Cross-Coalition Movement Building in the 21st Century – at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem
What does it mean to be a good “ally”? More importantly, what does it mean to be sisters and brothers in arms? To struggle alongside others and be a worthy companion? To be engaged together in the same movement against the same global oppressions?
I was moved by the words of panelist Zulu Nation member Queen Benyu Maa’t:
“We need a paradigm shift from revolutionary politics to programs in our own community for self-determination…Things that are concrete and doable now…Just do the work…Withdraw from playing reactionary politics every time they do something because they will keep upping the ante. We need to have a different focus now. There’s something other than hitting the street running. Love is just as powerful a force. I wish we can tap into that. That is our power…. We’re all facing the same mess. We may look different, but we’re all dealing with the same struggles. Let me see more of you in me. Our fight is one and the same – there is no difference.”
For Queen Benyu Maa’t, the reactionary politics that she is talking about is the riots around Ferguson. While mass demonstrations like these, and the coalition-building around Akai Gurley, have been critical in raising the national consciousness around issues of state violence against communities of color – there is also a need for us to create community-based solutions now, safe outside the system, rather than continue to invest power in state institutions and carceral politics.
Gabriel Kilpatrick (Secretary of the Guillermo Morales-Assata Shakur Center/CCNY) responded to a question about whether revolutionary politics is still relevant today with this answer:
“You can’t be violent against a state, against such overwhelming power…I believe in standing firm and being smart as well….It’s common knowledge that strengthens us.”
How can we practice smart resistance in solidarity with one another? The kind of community-based solutions that will not be appropriated by the state and used against us? Ruben An, a community organizer from CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, spoke about rethinking violence – from criminalization of individuals and communities, to state violence and economic violence. Rethinking assimilation. Assimilation to whom? Thinking beyond our own communities, and beyond assimilation.
I am inspired by the lifelong activism of Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama, and the way they worked together to build a common understanding of Asian and African / African-American struggle. Malcolm X reached out to Kochiyama’s family while they were in Japanese internment camps, and he took an early stand against the war in Vietnam. Recognizing the revolutionary potential of the Third World within, Malcolm X said: “Vietnam is the struggle of all Third World nations – the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.”
Yuri Kochiyama wrote about this in a newsletter for CAAAV:
She also spoke these words that light up my heart:
“The movement is contagious and the people in it are the ones who pass on that spirit – because of that, it makes you always want to be part of it.”
Continuing in her legacy, her granddaughter Akemi Kochiyama, a teacher at a progressive school who regards her daily work as inspiring a new generation of activists said:
“Be good listeners. Build bridges, not walls.”
Being a better listener: that is what I am taking away from this event. But beyond listening and supporting, being an ally means taking action to win real change, and get justice and equality for people who are faced with the most oppression in their daily lives. I am inspired by Kochiyama’s dedication to alliance-building with the Black Panthers and Young Lords, helping to form the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners. She was politicized through her own people’s struggles in the Japanese internment camps, but through that politicization, she did not focus only on the struggles of Asian Americans, but recognized that the oppression of racism is one shared with African Americans and Latin Americans – influenced by the thinking of Malcolm X, Kochiyama recognized that our common struggle is one of neo-imperialism and global economic injustice, and she dedicated herself to the work required in that common struggle.
“We never viewed her as an outsider,” said a friend and fellow activist of Kochiyama, “She’s part of the pattern in the fabric of her community.” What a compliment that is!
As an activist, I’ve taken a much needed break away this year from sex worker rights, mainly because I recognize that in North America, the dominant voice calling for rights has been led by white, middle class, liberal feminists, whose liberatory sexual politics are wonderful, but often lack an analysis of economic and racial inequality. How can we fight criminalization without fighting alongside the people who are most criminalized in this country? I’ve decidedly moved away from mainstream sex worker organizing in the U.S. context towards anti-criminalization and the movement against mass incarceration and militarized policing. I want to be a better “ally” – and that is a title that is earned through action, not words. It means giving my time and energy to being fully in support of that work, not because I want them to recognize my own struggles as a sex worker, but because it is the right thing to do.
“I will challenge with every step. I will challenge with every breath. My life is my power.”
Concluding this post with three zines on how to be an ally:
- “Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex – An Indigenous Perspective” (IndigenousAction.org) PDF
- “So you want to be an ally! A zine on anti-oppression, allyship, and being a less shitty person” (Wombat Cascadia) PDF
- “Creating the Coop We Want…Creating the World We Want: an ally’s guide to fostering anti-oppression in housing cooperatives, collectives, and democratic communities” (NASCO) PDF
SWOP-USA also has numerous links to resources on how to be an ally to sex workers, including this PDF on how to be an ally to street-based sex workers.