Occupation: Liberation

Resistance in Brooklyn at OWS
Matt Meyer

 

Resistance in Brooklyn (RnB), a 20-year-old anti-racist, anti-imperialist collective rooted in the 1970s/80s movements in solidarity with struggles of communities and nations of color, is awed by the creativity, tenacity, and commitment of the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. RnB has been working with Occupy since early October, focusing most of our energies in support of the People of Color caucus and in an OWS Anti-Racist Allies group.

In addition to behind-the-scenes help with trainings, facilitation, solidarity, and strategizing about anti-COINTELPRO-type activities, we also helped initiate the Occupy Halloween actions and played a support role in the NYC-based Council of Elders visits. Meeting with Rev. Nelson Johnson and Council Coordinator Joyce Hobson Johnson of North Carolina, we affirmed their sentiment that “Occupy Wall Street is a continuation, a deepening and expansion of the determination of the diverse peoples of our nation to transform our country into a more democratic, just, and compassionate society—a more perfect union.”

Our major written contribution to the Occupy movement nationally was “Occupation: Liberation,” seven anti-imperialist talking points for Occupy and our current movements for developing sustainable resistance communities:

  • Racism is only one aspect of a larger system of white supremacy.
  • Anti-racism must mean solidarity with (and respect for) self-determination, autonomy, and freedom by people, communities, and nations of color.
  • There are no “special white folks” who know all there is to know about anti-racism.
  • There is no such thing as progressive color-blindness.
  • Effective struggles against racism must also be against colonialism and imperialism.
  • All struggles against all oppressions are interconnected.
  • Trainings can only take us so far. We must live the work we believe in and be willing to make and learn from our inevitable mistakes as we move from militant actions to lasting social change.

See the WRL blog for the full text, and resistanceinbrooklyn.ows [at] gmail.com (contact Resistance in Brooklyn).

Matt Meyer is an educator-activist based in New York City who serves as convener of the War Resisters International Africa Working Group.

Matt Meyer

Matt Meyer, New York City activist-educator, is founding Co-Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Organization and co-author (with Bill Sutherland) of Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation. A longtime member of WRL’s National Committee, he was a public draft-registration resister in the 1980s and served as WRL’s Chair. He is author, editor, or contributor to nine other books, including the 2012 WRL co-publication We Have Not Been Moved: Resisting Racism and Militarism in 21st Century America.