Anarchist People of Color
From Infoshop OpenWiki
Anarchist People of Color is an anarchist movement created to increase focus on issues of race in the anarchist movement and increase political space for people of color.
APOC is not a centrally organized organization, but a loosely organized network of groups and individuals. Collectives exist across the United States, in states including California, Texas, New York, and Oregon.
While there is no formal APOC organization at this point there is an email list and website which features a blog, forums and an archive of articles.
There have also been several APOC conferences held, including in Asheville, North Carolina, Houston, Texas and Detroit, Michigan
[edit] History
Although the the current anarchist people of color movement is relatively new, anarchism articulated by people of color traces its roots to those like Martin Sostre is one of the best-known people of color in contemporary history to articulate anarchist politics, as was Kuwasi Balagoon. Balagoon, the late anarchist and former member of the Black Liberation Army, looms perhaps larger than Sostre due to his many writings on oppressed people and anarchism. Pieces like "Anarchy Can't Fight Alone" are still widely read manifestos for self-determination. Former Black Panthers Ashanti Alston and Lorenzo Komboa Ervin are two of the most visible anti-authoritarians of color, but the movement is decentralized and diverse.
The forerunners of the APOC movement came about in the 1990s, with the formation of collectives like Black Autonomy International and Black Fist. Black Fist published a zine for Texas prisoners and is notable for its alliance with revolutionary Black prisoner collective Amistad-March 31. Greg (Jackson) Lewis of Seattle edited the Black Autonomy newspaper for BAI, though Lorenzo Komboa Ervin was known as the group's most visible member. BAI became the most active theoretical mover about concepts of Black anarchism -- ideas that would later influence APOC.
The key point for what is now known as APOC is the founding of the anarchist-poc email list and website by Ernesto Aguilar. The illegalvoices.org site was the first broad collection of writings and dialogue by anarchists of color. Beyond the email list, there are no 'members' of APOC nor any national organization, although local collectives, inspired by the email list, have sprouted up across the United States. The APOC email list was controversial among anarchist circles at the time of its founding (and even today) for its rule that only people of color could be members of the list. NEFAC ("My Class is My Race," Northeastern Anarchist) criticized APOC supporters for focusing on racial issues. However, APOC is credited by many in the anarchist movement for bringing a more open, inclusive perspective on race, culture and politics to modern anarchism.
On October 3-5, 2003 approximately 140 anarchists of color gathered in Detroit, Michigan to participate in the first ever Anarchist People of Color (APOC) Conference.
