To All White Anarchists – by Dan Baker

…and liberals

I write this on the anniversary of the MOVE bombing by police (1985) and the execution of James Conolly, leader of the IRA’s Easter Uprising (1916).

May 12-13, 2022

I challenge all white anarchists, and liberals of all races, to read The Nation on No Map by William C. Anderson. I’ve been reading constantly, and building a dialogue with black prisoners, for the past sixteen months, and this book is the single best work that I have read. William has set the standard for all anarchists and allies of oppressed people worldwide. This book is easy to read, condensed, brief, accurate and brave. He tells truths I have been trying to share with the white and intersectional activist community, and the comfortably blithe liberals. I discovered this exceptional book through AK Press via the Noname Book Club out of Los Angeles.

William explains that liberals and pacifist civil rights leftists simply preserve and seek to mollify the same State that oppresses black people. This system is not broken, it was built on the foundation of slave labor, and functions by catching people and enslaving them, today in prison plantations, called “work camps”, “institutions” and “penitentiaries”. I’d like to add that the enslavement of white people by white people has been made possible by the enslavement of black people and so-called “foreigners” and “minorities”. Additionally, the captivity of men has been brought about by the housewivisation of women. All male prisoners and their captors are subject to what women have experienced since nation-states first began to domesticate strong women by turning them into dependent housewives. This process came about by applying animal husbandry to people. These are the roots of all slavery, and by changing the way we live, think and eat we can overcome civilization’s control and achieve true liberation.

William rejects the partial citizenship that the white supremacist United States government offers to black people, because for all Americans their patriotism is rooted in a myth of exceptionalism, a smug sense of superiority, and republicanism in the form of “representative” government officials who really only represent the business interests of their sponsors. He documents the fact that the “founding fathers” were slave owners and that modern police came about as a continuation of slave catchers who were recruited to patrol in order to quell slave uprisings, like Nat Turner’s, and to prevent slaves from learning how to read and write. There were times that Irish indentured servants joined black slaves in violent revolts, before the ruling class, especially the British, considered the Irish to be white. In exchange for betraying black slaves, some Irish were granted favors, including “Whiteness”. This also occurred in indigenous uprisings – the traitors were granted token “white status”. But, some Irish, indigenous and black slaves went “off the reservation” to join a more humane tribe of free communities. Many indigenous Mexicans are descended from tribes who refused to submit to diabolical colonialism.

I respect William’s rejection of celebrity, fame and leadership. His focus is on everyone’s needs being met. He is truly refusing careerism – there is no price tag on this book, and no copywrite restrictions. I also admire the bold principles he openly advocates in these times of State violence. We do need to abolish borders, nations and states. We also need to learn from black gangs – They are effectively organized self-defense structures who fill a gap otherwise colonized by slave catchers. White supremacist militias are actively recruiting homeless people, especially homeless veterans. If we don’t, they will.

These fascist gangs are training, hunting, and killing people, in their communities and on the Mexican “border” for sport. I grew up in a racist community in Jupiter Farms, Florida and have declined invitations for such pogroms. Those people enthusiastically agitate for a race war, and when they say “the south will rise again” they mean it with the same zealous tone I heard from Jihadis screaming “Allah Akbar!” while they tried to kill me. “Vanilla Isis” is Christian White Nationalists and their flavor of “Y’all-Qaeda” is just as virulent as Salafi Jihadism. While you sleep on them, they’re training to kill you. Learn to fight and shoot.

The Future is female and if we want to survive we must support women’s rage towards abusive and patriarchal structures and people. This means ending cycles of behavior, thoughts and speech reinforced by prison culture, profit driven politics and housewivisation. The criminalization of sex work, abortion and so-called infidelity all subjugate women. The concept of a man claiming a child as “his” is a root of violence, kidnapping and patriarchy. This violence is reinforced by toxic male egos demanding to know if they are the sperm donor for each child in question. Women are free to fuck whoever they want, and to bear or not bear whoever’s child they want. We must support structures for and by women which protect women from abusive men. At the same time men must not expect women to live with them in exchange for, or under threat of denial of, resources and emotional labor. As William points out, women are criminalized for defending themselves from violence and even passive aggressive abuse that ruins communities. Women are also turned against each other, being trained to view each other and themselves from objective male perspectives.

William also points out that the U.S. And its prison industrial plantation is not broken – It’s doing exactly what it was made to do. It is built on and perpetuates slavery, genocide, domination, colonialism and never ending wars. He documents the need to embrace a variety of strategies and tactics to defeat this Leviathan: legal, illegal, passive, aggressive, nonviolent and violent, harassment, debate, petitioning, donating, sponsoring lawyers, legal fees, supporting prisoners, sit-ins, lie-downs, boycotts, strikes, songs, prayers, riots and shooting from windows. The State does not have a monopoly on violence. We must not identify with our oppressor. We are from America, but we are not Amerikkkan.

He also quotes Lucy Parsons to remind us that voting in Amerikkka is largely a ritual that serves to pacify uprisings. All this electoral college does is allow us to look at one side of the same coin every so often. Both parties are part of the wealthy ruling class at the top of a pyramid. Under them the slave catchers keep us separated and exhausted from trying to survive. We don’t need to flip it over and receive a new tyranny – we need to rip the blocks down and form a horizontal, circular community, not a hierarchical triangle with haves and have-nots. According to the supreme court’s Dread Scott decision, this United $tates of Amerikkka was not made to allow black people true equality. Any “white” person who refuses to help the black community is implicit in this systematic oppression. The legal structure of England has been documented to be the same. Even “emancipation” failed to notify all slaves or even enforce their token “liberation”, as the grim holiday Juneteenth reminds us.

Along with rejecting police, the military and courts we must apply revolutionary intercommunalism. The Black Panthers laid down some groundwork in this respect, and by applying militant feminism we can continue to grow. This is a never ending process.

I offer the self criticism that I have idealized flawed figures from leftist history and herstory. William makes very good criticisms on this subject. While I am an anarchist because I reject leftist, and all, authoritarianism, I am still sentimental towards the Shehids, the martyrs. I particularly enjoy William’s references of Zen Buddhism’s methods for dealing with dogmatic mysticism and tyranny.

I support this book, the author, the people it’s for and its message. We are ungovernable. We stand in solidarity with the oppressed. We will never give up. We may feel there is no escape, nowhere to run to escape capitalist modernity’s colonization – so we choose to fight over flight. If we can’t run neither can they. They are trapped here with us, not the other way around. There is no going back. Harriet Tubman and John Brown pushed rebellion to an insurrectionary stage, then moved towards a social revolution. This war never ended. We have to be willing and able to fight.

Dan Baker 25765-509

FCI Memphis

PO Box 34550

Memphis, TN 38184