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.

A Colony to Rule All Colonies

Great. They are going to open an artisanal mayo shop!

Ever wonder what colonies the Empire of the United Snakes of Amerikkka poses? I know that some settler folk here on turtle island never even give it a second thought. As I have stated many times colonialism is spoken of as a foreign thing from another time. This may come to a shock to some of you but the Amerikkkan Empire is itself also a colony. It would fall under the category of a minority rule colony. A minority rule colony is when a minority group, often settlers from an empire, hold power over indigenous folk in the region they have colonized. Examples would be the Ottoman Turks, Imperial Romans, the protestants under British occupied Ireland and current examples are South Afrika,Australia and the USA.

Confusing? Try this out. Initially, when Europeans settled in the Amerikkka's they were minorities, yet they pushed out, killed, kidnapped, raped and subjucated many indigenous people as the moved out and dominated large areas of land in proportion to the population of their settlements. In North Amerikkka during the 1800s there was a greater push west that was supported with the use of military force. Roving patrols of US cavalry hunted and murdered indigenous folks in one of the greatest genocides in known history. This practice was justified by the ideology of manifest destiny. Manifest Destiny was a belief, endorsed by democrats, that Amerikkkans had the duty to expand west and recreate the continent into utopia that would lead the settlers to fully abandon their old world roots and create a new agrarian based nation.

Those indigenous folk that survived were put through programs to whiten them and their progeny in blood and ideas. Those that resisted, were executed, jailed or confined to reservations. The few descendants that exist in the USA today live in poverty and are considered ward of the state. There is much celebration of their culture but usually in ironic and insensitive ways.

The USA has also upholded some dated ideas of race and ethnicity. Some of the indigenous nations crossed what is now considered the Mexican and Canadian borders. Many indigenous people in the Amerikkka's crossed and interacted with each other, only limited by their means of transportation. We can find evidence of this is the languages of indigenous people. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer speakers of many languages each generation in North Amerikkka. Fortunately, in the caribbean and South and Central Amerikkka there are languages that are still commonly used in spite of efforts of European settlers efforts to eradicate them.

The people that are called Hispanic or Latino in the Amerikkka's forthe most part are neither of those things. Hispanic implies that a person is of a Spanish culture. If Amerikkkans are not English then how can we consider indigenous people Spanish all because that is the language they are presumed to speak. Nor can it or should it be based on who invaded and occupied the region. If that was valid then inhabitants of Iraq, Germany, Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, Philipines, Japan would be Amerikkkan?

This brings me to the meaning of colonialism and imperialism

Although they are closely tied together there is a difference. Imperialism is when a nation gains influence over another nation through military force or hard diplomacy. Iraq, Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, Japan,Philipines, South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, Brazil, Honduras, Somalia and Jamaica are examples of nations strongly influenced by Amerikkkan imperialist activities.

Colonialism is when a nation settles and has direct control over a people and its resources. Puerto Rico, Amerikkkan Samoa, North Mariana Islands, Guam, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, Alaska and Hawaii are all colonies of the Imperialist USA. Some of the residence from these colonies pay taxes and social security to the USA and almost all have to register for selective service but other than Hawaii and Alaska, none of them have any representation or the ability to vote in presidential elections. Citizens of Amerikkkan Samoa have to apply for citizenship. Puerto Ricans and Hawaiians can not afford to live on their islands.

When you start to scrutinize it you see that Imperialist Amerikkka is not about equal right other than the right to starve. Even among European settler folk there are hierarchies of whiteness with rural or poor Europeans crushed on the very bottom. Capitalism is the driving force behind these practices. Racism is belief system used to justify the exploitation of other people and their labor. When there is an absence of people of color, Imperialist Europeans have subjucated those considered lesser europeans. The Austrians oppressed the Germans and Polish, the British subjugated the Irish and Scottish, and the Amerikkkans exploited immigrants and refugees from the old world. Italians, Askanazi, Russians, Germans, French and Swedes were not considered white by Amerikkkan settlers. Even Benjamin Franklin considered those of Saxons decent superior to all other Europeans.

In the the Amerikkkan narrative we see that whiteness is a privilege in itself and even some European folk do not fully benefit from it when interacting with other European folk. Those that possess whiteness are few and distribute some privileges and has the ability to make a group of people honorary whites if they properly assimilate or display satisfactory whiteness. This privilege in Amerikkka comes with the precondition that a group of people abandon their heritage and history unless they are mocking it. St. Patrick's day in the US is a perfect example. In Ireland it a religious holiday,in the United Snakes it is an Irish minstrel show that seems to mock Irish people and for one day “everyone is Irish”.  I suspect that Asians in the United Snakes are next up for honorary whiteness as they are often portrayed as a model race. In a few more generations, they too may benefit from white privilege but only a select few.

The number of “whites” that live and hold power on turtle island is negligible. White is an idea not race. It is a standard of purrity, beauty, status and righteousness that has its roots in capitalism. When people around the world speak of Amerikkkans they speak of  not Irish-Amerikkkans, Afrikan-Amerikkkans, Jewish-Amerikkkans, or even Native-Amerikkkans. When the world speaks of Amerikkka they speak of the few “whites” that hold the power and and wealth. The USA is a minority ruled colony with imperial power and influence. This regime sits on land that it took in a long and bloody jacking and rules the ocean deep and the night sky. Its wealth was built by people stolen from Afrika. Those of us that live under this regime and do not possess witness are not a minority.

We have numbers and we have each other. We know how to work the fields and run the machines. We know how to manage resources and how to share them. The capitalist imperialist exploiters through their hubris and laziness have relied on our labor and our fear. More and more of us are awoke and soon we will seize the means of production. Indigenous, Afrikan, Asian, South Pacific and European workers can overthrow our masters and control our collective future to save our species and this planet. The power is in us all. Many of us can labor to serve a small group why not labor for each other? We know hard work all we must do is study, organic and fight. As individuals we are limited in what we can achieve but together we can take the stars.

Palante,Siempre Palante!