Land Back

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Our prayers go out to the family and relatives of Nex Benedict✨

The news of Nex’ autopsy labeling their cause of death as a “suicide” changes nothing. Violence against Indigenous youth is still the result of generations of colonial violence. Nex is not an isolated incident; the truth is that Queer, Trans and Two Spirit Native/Indigenous youth face significantly higher rates of violence compared to their non-native peers.

Image Text: 90% of Queer, Trans and Two Spirit people experience two or more forms of violence in their lifetime. 54% of those who are students report being subjected to physical violence at school and more than 1 in 3 say they miss class at least once a month for being bullied or harassed.

It should first be noted that the communization milieu is indeed European in origin and largely does not address our settler-colonialist reality in the so-called Americas. Its largely European writers are conceptualizing from a different context than we live under in the so-called Americas (& other colonized lands).

Then why do we still talk about communization?

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We can think about communization and decolonization as two aspects of the same weather system. Communization would attack the capitalist social relations which exist on occupied land, but clearly it would not go far enough. We’re writing from occupied Tongva territory, known by its original name Tovaangar, and to merely create communism (anarchy) and make no attempt to restore native lands to their original inhabitants would (once again) not be communism at all. Decolonization (anti-colonialism) reminds us that there is more to be done.

The coupling of communization & decolonization recognizes, especially with ever-intensifying climate change, that settlers do not deeply, or even superficially, understand the deep natural history of the land they are on. Here in so-called Los Angeles we are constantly facing the increasing danger of massive wild fires. But wild fires are an ancient part of this landscape. The ecology of the landscape made famous, via its mass particularization, around the world depends on fire for its rejuvenation. What has caused an increase of danger for humans is not just climate change bringing less rain and hotter weather, but also the fact that unmitigated capitalist development has made it profitable to build in places which would previously burn with little effect on human life: hilltops, in mountain forests, etc.

I've been frustrated by some people's framing on the war on Gaza, as if the surrender of Hamas or the removal of Netanyahu and his lackies would stop a genocide. Israel is committing genocide. A Hamas surrender will not change that. The purpose of a system is what it does. If Israel's war is killing more women and children than Hamas, then that is its purpose.

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In 1969, a group of young American Indians who wanted the world to know about the long history of discrimination, mistreatment and treaty violations against Native people took over Alcatraz Island in California, the site of an abandoned federal penitentiary.

The occupation sparked an activist movement that successfully reversed federal policies aimed at erasing Native Americans’ cultural identity and reinforced tribal sovereignty. The occupation of Alcatraz ended in June 1971 when the last 15 occupiers were forced out by federal agents. But the protest sparked change.

wizard_bisan1 via Instagram

Hello, my name is Bisan. I'm from Gaza, still alive. God is my witness that I am full of life, that I love my life, love my country, love my family and friends. I've always dreamed of helping people, changing the world, standing for justice, and of my voice always being heard.

I woke up to my life and found my sky shattered, realizing I'm from an oppressed people, killed every morning at (as if) for breakfast. Breaking news never stopped being aired in our home since I was a year old. I am Bisan, still alive, but I have no sin deserving the world's punishment, rejection, or sending heavy weapons to shake the ground under me and bury me alive without any shame of all these crimes, without fear of consequences, because they control the law and power.

I am Bisan, still alive. Today, I ran in the street for a 15 minutes to outrun the pilot coming to kill me and reach the shelter (hospital). I don't know where I found the strength, but I had to capture images to let our voice reach the world.

I am Bisan, still alive, not sure if I'll remain so. If I die, I won't forgive the world. My blood and the blood of my people are in the world's food and drinks, on their faces and in their nightmares. If I die, the entire world pressed the trigger that killed me.

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Rest in Power Klee Benally.