, refusing to treat with merchants who would allow for racial discrimination and use that loss of revenue to force them to make concessions. Today, black consumers in the U.S. spend hundreds of billions a year in the capitalist economy. Of course, not all of those consumers are workers. And all those workers are able to boycott but i think boycotts are still a potential tool in the arsenal again to wage you know warfare economic warfare against uh corporate structures i mean it could be expanded from anything

it can be expanded to cover everything from specific products to entire industries right um dr martin luther king jr himself recognized the potential of a national black boycott dr martin luther king jr himself recognized the potential of a national black boycott of america's major corporations uh shortly after he was assassinated he established such an initiative called operation Breadbasket, which aimed, among other things, to force corporations to pour money into national black community development projects for poor communities. pressure but they I also believe are a little bit less effective in our modern globalized world due to the fact that you know a lot of these companies are owned by the same like three. They usually have ways to mitigate economic losses in one market by targeting other alternative markets.

Or even if they experience a dip in demand in one sector, they may still enjoy demand in another sector in another part of the world. And on top of that that companies can also use it as an opportunity to sort of get people off the movement for example boycott a second place they could say oh you're trying to boycott well we just put a sale out 50% off 60% off while stocks last and then you have people sort of you know breaking off of the movement and and i mean of course not everybody will do that some people are principled but

that is still a tactic that you see some companies using when they start to experience that sort of economic pressure they try to fragment the movement uh quote unquote votes in with your wallet even mass coordinated in my opinion is limited in its ability to challenge the root causes of oppression and equality i don't think it brings us any closer to anarchist world i think it only weakens the current world um so i think it's another tactic that really cannot act alone and then we've got another tool in yas now we We could call it a rent boycott, we could call it a rent strike. It's a way to achieve certain legislative changes and also a way to achieve certain more radical changes

if you get into sort of occupation and squatting and that kind of thing. In Harlem, in New York City, rent boycotts were so successful that it led to the creation of rent control legislation, which prevented evictions, unjustified price increases, and required reasonable upkeep by property owners and management companies. There is a track record of rent strikes providing some benefits, you know,

allowing tenants to negotiate with landlords and to bring certain issues to light and it could also bring about of course certain policy changes and push for or highlight further the need for affordable and accessible housing but again rent strikes are legally risky they can also be difficult to coordinate especially for those who really cannot risk uh eviction i mean nobody can really risk eviction right but that's where the risk sort of comes in um and then if there's a lack of support if the landlord has significant resources behind them there are also you know ways that it could go wrong i don't want to mislead um

like i want people to be aware of the reality of how difficult um this sort of organizing effort is all these organizing efforts are it's not a walk in the park it's not um you know like acts the end of act three and some revolutionary movie where the good guys are able to win with the power of friendship, that kind of thing. It's tough work and we have to be aware of the risks even as we engage in such actions. Levin also advocates for squatting in tandem with rent strikes. also advocates for you know squatting in tandem with rent strikes so in addition to withholding rent payments from exploits of landlords and banks also movements to engage in urban squatting to seize housing to seize empty plots of land to seize um unoccupied and abandoned buildings and to redirect payments that would have gone towards rent, towards necessary repairs to improve living conditions and to claim our cities for ourselves.

But again, while squatting does provide an immediate housing solution for those in need, while it draws attention to the issue of housing inequality, while it creates a sense of collective ownership and while it can help to improve all these neglected areas and urban environments it's also illegal it could also involve an eviction and arrest a lot of squatting conditions can be fairly unsafe or unsanitary particularly if a property is not up to a

particular standard and then of course squatting is also sort of temporary as a solution. It doesn't really address the root causes of housing. It is really a precarious position to keep people in. And it's another case where without mass defense and support, without a mass movement backing it up, it's going to be very easy to dislodge any gains that might be made in the short term welcome i'm Danny Threl won't you join me at the fire and dare enter

nocturnal tales from the shadows presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. As part of My Cultura podcast network.

Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few

more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me

in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works

while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Finally, Evan also argues for the establishment of the commune as a staging ground for black revolutionary struggle. The concept of the commune is basically like a dual power structure. An institution meant to compete with government power, to preserve as a counter to government power, in order to assert collective and community power. Forming and unifying

various organizations of struggle, taking control of existing communities and institutions, and working to fight against economic and political and cultural discrimination, exploitation, and servitude in this capitalist society. And he goes in to talk about inner

city communes as centers of black counter power and social revolutionary culture um to serve as sort of a living example of what revolution could look like i think this is a case where um at the time he didn't have the word for it but we do now and that would be prefigurative politics the idea of you know establishing these sort of institutions in the here and now that would be able to prefigure uh the world that we want to see in the future uh another component of these sort of communes is to provide a counter-narrative to sort of black capitalism

and responsibility politics that gets pushed out as a dominant narrative within black communities in the US. The commune, the black commune specifically, you can say was a place for a new society and a new culture to emerge that rejects the the internalization of oppression under this system and so when you want to get into sort of how the sort of community be established uh even talks about establishing community councils that would govern and even talks about establishing community councils that allow for collective governance and

be composed of workers from various industries and neighborhoods and delegates to organize communities on a block-by-block basis. He also emphasizes the need to reject Black politicians, bureaucrats, and mayors from sort of co-opting these efforts and ensuring that the community on the ground actually retains control over the institutions that they establish and develop and take control over to ensure that the community's needs and desires are met. One example that he uses is in the case of schools, right, where the community would organize parents, students, teachers, and community alike to cooperatively administer the schools. I think we see a lot of efforts by right-wing parents right now,

organizing to sort of run things in a lot of public schools. But that doesn't mean that similar efforts can't be undertaken by radicals to push for the same. Of course, it wouldn't be as easy because they aim to retain the status quo, whereas we aim to change things. because they aim to retain the status quo, whereas we aim to change things. I think it is sort of important to note too that it's like, it's not like this sort of like right-wing school stuff came out of nowhere. Like part of the reason this was happening was that like there had been movements inside the, like inside, sorry, let me rephrase that. There have been movements from teachers and from like inside the education system trying to sort of like you know i mean do things i teach black history right

and you know like part like these these are things that like these are kinds of movements that people really tend to ignore and really tend to sort of not think about the significance of but yeah i mean it's it's it's not like these sort of like right-wing versions of this came out of nowhere they were reaction to people you know doing a sort of more moderate version of the strategy yeah that's true that is true and so we have to push even harder to counter their counter efforts um and really assert that sort of transformation um in the education space and beyond just the education space um what even talks about is ensuring that these councils encompass a variety of organizations not just blocking neighborhood

communities but also labor unions student groups social activist groups and even specialist you or single issue campaigns and issues the idea is of course to continuously promote self-rule to continuously develop people's powers and drives and consciousness toward liberation and to continuously offer an alternative to this pervasive sense that all this is is all there can ever be it's it's necessary to sort of incubate this sort of embryo of a revolutionary society, this microcosm of a new lifestyle, and to highlight the necessity of struggle against these systems. And when I speak of consciousness, I'm also speaking of specifically black consciousness speaking of consciousness

raising sessions to ensure that black history black culture um is accessible and available and understood by the black community to ensure that newly liberated and like social ideas and values uh are distributed within the community to ensure that counseling and therapy are available, rooted in of course a black revolutionary perspective to help people to realize that this disunity and distrust and violence and oppression that occurs due to this legacy under this system does not have to continue to be so but that's it for me and for Uvin for now you can join us for part two where we can dive into the day-to-day aspects of this five-hour program

that Uwe describes to build Black resilience in the here and now. If you're looking for me on the internet, you can find me on youtube.com slash Andrew Issel and you can support on patreon.com slash St. Drew. Peace.

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