ROAR: Why we Need a Conference on Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism

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To be a revolutionary means to be anti racist. American style apartheid is a necessary part of every aspect of this genocidal, leech of a country’s social order. Therefore it must be dismantled if we value human dignity.

At the close of Obama’s last year in office we saw an inspiring amount of resistance; from the resurgence of American black militancy in cities big and small in defiance of police murders, to the halting of the Dakota Access Pipeline by indigenous communities from all over the world, to a nation wide prison strike led by the Free Alabama Movement out of Holman Prison.

Already, at the start of the new year, we’ve seen a successful disruption of “business as usual” during Trump’s inauguration in DC: citywide blockades were set up by Black Lives Matter activists, several corporate businesses were attacked and a limousine was set ablaze by the now infamous “black bloc.” Shortly after, spontaneous airport occupations spread across the nation in response to an executive order by Trump that barred people from 7 Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

During these times more and more attention is being paid to those of us who use direct action and hold liberatory and revolutionary politics. We can use this moment not only to inspire others through our actions, but to also inspire with our ideas. To draw a line not just against this or that politician, or this or that Alt-Right figure, but to construct revolutionary positions such as returning land to the indigenous, centering black folks and their perspectives, community self-defense, taking care of one another, putting women and gender non-conforming people to the front, obliterating borders, opening prison doors, and gaining our freedom from the State, capitalism, and all the other damning institutions.

We would like to explore these ideas and how we’re going to accomplish them together, at the Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism (ROAR) conference, to be held on March 11th and 12th 2017 on Ohlone territory (San Francisco Bay Area). It’s focus is on revolutionary anti-racism, solidarity, and strategy, rooted in the legacy of anti-colonial, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, feminist, and queer movements and fighters who have come before us. ROAR will be a space to gather, build, and learn from each other’s struggles and continue to build an anti-racist front in the Bay Area and beyond.

The conference is free to attend and childcare will be provided! More details can be found on our website at roarconference.net or follow us on instagram @roar_conference or through #roarconference.

Please donate to ROAR conference to help in our effort to make it free to participants and cover travel costs for speakers! Donate here at: www.rally.org/ROARconference