Black anarchism, also known asNew Afrikan anarchism orPanther anarchism, is ananti-authoritarian andanti-racist current of theBlack power movement andanarchism in the United States. It is characterized by itsintersectional analysis of different forms ofoppression, its skepticism of bothauthoritarian socialism andEurocentric anarchism, and its advocacy ofcommunity organizing,armed self-defense andrevolutionaryblack nationalism.
Black anarchism draws its origins back to the work ofLucy Parsons, who developed a form ofsocial anarchism with an intersectional analysis and called for Blackself-determination. AfterWorld War II, links formed betweenanarcho-pacifists and Black activists of thecivil rights movement, leading to the development of an anti-authoritarian tendency within the latter, with some groups such as theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) adopting adecentralized structure. Anarchism also partly inspired the programs of theBlack Panther Party (BPP) and fit into itsintersectional analysis of the relationship betweenwhite supremacy,economic exploitation andpolitical repression by thestate.
Black anarchism as a distinct tendency first emerged from theradicalization of some rank-and-file members of the BPP, who were critical of thecentralization of power under the party leadership. These people includedAshanti Alston,Kuwasi Balagoon,Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin,Greg Jackson, andMartin Sostre. Their anti-authoritarian analysis of the BPP leadership led them to encounter anarchism, which they adopted due to its anti-authoritarian commitment to decentralization andconsensus decision-making. Upon entering the American anarchist movement, these Black anarchists found that White anarchists were often unreceptive to their ideas on anti-racism and Black autonomy. As a result, Black anarchists established their own organizations, dedicated to pursuing anarchist approaches to anti-racist struggles and strengthening anti-racism within the anarchist movement.
When Black activists first joined theAmerican anarchist movement, largely dominated by White men, they added perspectives ofanti-racism to the existing focus onclass struggle. Nascent Black anarchism was distinguished from White American and European anarchism due to the experience that Black anarchists had withracism, which brought them to prominence within anti-racist social movements. Black anarchism highlighted the institutional racism within the white anarchist movement, which suppressed participation by Black people, and sought to build a movement that better represented Black people and drew from their experiences.[1]
Lucy Parsons developed a form ofsocial anarchism that concerned itself with both thelabor andcivil rights movements, as she considered racism to have stemmed fromcapitalism.[2] She drew attention to the intersectional oppression of people of color, includingwidespread lynchings in theSouthern United States, which had previously been neglected by White anarchists.[3] InThe Alarm, the newspaper of theInternational Working People's Association (IWPA), Parsons publicised a lynching of thirteen African Americans that had taken place inCarrollton, Mississippi. In her article, titled "The Negro", she discussed the poverty that many African Americans lived in, demonstrating the connection between racism and classism, and called on African Americans to resist their oppression throughracial uplift,self-determination andarmed self-defense.[4] Parsons' views on the dual racial and class oppression of African Americans led her to encourage them to join the socialist movement, as she considered that the dissolution of the state and the end of capitalism were necessary to create an anti-racist society.[5]
In the wake ofWorld War II, Black activists of the nascentcivil rights movement began to form links withWhite American anarchists. This led to a notable influence ofanarcho-pacifism on the movement, withMartin Luther King contributing toDavid Dellinger's magazineLiberation andBayard Rustin finding employment with theWar Resisters League (WRL).[6]Anti-authoritarian practices were subsequently adopted by civil rights organizations such as theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), whichPaul Goodman allegedly described as an essentially "anarchist organization".[7] Under the influence ofElla Baker, who declared that "strong people don't need strong leaders",[8] the SNCC was organized along adecentralized andgrassroots structure, and remained independent of other civil rights organizations.[9]
Over time, Black anti-authoritarians grew increasing critical of the movement's leadership, theBig Six, who they accused ofopportunism andcorruption. In aclass analysis of the movement,Ojore Lutalo declared that the leadership didn't have the interests of all black people in mind: "Just look at howthey live today and look at howwe live."[10] In reaction to the prevailingliberalism of the civil rights movement, and its perceived failure to achieveracial equality, theBlack power movement first came into being. The movement initially dedicated itself to electing Black people to political office and establishingblack nationalist groups, but later distanced itself fromintegration and began to focus on ways to achieveautonomy from the United States.[11] UnlikeBlack liberalism, which sawracial inequality in the United States as having stemmed fromSocial exclusion andracial intolerance, the Black power movement considered inequality to be a product of institutionalwhite supremacy.[12]
In its "Ten Point Program", theBlack Panther Party (BPP) took a critical stance on the intersections between white supremacy and theeconomic exploitation andpolitical repression of Black communities. Furthering thisintersectional analysis, many Panthers extended this into a critique ofpatriarchy,social stratification and thestate.[10] The Panthers were also influenced in part byanarchism, publishingSergey Nechayev'sCatechism of a Revolutionary and creating their own version of theDiggers' free food distribution system, theFree Breakfast for Children Program, which itself influenced the later work ofFood Not Bombs.[13] The Panthers and other Black power organizations of this period upheld arevolutionary form ofBlack nationalism, advocating for autonomy from White society and for Black communities themselves to build that autonomy.[6]
During the late 1960s, violent clashes between Panthers and the police became more common, as the former became increasingly frustrated with a lack of progress on racial equality and the latter intensified political repression against Black activists, who became targets ofCOINTELPRO.[14] At the same time, corporations attempted to stem the radicalization of the movement by increasing funding for moremoderate organizations, such as theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and theNational Urban League (NUL).[15] By the 1970s, declining membership numbers in the BPP and the "oligarchization" of the party leadership led to thepolitical polarization of its remaining members and theradicalization of some towards armed struggle against the state.[16] The party experienced a split, as theOakland-basedcentral committee reoriented itself towardselectoralism. Meanwhile, many of the party's autonomous groups throughout the country fractured along various different lines, with some becoming involved incommunity organizing and moving towards anarchism.[17]
Drawing onelite theory, some rank-and-file members began to see the party leadership as responsible for the party's decline, as the BPP was transformed from a "large decentralized, revolutionary organization" into a "small, highly centralized, reformist group" under the one-man rule ofHuey P. Newton.[18]Kuwasi Balagoon became increasingly disillusioned with the party's leadership structure, as thecentral committee divorced itself from and dictated commands to other chapters around the country, without any internaldemocracy. He adopted an anti-authoritarian analysis of the party, which he characterized as a "hierarchy"; Balagoon believed that the party had declined due to its leadership's turn away from organizing towards fundraising, its top-down structure that stifled the rank-and-file, and the development of a quasi-capitalist class within the party leadership.[19] Others, likeMartin Sostre, accusedBobby Seale ofselling out and attempting to join the "pig system".[18]Ashanti Alston himself expressed regret for his "uncritical acceptance" of the party leadership: "After all, what does it say about you, if you allow someone to set themselves up as your leader and make all your decisions for you?"[18] Both Sostre and Alston believed that the party'sMarxist-Leninist orientation made it inclined towards political repression and intolerant ofspontaneity andparticipatory democracy.[18]
At this time,Eldridge Cleaver'sNew York-based faction had split off from the party to establish theBlack Liberation Army (BLA).[17] Many Panthers on theEast Coast, including the anti-authoritarians Ashanti Alston and Kuwasi Balagoon, joined Cleaver's BLA, which they intended to serve as the military wing of the Black power movement.[6] Another organization that advocated for Black armed self-defence, thePhiladelphia-basedMOVE, even took up anarchist politics, favouring autonomous andcooperative forms of living and upholdinganimal rights andenvironmentalism.[13]
One of the first Black activists to convert to anarchism was the African American bookstore ownerMartin Sostre, who was already considering anarchist ideas in the late 1960s. By 1972, he had begun studying sketches ofMikhail Bakunin andPeter Kropotkin, but remained cautious of introducing anarchism into the Black community, worrying that others would not be able to relate to them. Over the years, Sostre developed a critique of the BPP's Marxism-Leninism, which he considered to be a program for replacing ruling elites rather than improving freedom and equality.[20]
Anarchist ideas then spread through Black activist circles byword of mouth.[21] It was Sostre who introduced anarchist ideas toLorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, who deepened his understanding of the subject during his time in prison in the early 1970s.[22] Experiences with incarceration played a large role in radicalizing Panther activists towards anarchism, as time in prison gave them space to re-assess the movement's weaknesses.[21] Ashanti Alston was himself introduced to anarchism by the Panther activistFrankie Ziths, who wrote of Black activists' need to learn from the history of theMakhnovshchina, lest they themselves be betrayed by White communist activists.[23]Ojore Lutalo was likewise introduced to critiques of Marxism by Kuwasi Balagoon, who considered Marxism to be ineffective for organizing Black communities and opposed its tendency towardsbureaucracy and political repression. Lutalo himself became convinced of the efficacy ofconsensus decision-making, believing that people had the capacity to govern themselves without being ordered to by individuals or organizations with political power. Drawing from this attitude, Alston summed anarchism up as "power to the people where it stays with the people".[23]
While this group was united by their identification with anarchism, their individual perspectives on racial identity influenced their adoption of different labels for themselves. In his bookAnarchism and the Black Revolution, Ervin described this new group as "Black anarchists", although this label wasn't universally adopted. Balagoon and Lutalo self-identified as "New Afrikan anarchists", emphasising their identity as Africans rather than "African Americans". Alston himself took the label of "anarchist Panther", under which he published a magazine during the early 21st century.[24]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, American anarchist organizations began to take up theanti-racism of the Black power movement, culminating in 1990, with the establishment of theLove and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, which itself included Black anarchist members such as Ashanti Alston and Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin.[25] However, following their entry into the American anarchist movement, Black anarchists found that their ideas on anti-racism were rejected by many White anarchists. Black anarchists struggled to achieve representation within the movement, which they felt emphasised the pressing need for intersectional analysis within anarchism.[26]
Balagoon was particularly critical of White American anarchists for their lack of understanding of white supremacy and racism, as well as their opposition to national liberation movements. Alston himself argued that White American anarchists were ignorant of the African American experience with white supremacy, which damaged their ability to be effective anti-racist allies. TheIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW) and Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation resisted Ervin's efforts to establish autonomous working groups for people of color, with some leading members accusing him of "separatism". To Ervin, the reluctance of white anarchists to allow people of color their own spaces had stifled their interactions and even culminated in expressions of racism and condescension, resulting in him feeling out of place in the "overwhelmingly White, middle-class, and for the most part, pacifist" movement.[27] Despite this, Ervin continued to advocate for Black anarchism and attempt to establish spaces for anarchist people of color, believing that African and Latin American people would inevitably come to "constitute the backbone of the US anarchist movement in the future."[28]
The Black anarchist movement's approach to anti-racism, which drew on the BPP's earlier targeting of racist institutions, contrasted with majority White anti-racist organizations such asAnti-Racist Action (ARA), which focused on opposing overt manifestations of racism and white supremacy such as theKu Klux Klan. Black anarchists were critical of the ARA for its focus on overt racism as opposed to institutions of structural racism, as well as itsracial color blindness. Despite these issues, many anarchist organizations began to draw on some of the BPP's earlier tactics, establishingCopwatch andAnarchist Black Cross (ABC) networks to respectively oppose police brutality and supportpolitical prisoners.[29] Over the years, anarchists increasingly noted commonalities between their own principles and those of the black power movement, including their shared advocacy ofpeople power andmutual aid.[30]
During the 1990s, Black anarchists established their own organizations, such as theBlack Autonomy Network of Community Organizers (BANCO) and theFederation of Black Community Partisans (FBCP),[31] which gained chapters throughout the country and introduced anarchist approaches to movements againstracial inequality in the United States.Greg Jackson also published the newspaperBlack Autonomy, which over its four-year run introduced more people to Black anarchist ideas and publicised news of police brutality and urban insurrections.[32] Black anarchists also participated in theAnarchist People of Color (APOC) movement, which brought together African, Asian and Latin American anarchists throughout the United States. APOC collectives providedsafe spaces (described as aquilombo byPedro Ribeiro) for its members to provide each other with solidarity and strategize on anti-racist initiatives, away from the prejudices of the White majority anarchist movement.[33]
Drawing from the perspectives of the early Black power movement, Black anarchism takes anintersectional analysis ofoppression, is critical ofreformism and advocates forrevolutionary nationalism. Black anarchists are intensely critical ofauthoritarian leadership structures and top-down organizations that separate the leaders from the led, which they see as having contributed to the failure of Black power organizations such as the BPP. Although they reject the authoritarianism of the BPP, they continue to uphold its platform ofcommunity organizing andmutual aid, which they believe can increase the influence of anarchism among marginalized people. They also advocate for thearmed self-defense andself-organization of marginalized communities.[34]
Black anarchism is critical of all forms of oppression, and thus upholds not onlyanti-statism, but alsoanti-authoritarianism,anti-capitalism,anti-clericalism,anti-homophobia,anti-imperialism,anti-racism andanti-sexism.[35] According to Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, African Americans can fight against oppression in all its manifestations by engaging in traditional anarchist practices, includingboycotts,labor strikes,rent strikes andtax resistance, as well as by participating in thepolice abolition movement. Ervin also proposes that each community's needs be met by the communities themselves through the establishment ofcommunity councils,mutual societies andcooperatives, and by extendingcommon ownership over food distribution, education and industrial production.[36]
Black anarchism thus upholds arevolutionary approach toBlack nationalism. Ashanti Alston considers black nationalism to have been an effective way to unite African Americans and drive forward social change, despite its historical problems withsexism andhierarchy. Alston proposes that revolutionary nationalists themselves are obliged to resolve any such problematic hierarchies within their movement, which would provide an anti-authoritarian approach to nationalism.[36]
Black anarchists generally rejected narrow or explicit forms of anarchism that ignore issues of race and national oppression. Pedro Ribeiro defines it as a deformed "white, petty-bourgeois Anarchism that cannot relate to the people" and that refuses to talk or deal with issues of race by saying "No, don't talk about racism unless it is in that very abstract sense of we-are-all-equal-let's-sing-kumbayas-and-pretend-the-color-of-our-skin-does-not-matter anti-racism."[37]
Most recently, activists and scholars have emphasized the importance of Black anarchism in the formation of histories surrounding theBlack Liberation Army,Black Panther Party and other modes of the Blackradical tradition beginning withslave rebellions in the European colonies of the late 18th century to the present day. InAs Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions of Liberation, activistsWilliam C. Anderson,Mariame Kaba andZoé Samudzi, describe the necessity of Black anarchism in current political struggles, arguing that:
"Black Americans are residents of a settler colony, not truly citizens of the United States. Despite a constitution laden withEuropean Enlightenment values and a document of independence declaring certain inalienable rights, Black existence was legally that of private property until postbellum emancipation. TheBlack American condition today is an evolved condition directly connected to this history of slavery, and that will continue to be the case as long as the United States remains as an ongoing settler project. Nothing short of a complete dismantling of the American state as it presently exists can or will disrupt this."[38]
