Out of the Flames of Ferguson Points of Unity

What brought us together?

Simply put, Ferguson. Members of our collective met each other at various protests around Houston after the murder of Mike Brown on Aug. 9, 2014. In the lead up to the national day of action on Nov. 25, 2014, our loose crew of people began to cohere through discussions, participation in and planning of actions. In between work and school we spent an increasing amount of time with each other breaking bread, at the movies, doing study groups, going to parties, at protests, hosting fundraisers, conversing with comrades from around the country and numerous other things. During the height of the movement between August and December 2014 our lives were inseparably bound up with one another. This moment for us was a defining shift in the re-emergence of black struggle. It was the first time in most of our lives where we not only saw militant resistance in the street against police violence, but a movement with new political forces and organizations being created to sustain itself. Out of the Flames of Ferguson sees itself as part of this continuity in the Black Lives Matter movement. It is in this context that our group emerged, and through this experience we have come up with these points that unite us as an organization.

Points of Unity

1) FTP  

“Fuck the police” is a sentiment that is increasingly resonating world wide as we see continual atrocities committed by police from Mexico and Greece to South Africa and China. This sentiment is spreading all over the U.S. as well as police terror continues. The origins of the police in the U.S. date back to the brutal slave patrols of the antebellum south. The police’s function as an institution is rooted in the recapturing of runaway slaves and the crushing of working class strikes. The role of police is to replicate and uphold this bankrupt system no matter the race or gender of the officer.

As an organization we do not collaborate or communicate with police in any way. Whether it be planning protests, relaying information, mediating between groups, private meetings, or any other conceivable manner. Any time an individual or organization sits down with the police they are putting other organizers at risk. It should be abundantly clear by now that any information given to police will be used to attack the movement and undermine our organizing efforts.       

1) Militancy and direct action in the street

Mass mobilizations in the street are what gave birth to this organization. Cities across the country, including Houston, came alive as people began taking direct action that entailed blocking highways, shutting down shopping centers, large unpermitted marches, fighting to hold public spaces, sit-ins, unarresting fellow protesters, rioting and street battles with the police. These militant direct actions were the lifeblood of the movement and where our true strength lies.

We see our role as helping to support, develop and prolong instances when people decide to take direct action and stop business as usual. Our family, friends and loved ones are being murdered everyday by the cops and we need a diversity of tactics to put an end to police terrorism.

1) Opposing movement police and gatekeepers

During the Ferguson moment we not only had to struggle against the actual police, but movement police as well. Movement police are those individuals and organizations who turn their back to the police during protests because they are concentrating their focus on the crowd. They seek to restrict tactics they deem unacceptable. They may also relay information they come across to the police in an attempt to further stifle and stamp out any militant potential coming from the crowd. They effectively do the work of the police for them by pacifying protesters and directing people’s legitimate anger toward the police into official channels they find appropriate.

Additionally, they may use what ties they have to the community to hinder and repress any energy and potential for disruption. Activity they can’t keep under their control or use towards their own ends must not be allowed to thrive. Equally suppressing are those that attempt to silence us through the use of respectability politics. Accusingly, they point their fingers at us saying that if we’d only pull up our pants and stop chanting “fuck the police” that somehow the cops would cease murdering us. Our anger is not the issue. The problem lies with those who aim to prove to those in power we’re decent, moral and well mannered. They’d rather place blame on us than the murderous police and this savage system. These forces must be challenged and overcome.

1) Liberation for all, not for some! (building a feminist organization)

Too often, police violence against trans and cis womyn and gender non-conforming folks goes under the radar or gets taken less seriously than police violence against cis men. This is a byproduct of living in a patriarchal society. The lives of womyn are less valued than men and certain kinds of sexual violence that happen mostly to womyn & gender non-conforming folks prompt less outrage. OOTFF is committed to collectively studying and developing our understanding of the relationship of patriarchy, homophobia, white supremacy and capitalism. We see it as a priority to clarify, practically and theoretically, why the anti-police struggle must be a feminist struggle and why the feminist struggle must be anti-police. By feminist, we mean to affirm the humanity of womyn and to oppose the different forms of social relations which objectify, alienate and brutalize womyn.

1) Anti-Leader Leadership

This phrase came up in one of the many intense strategic debates we had while preparing for the mass protests after the non-indictment of Darren Wilson. This is a contradictory phrase which sums up how we see ourselves as a group and how we see ourselves in relation to the broader anti-police struggle.

As a group OOTFF has no formal leadership positions. Every member shapes the group and we rely on collective decision-making, rather than shot-callers who direct the group. Historically, the state has tried to kill movements by killing the people they perceive as leaders. When we are all leaders, we make it that much harder for the state to kill our struggle. We are committed to each other’s growth as militants by sharing skills, by studying together the past traditions of struggle, by not shying away from disagreement and debate, and by making mistakes and learning from them together.  The same applies to how we see our role in moments of mass protest. We are neither passive spectators of rebellion, nor standing above it giving dictates to the crowd. 

1) Disempower, Disarm and Disband the Police

We do not believe in the illusion of reforming the police. Now, more than ever, we need to fight to disempower, disarm and disband the police. Disempower means to build up our capacity as a community to rely on ourselves and confront the intimidation, harassment and violence that the police bring to our daily lives. Disarm means to strip the police of the weapons and tools they use to surveil and harm us. Disband means to abolish the institution of the police. This will necessarily involve a revolution in our society. It is difficult to imagine what a new world without the police could look like, but developing such an imagination is a fundamental part of our current work.