On The Ineffectual Nature of Rioting

"...colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is a naked violence and only gives in when confronted with greater violence."

"The colonized man liberates himself in and through violence. This praxis enlightens the militant because it shows him the means and the end."

- Frantz Fanon

Fanon argued that violence allowed for true liberation because the colonized, through means of violent resistance, can achieve both the removal of the colonizer and the liberation of the colonized subject. He goes on to argue that the process of decolonization is "the immobility to which the colonized subject is condemned can be challenged only if he decides to put an end to the history of colonization and the history of despoliation in order to bring to life the history of the nation, the history of decolonization." Ultimately, Fanon simply puts that decolonization is the constructive process of a new human being.

In regards to rioting

No doubt, rioting can be an inspiring spectacle, sparking the imagination of the people to what destruction of the current system can look like:
We must understand, however, that rioting can only take resistance so far. The large question that Fanon poses is this, "But how do we get from the atmosphere of violence to setting violence in motion?"

In rioting we see a sort of hibernation therapy - actions that put pressure on the power system and allow the oppressed to let off steam but quickly dissipates and is easily co-opted and pacified by the system. It is no surprise to see countless riots happening all across the globe and yet not one government is overthrown and no real concessions are made - in fact, the G8 and the G20 still met and operated - business as usual. Even the inspiring Greek Anarchist riots last December yielded no fruitful results. What ends up happening at riots is that hundreds of people are arrested and countless others are brutalized by the State -so essentially, instead of the collapse of a system, we see the expansion of the prison industrial complex and an almost unrelenting method of organized violence against the people, by the State.

In rioting, there is no real goal in mind and riots are often reactionary and destructive at best. We must remember that true liberation also involves construction - most importantly, construction of a new human being. This is key. Powerful movements such as the Black Panther Party, did not strictly involve resistance, but also implemented constructive aspects. The Black Panther Party ran extensive Serve The People Programs which ranged from free breakfast programs, free medical clinics, to political education as well as true Black history classes. In fact, armed resistance against police occupation of their communities, while a crucial aspect of the Party, was only a small aspect of the operation of the Party in relation to all the other activities they carried out. Same with the Viet Cong movement.

What differentiates a movement aimed at decolonization and liberation as opposed to a colonizing movement is that decolonizing movements aim to also construct a new human being and to replace the colonizing force - not simply repeat and continue colonizing tendencies of blind brutality and oppression. Therefore, if we want to see a movement aimed truly at the liberation of humanity from the oppression of humans by other humans, we must see a movement that has the means to actually liberate itself (through violence and forceful resistance) while at the same time, through liberation, see the construction of a new era of human beings.

The shortcomings of liberation movements, such as the Viet Cong movement or the Bolshevik movement, was that there was a failure to implement the construction of the new human being. What we see in history is that these 'socialist experiments' failed because there was never a true material implementation of the construction of a new human, rather, it fell short to nothing more than cheap political rhetoric, therefore, we see these otherwise inspiring experiments repeating the same colonizing practices they were originally fighting against.

We must remember that colonization involves the construction of the colonized subject by the colonizer and therefore, to completely decolonize, we must undo our construction in light of colonization and replace it with our own liberated constructed human being.

So in conclusion, rioting is more detrimental than positive to any movement. Rioting subjects otherwise useful comrades to being jailed, or killed by the hands of the bloodthirsty pigs without true cause. What is needed is organized resistance so that when we fall to the hands of the pigs, we do so while in the process of constructing a movement and ultimately, our own liberation at any costs.

Hey, we are all swimming in this soup. Remember, you're brave!

Sweet, reassuring words that kept me going through the night. That plus a few drinks too many accompanied by far too many incoherent conversations and dialogues.

Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment... 'dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of the love -- which is to transform us.' Many people want love to function like a drug, giving them an immediate and sustained high. They want to do nothing, just passively receive the good feeling.


I couldn't have said it better myself. Love, I've concluded, is the process in which people become mutually committed to building a meaningful and critical relationship - to be invested and accountable to the welfare and growth of your partner and of your fellow human beings. This means maintaining commitment even in the presence of hardships and tribulations rather than severing ties. This means allowing room for individual differences but uniting over commonalities to foster the growth of something mutual - the two don't have to be exclusive and shouldn't be.

Until this is achieved and understood, there can be no room for revolution. In order to combat our socialization and institutions of oppression, we must first master how to love one another and how to love ourselves.

Love must become the language of growth for revolutionaries with militancy and self-defense as the language of resistance. The two cannot be mutually exclusive - it is through love of yourself, of others, and of community that must compel one to use any means necessary prevent harm or further oppression of that which you love, and you must use love to simultaneously create a better world and to prevent yourself from being stuck in a cycle of constant resistance and destruction as opposed to construction.

How do we combine the two to create a comprehensive language of revolution?

Off the motherfucking Pig!

I was just shown these videos today during SEAC (Southeast Asian Collective) and seriously, it pissed me the fuck off. Pigs (police) piss me the fuck off in general, but seriously, emerging new material of blatant police brutality piss me off to no end.

Basically, what happened was that Phuong Ho, a 20 year-old exchange student from Việt Nam, got into a scuffle with his roommate who called the cops on him, resulting in Phuong getting beat with batons and tasered while handcuffed face-first on the floor with a cop sitting on him. Motherfuckers.

The first video is the actual documentation of the crime, while the second video is Phuong Ho's testimony.

In the second video, in which Phuong describes what happened, he says that while he bent over to pick up his glasses, after asking the cop for permission they took a night stick to his back. What a bunch of fucking cowards. The man was bent the fuck over you assholes. The interview is on point to a large degree. If you're getting the shit kicked out of you, in a tiny ass hallway, it's goddamn near impossible to comply to every command on whim. It's a fucking cruel Catch 22 because the pigs are beating his ass for 'resisting arrest' but he can't comply because they're beating his ass, handcuffed on the fucking floor in a cramped corridor.

There is absolutely no excuse for pigs being given the ability to use any force - especially force to this degree on anyone.

What's even more sickening is that the police department claims this couldn't possibly be a race related crime because "In addition to the fact that we have a number of Vietnamese officers who actually are a part of our department. If anything, we're trying to do more recruiting from within that community." (San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis). Fucking pigs ass motherfuckers. I am so pissed. Way to fucking objectify token people of color you asshole. And trying to recruit more from the community?! Those are just recycled colonialist tactics to divide the community and to create inter-community conflict! Bullshit! These are the same tactics that the French colonialists used against the Vietnamese because there's no better way to split a community than to turn its members on each other and giving some members special badges and uniforms is a sure way to destroy any trust in the community.

The fact is, people of color communities are fucking hounded on by the pigs. No doubt. But what must be learned is that we cannot rely on the justice system because it's fucking reactionary at best. Justice is hardly ever 'served' by the State to victims - look at Rodney King or Trinh Ly. The justice system has failed the people time and time again. And even if they do 'fire' a cop (which means they just move the fucker to another city), this happens in retrospect of the crime and the justice system does nothing to address the root problems that cause these crimes in the first place - the very existence of a uniformed, badged, and armed pigs. The only real justice is getting the pigs off the fucking block and letting communities solve their own shit.

We don't need any colonialist pigs terrorizing communities. If the government wants to address issues of 'crime' then address poverty and all the intricacies of it. If the government wants to address the 'drug' problem then address the oppressive nature of global capitalism that fuels drug production in Third World nations. The government makes as killing off of 'crime' and 'drugs'. They are invested in it. They aren't invested in solving these issues. They aren't invested in the community. Look at the expanding prison industrial complex - more than three times more money is spent on building jails than on education in California and despite a budget crisis, police presence never decreases in communities, and if anything, it increases because the State makes money off of the crimes the police 'reports'.

I don't care what color you are, the fact that these atrocious crimes happen on a daily basis is more than enough reason to get the pigs off the block. If the justice system fails us, it's our duty to take it upon ourselves to defend the community - we absolutely cannot allow the State to continue its unabashed use of violence and terror against our communities. If they don't respond to non-violence, then speak in the only language left that they'll heed: self-defense by the use of any means necessary, force or otherwise.

On Self-Defense

'An eye for an eye makes the world blind'...

There are a lot of problems I have with non-violence and any movement that confines itself to just non-violent tactics.

Just by studying history, it is very clear that in any situation where there is a disparity between power, where one group is oppressing another, the people in power will do anything to defend their power - by any means necessary.

In fact, it is absurd to believe that the oppressor will not consider completely annihilating a population to keep power. We have seen evidence of that in situations such as Nazi Germany with the holocaust, or even in Việt Nam where Kennedy believed that the only way to win the war was to send the Vietnamese back to barbarism.

I believe that Malcolm X said it best when he stated that the language of the oppressor is violence and that unless we speak to the oppressor in the same language, the oppressor will not be able to understand our demands.

Unless people rise up to defend themselves they will be wiped out, either by force or by mental and social colonization.

What about the glorified heroes of non-violence?

Let's start with Jesus.



The son of God's most famous contribution to non-violence was the whole turn the other cheek deal, however, I think it is obvious to anyone that not all of us have the luxury of being resurrected after we die. While people may praise Jesus for being a champion of non-violence, I see him as the greatest deterrent. The lesson I learn from Jesus is as follows: turn the other cheek, and get crucified (I'm being real, I don't mean to be offensive). I don't know about everyone else, but being crucified isn't my idea of liberation.

Let's take another example: Thích Quảng Đức.



Many know him as the burning monk on the cover of the Rage Against the Machine CD cover. He immolated himself to protest the unjust Diệm regime. Many people champion Thích Quảng Đức as a shining example of aggressive non-violence and that he and other self-immolating monks contributed to the downfall of Diệm.

I disagree. Diệm was recording saying that he enjoyed watching the Buddhists monks kill themselves and compared it to a human barbecue. It is clear that Diệm had no intent on changing his oppressive policies towards the Buddhists just because they took their own lives in noble ways, and if anything, they made Diệm's job easier, since he was already out to kill the Buddhists anyways. It is important to note that Diệm was overthrown by a bloody coup that resulted Diệm's death. It is arguable that had it not been for the coup, Diệm would never have been overthrown, especially since he had American backing.

These are two very specific examples, however, the history of non-violent movements have proven to be ineffective. To me, the non-violent movements in the Civil Rights Era were failures and only resulted in excessive physical violence towards blacks and did nothing but get ineffectual legislation passed. As Malcolm X said, "Nothing has changed". Police brutality of blacks hasn't stopped. Rodney King was far after the Civil Rights movement. Professor Gates and the incident with the racist pigs was just a few months ago. Having a half-black president doesn't mean shit.

Especially in contemporary left-wing organizations, the non-violence movement is dominated by people with privilege. It is easy to advocate non-violence when you have the luxury of being able to wait for liberation and especially for whites because they are less likely to be brutalized by the oppressor than people of color. It is easy to advocate for non-violence when your community is not being physically attacked. It is absurd to advocate non-violence when the only thing the oppressor has ever been is violent.

I believe that movements based on self-defense are the only ones who have actually achieved the overthrow of an oppressive regime. History tells us that this is the most effective tactic. From the Bolshevik Revolution, to the Vietnamese Revolution - these are all examples of an oppressed mass organizing to defend themselves against an oppressive regime and ultimately overthrowing the regime. Even failed attempts such as the Black Panther Party have shown us the effectiveness of self-defense in empowering a community to control their own destiny and not ask for hand outs from the powers that be. Self defense is key in self-realization that people can stand on their own two feet and liberate themselves without being reliant on the oppressor.

It is important to understand that the oppressor's attacks on the community are not always physical, but are largely psychological. When society teaches you to hate yourself and have a distorted standard of beauty, that is an attack on the community, and is far more effective at destroying unity than any bomb ever can.

Once we understand that we're under attack in our every day lives, we can begin to understand that the problem is deep rooted in the system itself and that revolution is the only way to liberation. We must uproot evil, not just chop it off at the stem.

The goal of self-defense isn't to make the world blind, but rather, the goal is that if the oppressor threatens to smack your cheek, you chop of the hand so that it can no longer threaten not just your welfare, but the welfare of the entire community.