It Could Happen Here - The Life and Theory of Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin Part 2 ft. Andrew

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

In part 2 of Andrew's episodes on Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin we discuss Ervin's model of survival programs in the present systemSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hey, and welcome back to another episode of It Could Happen Here with myself, Andrew, of the YouTube channel, Andrewism. Another episode of It Could Happen Here with myself, Andrew, of the YouTube channel Andrewism. If you're joining us from the previous episode, we touched on the life of Lorenzo Kambua-Uvin, who he was as a leading figure in the Black anarchist movement, how he ended up in that position, sort of his life story, and how he ended up writing Anarchism and the Black Revolution, and sort of breaking down that vision of a Black Revolution, including tactics like communes, squats, rent strikes, tax strikes, boycotts, general strikes, and of course, a Black Labour Federation. but that's not all that levin has

explored in his work and today we're going to dive into his vision for survival programs things to agitate for and actions the black community can take to survive under the current system now historically black communities have been subjected to economic exploitation with businesses and financial institutions often taking profits out of the community without investing in its growth and development and this of course has led to disinvestment poverty lack of resources for community members and of course persistent relative deprivation so the demand for community control of businesses and financial institutions that Irvin outlines is something that seeks to shift power and resources back into the hands of

community by placing control in the hands of community members it provides an opportunity to build economic power and to ensure that businesses and financial institutions work for communities rather than vice versa because such institutions and businesses would be under the control of the workers themselves so in a cooperative model members work together to achieve common goals and share the benefits and risks of a business equally the governance structure of a cooperative typically involves a board of directors who might who are elected by members to make strategic decisions on behalf of a cooperative typically involves a board of directors who might be elected by members to make strategic decisions on behalf of the cooperative but there are of course other ways of organizing including horizontal consensus all members of a cooperative have an equal say

in these decisions with each member typically having one vote and the board of directors is meant to just be accountable to members and act in the best interest of the cooperative. Now, cooperatives already exist. They operate in various industries, and they can operate in various industries, including agriculture, retail, finance, housing, healthcare, and more. For example, in a cooperative agriculture model, farmers can pool resources to purchase seeds, fertilizers, and equipment at a lower cost and then sell their crops collectively to increase

bargaining power and reduce costs. In a retail cooperative, members can buy products at a discount and have a say in the type of products offered, while in a financial cooperative, members can access bank and services and share in the profits that are generated by the cooperative. Cooperatives also often provide mutual aid and support to their members with surplus profits from the businesses, reinvested either in the businesses or distributed as dividends to members, which ensures that the benefits of the business are shared equitably and members have a stake in the success of a cooperative. Like I mentioned, cooperatives already exist exist which means they're capable of operating within capitalism but within a broader program of social revolution they're meant to build

our alternative power in a dual power struggle to eventually enable us to assert our independence from this system, as it were. But even here now, it is necessary to survive under this system, and I think cooperatives offer a more humane and more empowering model. Another example of that sort of cooperative structure could be found in mutual aid banking societies, again owned and controlled by the members and are created specifically to provide access to financial services and support to individuals and communities that have been traditionally excluded or marginalized from a lot of traditional banking systems so they function to provide low interest loans to members for various purposes

including you know starting businesses purchasing homes covering unexpected expenses and members are required to you know put in a certain amount each month to fund these sorts of loans. And in addition to providing financial services, these sort of societies can also provide education and support, help with financial planning, help with budgeting, help with financial literacy to enable members to better survive within their current financial situation under capitalism. And so that's one aspect of the survival program, right? And emphasis on survival. It's existed now in this system.

So that's one aspect of it. Pushing for community-controlled businesses and financial institutions and creating community cooperatives and mutual aid banking societies. Another aspect of that survival program that Ilven outlines is achieving community-controlled housing to help address issues of gentrification, displacement, and lack of affordable housing. Through legal and illegal means, such as rent strikes and demonstrations, armed actions, Ilven squatting to drive landlords out and take over the property. Those are more precarious approaches, right? And they're also the above-the-board methods.

I spoke about those approaches, some of those approaches in the first part. The quote-unquote above-the-board methods would be establishing things like community land trusts or CLTs. A CLT is essentially a non-profit organization that owns and manages land for the benefit of a community. The CLT can acquire land and then lease it to developers or residents who agree to use the land for affordable housing, who agree to use the land for affordable housing, which allows them to retain control of the land and ensure that it's being used for their good rather than being sold off to private developers for the sake of profit.

In a situation under a CLT where a homeowner wants to sell, wants to move, they can only sell the building that they occupy. They can't sell the land itself because the Community Land Trust ret can't sell the land itself because the community land trust retains control of the land the community land trust also retains the right of first refusal to purchase the buildings which basically means before you can try and sell the building to anyone else you have to give the community land trust the community itself an

opportunity to buy the building back um and that would enable them to also make sure that people aren't coming in to just profit off of such affordable housing. And they're also doing it so that the housing stays affordable so they can ensure that they can resell the building to somebody who's also seeking that affordable housing. And by providing that sort of housing, community land trusts can stabilize communities

and prevent displacement in the long term. They can help to revitalize distressed neighborhoods. And they can also invest into things like community facilities like pools and laundromats and gyms and that sort of thing in terms of how you actually create a clt um laws of course vary from place to place but essentially you form a non-profit organization obtain tax exam status acquire the land either through purchase or donation and then begin developing

affordable housing or community facilities on the land in addition to that a community land trust would need certain guidelines in place for leasing the land to homeowners and to maintain the affordability of the land over time. And of course community land trust requires a system of governance and decision making to engage in that sort of ongoing effort of involving the residents themselves and ensuring that they are educated in how community land trusts work and how this model could be expanded to other communities. Of course, establishing such a thing requires significant resources. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me as 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. 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 don'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 Jacqueline 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 and 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 audio books 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 Black Lit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another approach to community-controlled housing that also takes some resources is through limited equity housing cooperatives so in this model residents uh own and manage

the housing development they each have a same decision-making process it's run democratically um they each have a share in the cooperative which gives them the right to occupy a unit in development. The share price, however, is set at a fixed rate, which means the unit can only be sold back to the cooperative at the same price, which again helps to make sure that the housing remains affordable in the long term. so unlike with uh the community land trust where you own the building but you don't own the land in an lehc or um you know limited equity housing cooperative you don't own the building or the land you own a share and the cooperative owns the property itself you're also required of course to contribute a down payment and to pay monthly fees which helps to maintain and manage the property you know it's difficult to organize things as anyone with some experience organizing can tell you and something as high investment as housing is no different right it's a challenge

it's a challenge in fundraising it's a challenge in organizing people it's a challenge in ensuring that such efforts are defended and are able to establish themselves in the long term but it's still a promising model i believe for survival because of its priority on community ownership and control it really relieves that one major stress in a lot of people's lives in terms of affordable housing of course in the long term housing should be decommodified entirely but that is the future the survival program is for the here and now another aspect of the survival program that even talks about is food autonomy the establishment of black community-controlled food systems to you know establish self-sufficiency to control the

production distribution of food to ensure basic needs are met to ensure that black communities are no longer at the mercy of food deserts and needs are met to ensure that black communities are no longer at the mercy of food deserts and other systemic barriers to accessing healthy affordable food by creating trucking networks and warehouses and communal farms farmers cooperatives food cooperatives agricultural unions and other collective associations black communities can ensure that healthy essential foods are readily available. Rather than just treating the symptom, such institutions would treat the root cause of food insecurity, which is a lack of control over our food chains and food networks.

So, for example, a trucking network would be used to transport food from communal farms to warehouses, which could serve as collectively owned distribution centers for the food in a sort of a library economy setting. The warehouses could also serve as storage facilities for other non-perishable food items to bank seeds to distribute those seeds and other items and tools to community gardens and food cooperatives and such community gardens

can be established on vacant lots, on rooftops and unused spaces within the city particularly in areas where access to fresh produce is limited and all these efforts would involve members of the community who would be responsible for each step in the process and ensuring that such things are accessible equitably.

Food cooperatives within communities could, for example, be organized through sort of a share structure where each household or each individual has a share in the cooperative that entitles them to sit down to food each week. Or you could have in a sort of a library structure. There are different ways that you can organize it. You could even have as well agricultural unions provide support and training and education on sustainable farming practices, access to tools and equipment, financial assistance for farmers in need.

All these efforts would establish the foundation necessary for food autonomy under this sort of survival program that Uvin has developed. And as I mentioned in the previous episode, Ethan also talks about, under the survival programs, developing autonomous education, ensuring the community has control over every aspect of the educational system, from the curriculum and textbooks to the hiring and training of teachers and administrators.

And as I spoke about in the previous episode, you know, the same way the reactionaries fight and advocate for control of education is the same way that we can do the same. It won't be as easy, but we have to counter their efforts because they have already been countering ours. The minimal gains we've made in, for example,

ensuring that an accurate account of history is told in schools is already being fought against. So we need to go even further. Community-controlled schools would not only reflect community values, culture, and history, not only would they be designed to meet the specific needs of the children within them, not only would they provide a safe and a neutral environment to encourage creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, but they would also provide a space, provide a space an additional space for the development of people's powers and drives and consciousness towards liberation at any age i mean in addition to primary and secondary education

lovin also talks about free higher education programs remedial training programs reading programs trade programs all these things to help develop people's skills and education, knowledge that would help to equip them to address social, political and economic issues UFN also calls for a system of community-based self-defense to defend ourselves against various forms of violence, including police brutality, hate crimes, and vigilante attacks, without relying on government or law enforcement agencies to defend ourselves.

There are several components to this, of course. It would involve organizing and mobilizing community members to participate in self-defense training programs. It would involve weapons training. It would involve tactics for de-escalation. It would involve a network that can coordinate responses to incidents of violence, establishing community channels to quickly disseminate information,

enabling restorative and transformative justice practices to be included to keep the state out of resolving the conflicts between people in communities. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America Gasly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures 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. 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. 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. Blacklit 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. And then of course, unlike a lot of these law enforcement systems and structures,

a community-based self-defense program or system would also be involved in the prevention of such incidents of violence and harm and conflict from occurring. prevention of such incidents of violence and harm and conflict from occurring it will be involved in continuously evaluating and adapting to changing circumstances to analyzing the patterns of violence and gaps that are taking place in training or in resources and to continuously refine tactics and strategies and approaches to see to the long-term healing of the communities and the interruption of cycles of violence and generational trauma in the long term. Another component of these survival programs would involve medical training, large-scale medical training programs in black communities, providing individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to understand and address health issues. Black communities, especially those from low-income backgrounds in the U.S., often face significant barriers to accessing quality health care. healthcare it's due to systemic racism and oppression

it's due to inaccessibility and unaffordability of healthcare just generally and also the quality and resources available within certain communities specifically

and also the ways that health outcomes are worse if you are Black. Black mothers, or rather the Black maternal death rate is one particularly heavy example of these sorts of disparities. And so that's why we need community-based medical clinics and training programs and workshops and seminars led by black medical professionals public health

experts public health experts and community organizers who are versed in the social determinants of health and impacts of systemic racism on health outcomes and invested in seeing that changed. Such a program would involve medical, including dental, training. It would empower individuals to provide basic healthcare services and support their communities. It would involve training in first aid. It would involve healthcare screenings, health education, because under-representation in health matters, lack of education in one's own

personal health matters and too many people losing their lives as a result of that racial blind spot and as a result of that inequality and so a survival program in the here and now needs to account for that even also calls for the release of black political prisoners as part of a broader abolitionist struggle rooted in the recognition that the criminal justice system in the u.s has been used as a tool for political repression against black people and the marginalized communities he's speaking here from experience of course he wrote this when he was in prison mass incarceration of black people has been deliberate and systemic effort to silence and dissent to silence dissent and maintain the status quo

of white supremacy and white supremacist capitalism here are now survival programs should be involved in the release of black political prisoners especially to investigate review the cases of those who have been unjustly imprisoned to address the use of coerced confessions falsified evidence and other forms of prosecutorial misconduct that has led to wrongful convictions that has led to people rotting away in jail cells for decades with no sort of justice um i mean these people are often some of the most committed and dedicated revolutionaries, and their continued imprisonment has been

a grave injustice. Some of them, unfortunately, passed before they were even released, if they had released at all. And by demanding their release, by fighting for their freedom, by writing to them and supporting them even now, by showing our solidarity with those who have sacrificed so much in the struggle for liberation and ensuring that their voices are heard.

Not only can we aid in their survival, we can also aid in our own. Lastly, Yilvan calls for the ever contentious big payback. Reparations. the ever contentious big payback reparations living challenges us to build a mass movement in our communities to compel the government and the rich to provide the means for our communities redevelopment after centuries of slavery and of abuse and of robbery and of discrimination demanding those reparations in the form of community development funds to be placed in credit unions, cooperatives, and other mutual aid institutions in the Black community so that we can start to obtain some measure of economic self-sufficiency. But of course, from the question

of who pays, to how we force them to pay, to how we determine how much they pay, how that pay is distributed or implemented, if the pay is even in cash you know there's a lot of tension surrounding that topic i'm pro reparations not just for black america but for the entire diaspora uh i mean i've seen the u.s made sure to get reparations for itself and its allies after world war ii the victims of various atrocities have received reparations for their injustices but as soon as black people demand their due demand their due everybody you know they want us to forget about it yeah yeah everybody knows and i think part of that is because everybody knows that they can't actually afford it you know if we were paid exactly what we would do they would not have the wealth they have um

and so my stance has always been i don't think reparations will come by ballot i don't want it to come by ballot um i don't want to receive some check in the mail that says okay now be happy get over it um but let me not get myself in any more trouble I will leave it at that I don't think it will come by ballot you don't think that's reasonable yeah I've already said so much these past two episodes

I mean there are a lot of arms to this survival program let me bring things to a close a bit there are a lot of arms to this survival program let me bring things to a close a bit there are a lot of areas of struggle that we can pick up a lot of things can be applied of course most of these things I think can be applied beyond the black community but there's a reason that the black community

specifically was Irvin's focus because of his life experience, because of the need to address black communities specifically in in an anarchist text, something that was really lacking prior to the resurgence of the black radical tradition, the black anarchist specific tradition in the 70s. So it's necessary.

so it's necessary um but i just hope you know people who are listening who are not black didn't just you know click off that i still hear that these ideas and stuff these programs are applicable more broadly um i hope that i can see and contribute to these changes in my lifetime. And as I consistently borrow from Ashanti Alston, another Black anarchist figure, who I actually hope at some point we could bring on all power to all the people. Peace. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Peace. coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America.

Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and

culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday.

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