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I’ve seen quite a few folks sharing MLK’s beautiful quote to the effect that riots are the voice of the unheard.
Yes… but remember that this was only half of his analysis of riots as vehicles of change.
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I’ve seen quite a few folks sharing MLK’s beautiful quote to the effect that riots are the voice of the unheard.
Yes… but remember that this was only half of his analysis of riots as vehicles of change.
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He also said this in 1968, in arguably his most militant stage, just months before his assassination:
He also said this in 1968, in arguably his most militant stage, just months before his assassination:
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His point was that unorganised rage was understandable, but held little prospect in itself of producing change because it in turn supercharged ‘white backlash’ in an unwinnable physical struggle.
The answer? Organisation, discipline, and civil disobedience.
His point was that unorganised rage was understandable, but held little prospect in itself of producing change because it in turn supercharged ‘white backlash’ in an unwinnable physical struggle.
The answer? Organisation, discipline, and civil disobedience.
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The alternative to ‘riots’ is not just passive protest that also invites defeat – there is no binary. The systematic disruption of oppressive systems is something else: militant, disruptive, progressive, welding deep anger to cold-eyed strategy and power through mass movement
The alternative to ‘riots’ is not just passive protest that also invites defeat – there is no binary. The systematic disruption of oppressive systems is something else: militant, disruptive, progressive, welding deep anger to cold-eyed strategy and power through mass movement
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MLK put it even more simply:
MLK put it even more simply:
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He reminds us that the ‘peaceful’ protests with which he is most associated were not ‘peaceful’ because of passive individuals – far from it. It was iron discipline, and the wielding of a different form a power through mass organisation
He reminds us that the ‘peaceful’ protests with which he is most associated were not ‘peaceful’ because of passive individuals – far from it. It was iron discipline, and the wielding of a different form a power through mass organisation
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Important: this ‘disruptive’ civil disobedience is also constructive. It enables the formation and consolidation of new forms of social organisation and alliance – embryonic forms of ‘dual power’ that critique and challenge oppressive systems, but also start to replace them
Important: this ‘disruptive’ civil disobedience is also constructive. It enables the formation and consolidation of new forms of social organisation and alliance – embryonic forms of ‘dual power’ that critique and challenge oppressive systems, but also start to replace them
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But does disciplined civil disobedience have prospects of success *without* the potential for violence? Possibly not in many cases. Some analyses suggest MLK leveraged the potential for violence to advance the ‘non-violent’ side of the movement: two sides of power.
But does disciplined civil disobedience have prospects of success *without* the potential for violence? Possibly not in many cases. Some analyses suggest MLK leveraged the potential for violence to advance the ‘non-violent’ side of the movement: two sides of power.
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It's acting together in new ways that produces the power to disrupt oppressive systems. That can be profound but fleeting in a riot. It can be profound and long-lasting when focused through organisation and discipline.
Let Ella Baker convince you:
It's acting together in new ways that produces the power to disrupt oppressive systems. That can be profound but fleeting in a riot. It can be profound and long-lasting when focused through organisation and discipline.
Let Ella Baker convince you:
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Who is this thread for anyway? Definitely not for the Black people in the US or the UK who have been forced to face these questions and dilemmas time and again.
Who is this thread for anyway? Definitely not for the Black people in the US or the UK who have been forced to face these questions and dilemmas time and again.
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Maybe it’s for anyone else experiencing the shock, anger, helplessness of seeing repression in action for the first time. Want to do something? Reach out. Organise. Disrupt. Think about connections to other injustices like poverty, austerity, sexism. Voting isn't enough.
Maybe it’s for anyone else experiencing the shock, anger, helplessness of seeing repression in action for the first time. Want to do something? Reach out. Organise. Disrupt. Think about connections to other injustices like poverty, austerity, sexism. Voting isn't enough.
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Organising resistance with others is the basis of power. Change where you buy your goods. Be ready in the end to do civil disobedience in the broadest sense: stop co-operating with lethal-but-legal systems. Doing this alone can be terrifying. Doing it together is power.
Organising resistance with others is the basis of power. Change where you buy your goods. Be ready in the end to do civil disobedience in the broadest sense: stop co-operating with lethal-but-legal systems. Doing this alone can be terrifying. Doing it together is power.
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Most of all, be prepared to listen to and be led by the targets of oppression. Recognise that if it looks like oppression when it happens in another country, it’s almost certainly oppression in your own country too. Get angry, but get *organised* too.
Most of all, be prepared to listen to and be led by the targets of oppression. Recognise that if it looks like oppression when it happens in another country, it’s almost certainly oppression in your own country too. Get angry, but get *organised* too.
