

As a black anarchist working in the Miami scene for a number of years now, I felt it necessary to speak on my experiences. If you, as a revolutionary, do not speak up about the issues in your organization or within your organizing scene locally, you are doing both yourself and your community a disservice. This is not because there is a lot to be gained from our white allies – although there is some to be gained – but rather because Black liberation struggles have been known to persist within the left, and we are often one of the first to have our struggles lost in their reductionism.

White allies in organizing spaces are systematically allowed to absolve themselves of struggle and are free to go home to perform self-care away from the fight, a fight that is so tangentially intertwined with our very existence. In this panel, I discuss my personal experiences with this.

My solution, and the solution purported by Black Anarchist theorists, is to embrace the Art of the Revolution. Ethos requires criticism and the doing away with the unnecessary.

We change, our struggles change, and yet white allies tend to stay the same.

We must thus either create anew or take tactile action. What we do represents what we think.



— Venus

by Black Rose/ Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation:

"Our hope is that this reader will serve as a fruitful contribution to ongoing dialogues, debates, and struggles occurring throughout the Black diaspora about how to move forward toward our liberation globally. “Anarchism,” noted Hannibal Abdul Shakur, “like anything else finds a radical new meaning when it meets blackness.” While this reader brings us closer to “a radical new meaning” for anarchism, there are glaring gaps that need to be filled to get a fuller picture of Black anarchism, particularly the vital contributions of black women, queer militants, and more folks from the Global South."

In struggle,

Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra