Members of the revolutionary African anti-imperialist organization Black Alliance for Peace during the #FreeDedan campaign

On Joining an Organization

Revolutionary organizations provide avenues for addressing the issues that are affecting communities, welcoming conversations that build trust and respect through political education, group process, consensus, and mass building. Members of revolutionary organizations are principal participants and decision-makers working towards change. If this isn’t happening in an organization, then that organization is not interested in building “another world”. That organization is not for you. . . .

three crumbled pieces of paper and a light bulb representing a good idea

The Myth of Good Ideas

This essay was originally published in Tenement Yaad Media, a Caribbean focused media platform.  As people who want ‘good’ for Jamaica, one of the realities that we all have to accept is that there is no objective “good” or anything that everyone will support and agree on. We have to do away with the liberal illusion of ‘objectivity’ including the ideas that debates are just about finding the best ideas, that there are things that will ‘work for all’ of us, and that maybe “our leaders” just have not thought about them yet. This type of thinking is something we . . .

Safiya Bukhari - Enemies and Friends: Resolving Contradictions

Enemies and Friends: Resolving Contradictions

The following is an excerpt from Safiya Bukhari’s The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & Fighting For Those Left Behind. This section is titled “Enemies and Friends: Resolving Contradictions and it was written some time in the late 1980s or early 1990s, during a time where those who had been targeted by COINTELPRO were trying to recover their relationships and figure out how they would be able to continue to do political work together. We have written extensively about the environment of mistrust created around the imprisonment of Geronimo ji Jaga. That environment contributed significantly to the solutions that Safiya offers in this work.  . . .

Funeral for Black Panther Party member Bobby Hutton

When You Die, What Will People Say About You?

Get in the practice of periodically asking yourself the same question.  If you were to drop dead right now, what would people say about you?  The answer to that question will never be provided by how many internet arguments you believe you won.  It won’t materialize based upon how many people you overtalked or abusively dominated.  And, it won’t be influenced by whatever image of yourself you spent so much time constructing that has absolutely nothing to do with who you really are as a person.  . . .