Praise and Critique of Campamento Contra La Junta

French Toast for the prole.

The mobilization against PROMESA in Puerto Rico has been slow but steady and strong like a tortoise. And like a tortoise, Campamento Contra La Junta will become massive. The local media has tried to depict the participants as dirty, unemployed college students that are just hanging out. I would say the discipline and organization is superior to what I had observed in Occupy Portland although Portland had mobilized more people initially and did not obtain support from the mayor.

San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, of the Popular Democratic Party, has provided verbal and material support up to now for the protestors. The camp area receives regular visits from the cities sanitation department providing trash pickup and portable latrine maintenance. That does not mean that this has been an easy occupation.

Totem of  Devils

Most of the participants I have encountered have been staying at the camp and going off to their jobs then returning to continue working on the camp site. As I said in a past article Work and Resistance, capitalism does not accommodate organizing or resistance. The same still applies to colonialism. There are folks sacrificing personal time off and leisure time to stand up for the rights and emancipation of millions of people. The work to maintain themselves and donate their energy and labor to disrupt the operations of the federal government. All of this is happening in the heart of the financial district amidst the towers of Banco Popular, UBS, AIG and other devils.

The camp does not exist just to become contested space. This action has created an opportunity for dialogue between people that would never have met. One of the major topics is decolonization and independence. Can you have independence without decolonization? Is independence the same as decolonization? My own outsider opinion is that independence or autonomy is part of decolonization but independence itself does not equal decolonization. Hawaii on the other hand was “decolonized” in status and made a state but it still is very much colonized. So decolonization is not independence but independence would be a milestone for progress in that direction. Once you achieve independence you likely will have to deal with neo colonialism where a former occupying nation matins or strengthens political and economic control over a former colony nation. All that this can be another article for another time soon.

My critique of the Campamento Contra La Junta is the dominance of voice and space of European or White presenting individuals. There is an abundance of people of color but directing voices seem to come from folk with white privilege and people of color, especially women of color and queer folk get drowned out. To be clear I observe this not so much in the evening meetings but in conversations and discourse in the camp. It is not something that goes unnoticed but some folks may be tired of fighting for space. The fact that it is even discussed and acknowledged gives me hope. It has given me a chance to put into practice not taking space and making sure others are heard. I hope I can contribute to women of color and queer people going a voice. There is a lot of work to be done when it comes to our misogamy and the silencing of queer voices. We are getting there but more is needed. Too often ,as a collective,we put it off feminism and equity. 

Intersections at the Intersection

It is creating a space that educates and is now starting to agitate. Just the other night I had a conversation with a young person who felt awaken and empowered by this action. The impact does not look huge and glamorous but the impact is there and I hope it will have a lasting effect and increased momentum. I believe that the camp is serving as an incubator for some bad ass radical folks.

If you live in Amerikkkan and are anti-colonization then Boriken should be on your radar. What is happening on the island should not be ignored and needs the material support and advocacy of the very people that benefit from the subjugation of Borikuas.  Reach out to them on Facebook and follow this blog for further updates.

If you enjoyed this article check out Through Our Own Eyes at KBOO 90.7 FM and get a post card from Puerto Rico when you make a donation to our project before the 1st of November 2016.

Work and Resistance

Are you working? Because I see you dedicate your time to protest. What about your stuff? Rent, bills, utilities, food, clothes, etc. etc.? While you protest who pays your bills?

That is the question I and many other radicals in resistance have confronted for a long time. It is tiresome but it is challenge given to us from our family, coworkers, critiques and often passerby at actions. “Liberals with no jobs just whining and complaining about the world only to make the rest of us late for work.”

I make time and try to organize my life around resistance and study. I try to be available to help others.I defy capitalism by my time to defeating it. I still need to buy minimal security from capitalism and all its ills. I pay rent, buy food and transportation. I hardly make enough to live but I do make more than some of my cousins back home for the same job.

Capitalism doesn't accommodate people in resisting it, you must accommodate yourself to resistance. We may have different priorities when it comes to free time, we may very well have different needs, Still, assuming that someone in protest and is organized, focused and hard working for liberation of others as well as themselves does not have a job is insulting. Or is it?

I try to take it as a call for help. The message for me is more like. “ I am envious that you can be out here fighting against the system that crushes us both, but how do I know you are real? How can you even make a living and fight capitalism? Are you rich or something, or on a trust fund, to leach off of social services. I want what you have. I want your freedom. How dare you flaunt it in front of me when I  can not afford it.”

The answer for me is that i steal time and my agency.  I am poor so I do not have much bills anyways,because I can not afford to have much in the first place. I do every thing I can to fix things that break so not buy it new. I pan my day out and organize around my work schedule. If I need things I ask my comrades  and friends. I also try to volunteer my time and labor to those that need it. I try to prioritize the people, things and projects I care about and even those I don't know.. Some folks take vacations, some people go out drinking, some stay home to stream movies or tv shows. I don't have a car so i can not go very far, i try not to drink and I think i have seen a everything in my queue. Mostly, I chose to help people the best I can and feed my mind. I enjoy long car rides when they are possible, I like spending time with folks, or just reading.

I like to be spending my time on what i think is an emergency. Boriken is being sold of bit by bit and so are the people, Afrika as a continent is being stolen by imperialist and capitalist forces, people in the philippines that need rice get bullets instead, children in Palestine for being too close to a wall, friends near me suffer from depression and are in danger just because people think their genitals matter, the environment is being destroyed to feed the trust funds of the elites, I am living in a crisis. I can numb myself or I can fight it but I can not ignore it, I refuse to ignore it all. I do what i do because standing by and watching hurts me. I resist because I have agency and will not work the fields only to end up feeding the fields for the benefit of a master.

You can get mad, you can curse out, flip off or just ignore some one that says that to you. Or, if possible, you can tell them that you work and it is because you work you feel the urgency to fight against the system that exploits you for your labor. You can tell them it is hard, maybe even harder than your square job because you make no money but run many risk. Working against capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism has required me to study, take notes, wake up early, stay up late, interact with hostile people, clean, serve food, plan projects write emails, run fundraisers, provide security, plan systems, write articles, my resume gets fuller and fuller every month.

As a radical worker I have to take some emotional abuse, do conflict resolution, check my own behavior and words, work with people I don't like, and get harassed by crappy people in authority. The only difference between my square job and my activist work is that I as an activist i chose my projects and production level. I chose without being threatened  with hunger and homelessness.. I feel I must do the work because I love the people in my life and want them to live a decent life without being exploited.

You owe nobody an explanation but try to take the opportunity as one for learning and relationship building. Do not appease to the person's logic but to their values. If their values are escaping or numbing themselves from capitalized all its ills then just let them. But maybe just maybe some of those folks are scared and want an alternative. Capitalism trains us to be in competition with each other, against each other. Capitalism teaches us to distrust not just others but ourselves. Capitalism clouds our minds with easy to understand lies and small empty gestures. Not all of us are awake and resisting, some of us are just awake but don't care. All of us started asleep or scared, some of us still are.

Don't be ashamed to work a square job, don't be ashamed if you are unemployed. Take pride in your acts of resistance and share power with people. Demonstrate if you find you can not convince people. Sometimes someone needs to see what you are doing and why you do it.

Resisting capitalism an organized way is hard work. Helping people around you is work. It can be very hazardous the more effective you are in dismantling a system of oppression. It scares some and makes other envious. Capitalism, keeps you late for work, capitalism threatens you with poverty, hunger and illness. Capitalism steals your tax dollars, ruins your schools and wrecks the environment. Capitalism keeps you depressed and unhealthy. Capitalism will dispose of you when you can not produce and eat your children. Resist capitalism in your free time. Do it on lunch, on breaks, before work after work, Friday to Sunday Monday to Friday.

PALANTE,SIEMPRE PALANTE!