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A Statement from the Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross

A Statement from the Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross

A Statement from the Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross, June 16, 2020

The Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross (CABC) is a collective dedicated to revolutionary anarchist struggle. Our primary focus is direct material aid to prisoners captured in the social war. We are absolutely opposed to capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and the police/surveillance state.

It is our aim to offer solidarity to those arrested in Cleveland in the midst of the recent uprising, in the form of material aid, revolutionary literature, legal aid, and helping to facilitate an ongoing commitment to social revolution.

Beyond this focus, however, it is imperative that we speak clearly about obstacles faced by the broader movement of which we are a part. Our vision is not merely to provide commissary, letters, and literature to prisoners. Our vision is nothing short of revolution. In the pursuit of this vision, the CABC positions itself as a participant in the local struggle, on both sides of the prison walls.

For years various "criminal justice reform" groups have pursued the same tactics without substantive results. Now in this time of pronounced social upheaval various self-imposed “professional organizers” and “activists” are attempting to continue their pursuit of futile tactics, to the detriment of the people of this city.

It is among the roles of revolutionaries to call out these efforts to defang the people and co-opt genuine rebellion.

As participants in the local struggle, the CABC perceives a serious lack of anarchist organizing and analysis in the Cleveland area. As part of our efforts to address this, beyond organizing around prisoner support and raising awareness of anarchism, we will be releasing statements addressing what we see as the potentials and pitfalls of the present moment.

A major aspect of this work is an unyielding critique of the nonprofit industrial complex, careerists and opportunists of all stripes, liberalism, a pathological commitment to nonviolence, and the “professional organizers” and “activists” that so often stifle genuine revolutionary activities in favor of “optics” and “dialogue” with the representatives of the local political machine.

In the coming days, we will be releasing various statements to these ends.

CABC

CLE_ABC@protonmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/cleabc/
@CLE_ABC