Some Basics of Anarchic Black Radicalism in the ‘Anarkata’ Turn

With all this talk about elections, and the insistent demand that Black people be focused on matters of the State, those of us who consider ourselves ABRs (anarchic Black radicals) find ourselves constantly having to emphasize that our egalitarian concerns and ‘anarchy’ truly are compatible. Which is to say, in our opinion, it is not necessary to bring about liberation for the oppressed through the State. We wholeheartedly maintain that Anarchy is at the cutting edge of social/environmental justice — particularly such as is advanced by Black, queer, disabled revolutionaries.

Anarchy is not chaos. There is a popular, propagandistic idea that anarchy is about chaos. This lie is perpetuated to convince us that only in relying on the very Massa (or Massa’s house — systems, structures, etc.) which abuses us can we remain safe. Anyone who believes this, however, is thinking like a liberal, even if they claim to be revolutionary.

Anarchy instead describes a mode for humans to exist in/with our environment. It is a condition of planetary affairs where the very need for governance, rule, authority, positions of power is undone.

Anarchy assumes that positions of power are not ‘adaptations’ to our material conditions, but are corrupt forms of relating as humans within our environment.

Hierarchy/authority are maladaptive or nonadaptive developments in our socio-ecological co-evolution. Ultimately, they exist in service of class Antagonism

Shamara Shantu-Riley says that history is one where ‘humans inextricably bind the material domination of nonhumans with the economic domination of other human beings.’ This is class antagonism. When a group imposes their material interests onto human/nonhuman others.

Our relationship with/in the environment is thus determined by and reliant on these binds/dominations imposed on us by powerful humans. It is worth adding that the modern definition of ‘human’ comes with its own unique material basis — colonialism and capitalism — as we learn from Sylvia Wynter.

And it is crucial we understand that relational arrangements such as the modern Westphalian state/citizen paradigm and Western cisheteropatriarchal nuclear family are used to control our socio-ecological life in order to uphold imposition of Western ‘human’ imperial/capitalist interests.

Anarchy, therefore, in this encompassing formulation that we center in the ‘Anarkata’ Turn, is a revolutionary proposition that seeks to destroy cishetpatriarchal, colonial, capitalist rule, and ultimately to put an End to the history of material domination of nonhumans and social/economic domination of other humans.

In an anarchic world, people are freely operative with the earthly source of our (social) empowerment, thus having access to the resources we need without having to rely on the very people who abuse us. This will not be a utopia, but it will be a truly adaptive mode of existence, where our capacity to respond to and overcome challenges is made possible and is activated through the liberation of the most marginal and the shared, informed leadership capacity our communities.