Black Socialists in America Profile picture
EST. 2018, we are an org of Black Americans who believe people should control production in a democratic + decentralized way. @blacksocialists@kolektiva.social.
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Oct 13, 2022 15 tweets 5 min read
As more systems collapse, it will become even more important for us to find people we can trust, and carve out physical space and infrastructure in which we can begin to live without bosses and landlords, and in balance with non-human nature.

There is a need for eco-communities. How can those wanting eco-communities 1) find each other, 2) build trust, 3) find locations for decommodified land and housing, 4) pool resources and fundraise, 5) manage projects and resources transparently and democratically, and 6) securely connect and federate with others?
Sep 27, 2022 5 tweets 1 min read
We need principled and respectful polemics – not passivity and people-pleasing – when it comes to discussions around strategy in these times.

We need to be making cases for holistic movement-building and not leaving so much to chance under such disjointed, fragmented conditions. We shouldn’t shy away from tough convos about certain organizational vehicles and approaches (what they do and don’t do). And we shouldn’t keep leaving everyone’s respective focuses in “buckets.”

We must figure out how to connect all of the focuses under world-building projects.
Jun 25, 2022 13 tweets 4 min read
Many still refuse to interrogate what they consider the basics of “life” or “society” (re: “America,” capitalism, hierarchy, etc.), no matter what.

Because to go back to “Step One” (re-trace humanity’s “steps”) and interrogate feels like a lot of “work” with scary implications… Why go explore “over there” if it’s just going to unearth and even delegitimize so much of what you’ve built your identity and life around?

Isn’t it easier and better to just hold on to the mythologies and facades, even as they’re unraveling and crumbling in our very hands?

No.
Jun 24, 2022 8 tweets 2 min read
Everything you’re seeing right now is not just an outgrowth of the Supreme Court of the United States.

It’s an outgrowth of the nation-state model itself.

Time to move beyond this state, and states in general.

Time to usher in a direct democracy.

For a democratic, free world.
Jun 24, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
A real “democracy” would be direct (unlike representative “democracy” under capitalism), and therefore wouldn’t allow for social systems of domination to thrive like they do in our current society. And the rule of the young by the old is called “gerontocracy” (for those curious).
Jun 9, 2022 7 tweets 3 min read
“Left unity” is a farce, not only because a monolithic “Left” doesn’t exist, but because “Left” is also defined by what millions with varying ideologies are AGAINST, not FOR…

Many find the “Left” so exhausting because they insist on holding on to an illusion in “big tent” orgs. Image Those who know better need to:

1) Define (and stick to) their *core* principles and objectives (which go beyond mere sectarian categories or labels).

2) Begin building with people who are on the same page around principles and objectives.

3) Win “the people” over via practice.
May 14, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
The brutality of the State of Israel is a brutality endemic to settler-colonialism as a whole, and reinforced by the authoritarian dimensions of the nation-state model.

The State of Israel, the United States, and *all* other states must be transcended for this brutality to end… The ethnic nation-statism, white supremacy, theocracy, and capitalist relations that define these projects have something in common:

Hierarchy.

Only a global movement against hierarchies, and for radical/direct democracy + cooperation, can confront authoritarianism and fascism.
May 5, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
That fiat is gone.

We need to organize to win a parallel social, economic, and political system ourselves that isn’t reliant upon the richest guys or the gov't.

Let’s use our limited time, energy, and resources to build our own domains instead of just fighting deeper in theirs. This whole machine needs to stop if we want a future on this planet.

That means now is the time to fundamentally question where we are deciding to struggle and why.

Should more in the confines of an exploitive MACHINE and logic that has us facing extinction be our priority now?
Mar 2, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Bandcamp has skated by with the “reputation” of being “for indie artists” on the outside while running an exploitative business model on the inside for years.

Why them selling out to Tencent makes sense…

Meanwhile, @resonatecoop – a real ethical, indie alternative – struggles. Now is the perfect time to help make sure indie artists not only have a platform that ensures fair pay for creative labor, but that also gives them the chance to take ownership in (and control of) the distribution of their art to the world.

Show support!

Nov 19, 2021 12 tweets 5 min read
Even if Rittenhouse had been found guilty, what would that have done? Proven the system “works”?

For those saying they’d rather just see him “pay” via the “justice” system, isn’t that just reinforcing what emboldened him to begin with?

Maybe it’s time to think outside the box… Those saying “vote” or discussing political parties in response to this are thinking “cart before the horse.”

The political is shaped by capital as power.

Until we organize via our labor and build new, directly democratic power, it’s rinse and repeat.

Nov 13, 2021 10 tweets 3 min read
Manipulation of fiat currencies – self-sovereign, fed-regulated, etc. – embedded in proprietary logics focused on mere accumulation can’t define social relations that’d determine systems change.

The most it can be leveraged for are prefigurative world-building projects and tech. Ironically, “grassroots + non-hierarchical” is nearly synonymous with “decentralized + autonomous,” and we have centuries of history showing advantages of this organization.

The issue in these times is largely related to culture + fragmentation (which new tech can help address).
Aug 17, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
Your entire understanding of the world and what we’re up against as a species changes radically once you realize how hierarchy operates. An introductory thread on this point (please watch the video).

Aug 12, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
Some of us squander so many opportunities for good-faith discourse and education on here because we’re more concerned with looking smart for followers or going viral than appealing to the humanity of others.

Don’t be a “Leftist” absorbed by the neoliberal logic of this platform. Also, here’s a Wiki primer on groupthink:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

Some of us really, really need to read this.
Jul 26, 2021 5 tweets 2 min read
The fact that both Russia and China have invaded various territories aside:

To speak on nation-states in this manner disregards how capital (and, subsequently, imperialism) works globally.

Russian, Chinese, and American Capitalists are all doing great business with one another. The sentiments espoused in the clip above are steeped in a dangerous, neoliberal logic of competitive, industrial expansionism, as opposed to a social logic of cooperation for ecologically sustainable democratization of productive forces for the commons.

Nothing “Left” about it.
Jul 23, 2021 10 tweets 2 min read
Anarchists (Libertarian Socialists) are perceived as a threat and attacked by all sides of the political spectrum (if you will) because what all other sides have in common (Left or Right) is an acceptance of top-down hierarchy and coercive authority (even if some try to hide it). Anarchists understand Capitalism as not only a system of exploitation, but a system of domination as well, and they understand that domination (in some form or another) has essentially existed since human beings have been around (well before Capitalism even had a name).
Jul 12, 2021 8 tweets 2 min read
The pot calling the kettle black doesn’t make the kettle not black.

And both the pot and the kettle are there to boil, even if the pot is bigger.

The U.S. uses whatever it can to push an imperialist agenda, but in conflicts between nation-states, all of us are treated as pawns. We condemn U.S. imperialism everywhere.

We also express solidarity with the people of Cuba (especially Black people) in honoring their agency, and their ability to determine their future.

No, these two things are not mutually exclusive, and yes, we want a future without states.
Jun 6, 2021 6 tweets 8 min read
@__proseccopapi Re: Mussolini and Lenin:

Read “Role and Functions of the Trade Unions Under the New Economic Policy” by Lenin (here: marxists.org/archive/lenin/…), Lenin on State Capitalism (here: socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/10/lenin-…), then “On the Corporate State” by Mussolini (here: arplan.org/2020/02/21/mus…). ImageImageImageImage @__proseccopapi Mussolini considered himself the “Lenin of Italy” at one point in time (see page 284 here: books.google.com/books?id=ut-Os…) and genuinely admired him (see page 96 here: archive.org/details/mussol…). ImageImage
Jun 4, 2021 5 tweets 2 min read
Why is it so hard for some white Leftists (of every tendency) to stay in their lane?

Just because you know Black people who agree with you on some things doesn’t give you license to insert yourself into Black community dialogue.

This shouldn’t need to be stated in 2021. We started our org in 2018 because it was just as clear then as it is now that we need our own institutions to cover our own history and make our own decisions about our own futures. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have our own public digital spaces for clear, uninterrupted dialogue.
Jun 4, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
This dude just comes out and says what the red fash are thinking, it’s pretty refreshing, honestly. Go down his timeline and peep who he retweets or is a fan of.

Tells you everything you need to know.

Also peep this interesting pic of him with some fash buds.
Jun 4, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
“Nation-states” are deemed “just” under hierarchical, colonizer logic, but are antithetical to the freedom of those “below,” no matter how similar those “above” in these nation-states may look to those below.

This is why we must offer political frameworks that transcend statism. Anyone who calls themselves a “Leftist” and implicitly presumes in their analyses that things like nation-states and borders must exist, or be further explored for us to be “free,” do not have an understanding of what freedom is, or simply wish to warp its meaning to control you.
Jun 1, 2021 40 tweets 9 min read
This clip is a huge mess, not only because we have over a century’s worth of history illustrating how fascists court and work with certain tendencies amongst the so-called “Left,” but because almost the entire discourse in the clip below is in the scope of electoral politics too. Red-Brownism seems to be reduced by this crowd to a nonsense idea of “left-wingers” working with “right-wingers” because they’re knowingly “right-wingers in disguise,” and their idea of “Left” includes left-Liberal forces (Social Democrats) in and around the Democratic Party too?