William C. Anderson chronicles the life of the Black anarchist who hijacked a
plane to Cuba to escape political persecution at the hands of the American state,and who revolutionized Black activism forever. ---- The definitive edition ofAnarchism and the Black Revolution (Anarchism and the Black Revolution ) isalready on sale. ---- It is no exaggeration to say that Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervinchanged the world. Countless people have been affected and influenced by yourwork over the years. Her story is a testament to the extraordinary possibilitiesthat lie just beneath the surface of many passing moments in our lives. The firstofficial publication of this legendary book, Anarchism and the Black Revolution, is yet another monumental occurrence in a life that feels almost like a movie.Lozenzo was born in 1947 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to her mother a domesticworker and her father a driver. With both parents serving the richest and whitestduring the apartheid of Jim Crow law, it wasn't long before Lorenzo inwardlyunderstood the risks of being Black.In his youth, Lorenzo joined the army during the Vietnam War where he had becomean anti-war activist. This was the first year that US combat forces landed on thesoil of a country that was still recovering from all the damage done byimperialist forces. At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement was taking placein the US. The Voting Rights Act was signed that same year that Alabama policemurdered protesters on "Bloody Sunday" in Selma and attacked activists associatedwith the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This historicalmovement organization would attract Lorenzo after his anti-war activism broughthim to court martial to be charged and finally discharged.Lorenzo sold the Black Panthers newspaper while working with the SNCC, which hadalliances with the party. He eventually began working as a member of the party,but later Lorenzo would be disappointed with the Black Panthers' leadership styleand other aspects. Circumstances then changed drastically shortly after theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr. A wave of rebellions and protests sweptacross the country, and as a result, Tennessee state officials called grandjuries to investigate and punish black activists and civil rights groups forcriminal charges. Accused of smuggling weapons and threatening to bomb a judgesympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan, Lorenzo fled to Atlanta. He decided to flee thecharges against him altogether and hijack a plane to Cuba.At the time of Ervin's departure, hijacking planes and fleeing to Cuba was muchmore common than people think. Cases where Radical Blacks did this were sometimesromanticized, but Ervin's experience highlights an important distinction. Shortlyafter his arrival, he joined other kidnappers before finally being arrested andplaced in solitary confinement by the Cuban government. Black Panther Partyleader Eldrige Cleaver (who was already in Cuba) had a strained relationship withthe Cuban government due to ongoing disagreements. The other Panthers would beaffected by the intensity of this situation which eventually led to Lorenzoobtaining travel documents before being deported to Czechoslovakia.His experience in Czechoslovakia was not much better. There he would be subjectedto harassment and monitoring by government officials before being detained oncemore. Despite Lorenzo's efforts to ensure his safety and the solidarity among theAfrican university students he interacted with, he was detained by the Americanconsulate in Prague. Lorenzo would flee again, this time to East Germany, whichin turn was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. It is at this pointthat he is captured by federal authorities, who would send him back to the UnitedStates after torturing him in prison.At the Federal Detention Center in New York, Lorenzo's life would change aftermeeting Martin Sostre, a prison attorney and Black Radical Educator. WhetherSostre knew or not is a mystery, but his encounter with Lorenzo would affectgenerations to come. It was Sostre who first introduced Lorenzo to anarchism andguided him, which he later reflected on in an essay he wrote about Martin:He threw a new word at me: "Anarchist Socialism". I had no idea what he wastalking about at the time... He explained to me about "self-governing socialism",which he described as a state free from bureaucracies and dictatorships ofparties or leaders. Almost every day he told me about "Direct Democracy","Communitarianism", "Radical Autonomy", "General Assemblies" and other things Ididn't know about. So I just listened for hours while he taught me.Sostre had already reshaped the prison system through a series of victoriouslawsuits around inmates' rights after his indictment landed him in prison. Hedidn't know at the time by teaching Lorenzo the Anarchist Theory, he would bechanging the course of politics for many around the world. Lorenzo was tried inthe small town of Newnan, Georgia, where he was sentenced to life in prison by anall-white jury. He was eventually transferred to the federal penitentiary inTerre Haute, Indiana. This, in turn, was a penitentiary known for its brutalitywhere the legacy of the Ku Klux Klan lived on.Anarchism and the Black Revolution was written in prison in 1979. It washandwritten and had to be hidden from the prison authorities, who could destroyit. The booklet was first produced by an anarchist collective in New York. Hiscase became an international Anarchist solidarity campaign, which eventually ledto his release from prison.Anarchism and the Black Revolution is the definitive writing of Black Anarchismin the United States. If not for this book, many people in the United States andaround the world would have significantly different political paths. This is notan exaggeration, as the book has outlined the contours of radical changes in andout of the most important black fights. That is, this text represents theunderestimated rejection of simple narratives that condense intricate storiesinto straight lines rather than complicated shapes. Its original text, and theexpanded editions that followed, detail a scathing critique of the failures ofthe Black Power and Civil Rights Movement. And he did so as a key text offeringthese critiques from a black anarchist perspective.Lorenzo insists that yes, the house and the plantation are indeed burning, but wedon't need to burn with them. As a rejection of reform and statism, he challengesus not to simply try to create a new state and paint it black or red. He asks usto go beyond what has been successful or failed in the past and think about theneed for the present. He assures us that liberation will not be achieved bymimicking what has not made us free in the past, and it will not be achieved bynot questioning what is happening around us in the present. It sets the stage formuch of what is happening before us, irrigating barren fields with the appeasingsustenance of visionary politics.>> William C. Anderson is a writer and activist from Birmingham, Alabama. Withworks published in The Guardian, Truthout, British Journal of Photography andPitchfork , among others. He is the author of "The Nation on No Map", andco-author of the book "As Black as Resistance" and co-founder of the "OffshootJournal". He also provides creative direction as producer of the "Black AutonomyPodcast" podcastSource: https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/anarchism-and-the-black-revolution/Translation > Adriano FilhoRelated Content:https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2021/12/08/eua-lancamento-anarchism-and-the-black-revolution-edicao-definitiva/https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2021/12/03/eua-lancamento-the-nation-on-no-map-anarquismo-negro-e-abolicao/https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2018/09/05/eua-lancamento-as-black-as-resistance-finding-the-conditions-for-liberation/anarchist news agency-ana_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten