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Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome back to another episode of It Could

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Speaker 1: Happen Here with myself Andrew of the YouTube channel Andrewism

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Speaker 1: if you're joining us. From the previous episode, we touched

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Speaker 1: in the life of Lorenzo Combo Irvin, who he was

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Speaker 1: as a leading figure in the black anarchist movement, how

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Speaker 1: he ended up in that position, sort of his life

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Speaker 1: story and how he ended up writing Anarchism of the

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Speaker 1: Black Revolution and sort of breaking down that vision of

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Speaker 1: a Black revolution, including tactics like communes, squats, French strikes,

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Speaker 1: tax strikes, boycotts, general strikes, and of course a Black

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Speaker 1: labor federation. But that's not all that Iuven has explored

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Speaker 1: in his work, and today we're going to dive into

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Speaker 1: his vision for survival programs, things to agitate for, and

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Speaker 1: actions the black community can take to survive under the

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Speaker 1: current system. Now. Historically, black communities have been subjected to

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Speaker 1: economic exploitation, with businesses and financial institutions often taken profits

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Speaker 1: out of the community without investment in its growth and development,

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Speaker 1: and this of course has led to disinvestment, poverty, lack

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Speaker 1: of resources, community members, and of course persistent relative deprivation.

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Speaker 1: So the demand for community control of businesses and financial

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Speaker 1: institutions that even outlines is something that seeks to shift

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Speaker 1: power and resources back into the hands of the community

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Speaker 1: by police and control in the hands community members. Provides

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to build economic power and to ensure that

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Speaker 1: businesses and financial institutions work for communities rather than vice vs.

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Speaker 1: Because such institutions and businesses would be under the control

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Speaker 1: of the beers themselves. So in a cooperative model, members

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Speaker 1: work together to achieve common goals and share the benefits

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Speaker 1: and risks of a business equally. The covenant structure for

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Speaker 1: cooperative typically involves board of directors who might elected by

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Speaker 1: members to make strategic decisions on behalf of the cooperative,

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Speaker 1: but they of course other ways of organizer and including

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Speaker 1: horizontal consensus. All members of a cooperative have an equal

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Speaker 1: say in these decisions, with each member typically having one

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Speaker 1: food and the board of directors is meant to just

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Speaker 1: be accountable to members and act in the best interest

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Speaker 1: of the cooperative. Now, cooperatives already exist in the operating

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Speaker 1: in various industries, and they can operate in various industries

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Speaker 1: including agriculture, retail, finance, housing, healthcare, and more. For example,

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Speaker 1: in a cooperative agriculture model, farmers can prove resources to

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Speaker 1: purchase seeds, fertilizers, and equipment at lower cost, and then

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Speaker 1: sell their crops collectively to increase bargaining power and reduce costs.

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Speaker 1: In a retail cooperative, members can buy products at a

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Speaker 1: discount and have a saying the type of products offered,

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Speaker 1: while in a financial cooperative, members can access bank of

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Speaker 1: services and share in the profits they're generated by the cooperative.

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Speaker 1: Cooperatives also often provide mutual aid and support to their members,

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Speaker 1: with surplus profits from the businesses reinvested either in the

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Speaker 1: businesses or distributed as dividends to members, which ensures that

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Speaker 1: the benefits of the business are shared equably and members

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Speaker 1: have a stake in the success of a cooperative. Like

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Speaker 1: I mentioned, corporators already exists, which means they're capable of

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Speaker 1: operating within capitalism, but within a broader program of social revolution.

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Speaker 1: They're meant to build our alternative power in a dual

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Speaker 1: power struggle to eventually enable us to assert our independence

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Speaker 1: from this system as it will. But even here now,

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Speaker 1: it is necessary to survive under this system, and I

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Speaker 1: think cooperatives offer a more humane and more empowering model.

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Speaker 1: Another example of that sort of cooperative structure could be

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Speaker 1: found in mutual lead banking societies, again owned and controlled

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Speaker 1: by the members and are creator specifically to provide access

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Speaker 1: to financial services and support to individuals and communities that

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Speaker 1: have been traditionally excluded or marginalized from a lot of

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Speaker 1: traditional banking systems. So they function to provide low interest

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Speaker 1: loans to members for various purposes including you know, starts

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Speaker 1: and businesses, purchasing homes, covering unexpected expenses, and members are

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Speaker 1: required to you know, put in a certain amount each

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Speaker 1: month to fund these sorts of loans. And in addition

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Speaker 1: to providing financial services, these sort of societies can also

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Speaker 1: provide education and support, help with financial planning, help with budgeting,

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Speaker 1: help with financial literacy to enable members to better survive

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Speaker 1: within their current financial situation under capitalism. And so that's

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Speaker 1: one aspect of the survival program, right, and emphasis on

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Speaker 1: survival its existed now in this system. So that's one

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Speaker 1: aspect of pushing for community controller businesses and financial institutions

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Speaker 1: and creating community cooperatives and mutulaid banking societies. Another aspect

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Speaker 1: of that survival program that open outlines is achieving community

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Speaker 1: controlled housing to help address is to use of gentrification, displacement,

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Speaker 1: and lack of affordable housing through legal and legal means

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Speaker 1: such as then strikes and demonstrations aren't actions open squad

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Speaker 1: in to drive landlords out and take over the property

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Speaker 1: are more precarious approaches, right, and then they're also be

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Speaker 1: above the board methods. I spoke about those approaches. Some

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Speaker 1: of those approaches in the first part. The quote unquote

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Speaker 1: above the board methods would be establishing things like community

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Speaker 1: land trusts or clts. A CLT is essentially a nonprofit

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Speaker 1: organization that owns and manages land for the benefit of

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Speaker 1: a community. The CLT can acquire land and then lease

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Speaker 1: it to developers or residents who agree to use the

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Speaker 1: land for affordable housing, which allows them to retain control

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Speaker 1: of the land and ensure there's been used for their

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Speaker 1: good rather than being solo off the private developers for

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Speaker 1: the sake of profit. In a situation under a CLT

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Speaker 1: where a homeowner wants to sell wants to move, they

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Speaker 1: can only sell the building that they occupy. They can't

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Speaker 1: sell the land itself because the community land trust retains

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Speaker 1: control of the land. The community land trust also retains

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Speaker 1: the right of first refusal to purchase the buildings, which

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Speaker 1: basically means before you can try and sell the building

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Speaker 1: to anyone else, you have to give the community land trust,

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Speaker 1: the community itself, an opportunity to buy the building back,

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Speaker 1: and that would enable them to also make sure that

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Speaker 1: people aren't coming into just profit off of such affordable

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Speaker 1: holes in and they're also doing it so that the

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Speaker 1: housing stay is affordable, so they can ensure that they

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Speaker 1: can resell the building to somebody who's also seeking that,

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Speaker 1: you know, affordable housing. And by providing that sort of

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Speaker 1: house in, community land trusts can stabilize communities and prevent

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Speaker 1: displacement in the long term, they can help to revitalize

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Speaker 1: distress neighborhoods, and they can also invest into things like

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Speaker 1: community facilities like pools and laundromats and gyms and that

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Speaker 1: sort of thing. In terms of how you actually create

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Speaker 1: a COLT, laws of course vary from place to place,

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Speaker 1: but essentially you form a nonprofit organization, obtain tax exam status,

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Speaker 1: acquire the land either through purchase or donation, and then

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Speaker 1: begin developing affordable house or community facilities on the land.

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Speaker 1: In addition to that, a community land trust would need

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Speaker 1: to guidelines in place for leasing the land homeowners and

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Speaker 1: to maintain the affordability the land over time. And of course,

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Speaker 1: community AANDRST requires a system of governance and decision making

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Speaker 1: to engage in that sort of ongoing effort of involving

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Speaker 1: the residents themselves and ensuring that they are educated, and

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Speaker 1: how comunity land trusts work, and how this model could

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Speaker 1: be expanded to other communities force establishing such a thing

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Speaker 1: requires significant reason sources. Another approach to community controlled housing

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Speaker 1: that also takes summary resources is through limited equity housing cooperatives.

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Speaker 1: So in this model, residents own and manage the house development.

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Speaker 1: Each have the same decision making process to run democratically.

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Speaker 1: They each have a share in the cooperative, which gives

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Speaker 1: them the right to occupy a unit in the development.

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Speaker 1: The share price, however, is set at a fixed rate,

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Speaker 1: which means the unit can only be sold back to

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Speaker 1: the cooperative at the same price, which again helps to

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Speaker 1: make sure that the housing remains affordable in the long term. So,

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Speaker 1: unlike with the community land trust where you own the

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Speaker 1: building but you don't own the land LHC or you know,

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Speaker 1: limited equity housing cooperative, you don't own the building or

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Speaker 1: the land. You own a share and the cooperative owns

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Speaker 1: the property itself. You're also required, of course to contribute

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Speaker 1: a down pay month and to pay monthly fees which

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Speaker 1: helps to maintain and manage the property. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: difficult to organize things, as anyone with some experience organizing

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Speaker 1: can tell you, and something as high investment as housing

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Speaker 1: is no different, right. It's a challenge. It's a challenge

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Speaker 1: in fundraising, it's a challenge in organizing people. It's a

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Speaker 1: challenge and insurance that such efforts are defended and able

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Speaker 1: to establish themselves in the long term. But it's still

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Speaker 1: a promising model I believe for Survival because of its

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Speaker 1: priority on community ownership and control. It really relieves that

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Speaker 1: one me just dress in a lot of people's lives

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Speaker 1: in terms of affordable housing. Of course, in the long

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Speaker 1: term us and should be decommodified entirely, but that is

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Speaker 1: the future. The Survival program is for the heir. Now.

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Speaker 1: Another aspect of this Fiber program that even talks about

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Speaker 1: is food autonomy, the establishment of black community controlled food

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Speaker 1: systems to establish self sufficiency, to control the production distribution

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Speaker 1: of foods and should be a signique to met to

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Speaker 1: ensure that Black communities are no longer at the mouseeat

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Speaker 1: of food, deserts, and other systemic barriers to accessing healthy,

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Speaker 1: affordable food. By creating trucking networks and warehouses and community farms,

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Speaker 1: farmers cooperatives, food cooperatives, agricultural unions, and other collective associations,

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Speaker 1: black communities can ensure that healthy and essential foods are

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Speaker 1: readily available. Rather than just treating the symptom, such institutions

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Speaker 1: would treat the root was of food and security, which

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Speaker 1: is a lack of control over our food chains and

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Speaker 1: food networks. So, for example, a trucking network would be

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Speaker 1: used to transport food from communal farms to warehouses, which

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Speaker 1: could serve as clusterly owned distribution centers for the food

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Speaker 1: in a sort of a library economy set in. The

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Speaker 1: warehouses can also save us storage facilities for other non

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Speaker 1: perishable food items to bank seeds to distribute those seeds

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Speaker 1: and other items and tools to community gardens and food cooperatives.

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Speaker 1: And such community gardens could be established on vacant lots,

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Speaker 1: on rooftops and unused spaces in the city, particularly in

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Speaker 1: areas where access to fresh produce is limited and All

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Speaker 1: these efforts would involve members of the community who would

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Speaker 1: be responsible for each step in the process and ensuring

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Speaker 1: that such things are accessible equatiply. Food cooperatives within communities could,

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Speaker 1: for example, be organized through sort of a share structure

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Speaker 1: where each household or each individual has a share in

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Speaker 1: the cooperative that entitles them to sit down to food

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Speaker 1: each week. Or you could have in a sort of

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Speaker 1: a library structure that a lot of different ways that

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Speaker 1: you can organize it. You could even have as well.

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Speaker 1: Agricultural unions provide support and training and education, unsustainable farming practices,

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Speaker 1: access to tools and equipment, financial assistance for farmers in need.

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Speaker 1: All these efforts would establish the foundation necessary for food

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Speaker 1: or autonomy under this sort of survival program that Even

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Speaker 1: has developed, and as I mentioned in the previous episode,

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Speaker 1: Even also talks about under the survival programs developing or

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Speaker 1: US education ensuring the community has control over every aspect

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Speaker 1: of the educational system, from the curriculum and textbooks to

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Speaker 1: the hiring and training of teachers, administrators, And as I

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Speaker 1: spoke about in the previous episode, you know the same

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Speaker 1: way the reactionary is fighting advocate for control of educations,

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Speaker 1: the same way that we can do the same. It

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Speaker 1: won't be as easy, but we have to counter their

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Speaker 1: efforts because they've already been countering hours the minimal gains

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Speaker 1: we've made, and for example, ensuring that an accurate account

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Speaker 1: of history is told in schools, it's already being fought against.

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Speaker 1: Siting to go even further, community controlled schools would not

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Speaker 1: only reflect community values, culture and history. Not only would

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Speaker 1: they be designed to meet the specific needs the children

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Speaker 1: within them. Not only do they provide us safe for

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Speaker 1: a nutrient environment, encourage creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills,

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Speaker 1: but they would also provide a space, an additional space

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Speaker 1: for the development of people's powers and drives and consciousness

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Speaker 1: towards liberation at any age. I mean, in addition to

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Speaker 1: primary and secondary education, Woven also talks about free higher

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Speaker 1: education programs, remedial training programs, reading programs, trade programs, all

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Speaker 1: these things to help develop people's skills and education knowledge

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Speaker 1: that would help equip them to address social, political, and

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Speaker 1: economic issues. If it also calls for a system of

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Speaker 1: community based self defense to defend ourselves against various forms

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Speaker 1: of violence, including police brutality, heat crimes, and vigilant attacks

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Speaker 1: without relying on government or law enforcement agencies to defend ourselves.

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Speaker 1: They had several components to this. Of course, it will

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Speaker 1: involve organizing and mobilizing community members to participate in self

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Speaker 1: defense training programs. It would involve weapons training. It would

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Speaker 1: involve tactics for de escalation. It would involve a network

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Speaker 1: that can coordate responses to incentsive violence, establishing community channels

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Speaker 1: to quickly disseminate information, enabling restorative and transformative justice practices

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Speaker 1: to be included to keep the state out of resolving

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Speaker 1: the conflicts between people in communities. And then, of course,

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Speaker 1: unlike a lot of these law enforcements, stems and structures,

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Speaker 1: a community based self defense program or system would also

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Speaker 1: be involved in the prevention of such incidents of violence

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Speaker 1: and harm and conflict from occurrent. It will be involved

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Speaker 1: in continuously evaluating and adapting to change in circumstances, to

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Speaker 1: analyze in the patterns of violence and gaps that are

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Speaker 1: taking place in training or in resources, and to continuously

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Speaker 1: refine tactics and strategies and approaches to see to the

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Speaker 1: long term healing of the communities and the interruption of

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Speaker 1: cycles of violence and generational trauma in the long term.

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Speaker 1: Another component of these survival programs would involve medical training,

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Speaker 1: large scale medical training programs in black communities, providing individuals

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Speaker 1: with the knowledge and skills needed to understand and address

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Speaker 1: health issue. Black communities, especially those from low income backgrounds

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Speaker 1: in the US, often fase significant barriers to access in

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Speaker 1: quality healthcare. It's due to systemic racism and oppression. So

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Speaker 1: it's due to inaccessibility and an affordability of healthcare just generally,

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Speaker 1: and also the quality and resources available within certain communities specifically,

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Speaker 1: and also the ways that health outcomes are worse if

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Speaker 1: you are black. Black mothers are or rather the black

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Speaker 1: maternal death rate is one particularly heavy example of these

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Speaker 1: sorts of disparities. And so that's why we need community

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Speaker 1: based medical clinics and training programs and workshops and seminars

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Speaker 1: led by black medical professionals, public health essper, public health experts,

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Speaker 1: and community organizers who are versed in the social divenance

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Speaker 1: of health and impacts of systemic racism and health outcomes

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Speaker 1: and invested in seeing that changed. Such a program would

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Speaker 1: involve medical including dental training, so would empower individuals to

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Speaker 1: provide basic health care services and support their communities you

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Speaker 1: would involve training and first aid, you involve healthcare screenings,

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Speaker 1: health education, because underrepresentation in health matters, lack of education

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Speaker 1: in one's own personal health matters, and two people losing

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Speaker 1: their lives as a result of that racial blind spot

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Speaker 1: and as a result of that inequality, and so a

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Speaker 1: survival program in the here and now needs to account

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Speaker 1: for that. Even also calls for the release of black

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Speaker 1: political prisoners as part of a broader abolitionist struggle rooted

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Speaker 1: in the recognition that the criminal justice system in the

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Speaker 1: US has been used as a tool for political repression

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Speaker 1: against black people in the martialized communities. He's speaking here

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Speaker 1: from experience, of course, he wrote this when he was

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Speaker 1: in prison. Mass and conceration of black people has been

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Speaker 1: deliberate and systemic effort to silence and dissent, to silence

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Speaker 1: dissent and maintain the statusco of white supremacy and white

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Speaker 1: supremacist capitalism. Here and now, survival programs should be involved

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Speaker 1: in the release of black political prisoners, especially to investigate

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Speaker 1: and review the cases of those who have been unjustly imprisoned,

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Speaker 1: to address the use of cost confessions, falsified evidence, and

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Speaker 1: other forms of prosecutorial misconduct there's led to wrongful convictions

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Speaker 1: that has led to people rosten away in jail cells

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Speaker 1: for decades with no sort of justice. I mean, these

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Speaker 1: people are often so of the most committed and dedicated

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Speaker 1: to revolutionaries and the continued imprisonment has been a grave

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Speaker 1: in justice. Some of them unfortunately past before they're even

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Speaker 1: released if they have released a tool and by demanding

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Speaker 1: their release, by fighting for their freedom, by writing to

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Speaker 1: them and supporting them even now, by showing our solidarity

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Speaker 1: with those who have sacrificed so much in the struggle

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Speaker 1: for liberation and ensuring that their voices are heard, not

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Speaker 1: only can we aid in their survival, but we can

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Speaker 1: also aid in our own. Lastly, even calls for the

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Speaker 1: ever contentious big payback reparations you have challenges us to

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Speaker 1: build a mass movement in our communities to compel the

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Speaker 1: government and the rich to provide the means for our

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Speaker 1: communities redevelopment at the centuries of slavery and of abuse,

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Speaker 1: and of robbery and of discrimination, demanding those reparations in

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Speaker 1: the form of community development funds to be placed in

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Speaker 1: credit unions, cooperatives and not the mutual aid institutions in

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Speaker 1: the black community, so we can start to obtaining some

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Speaker 1: measure of or make self sufficiency. But of course from

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Speaker 1: the question of who pays, to how we force them

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Speaker 1: to pay, to how we determine how much they pay,

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Speaker 1: how that pay is distributed or implemented, if the pay

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Speaker 1: is even in cash. You know, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: tension strown in that topic. And pro reparations not just

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Speaker 1: for Black America, with the entire diaspora. I mean, I've

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Speaker 1: seen the US made sure to get reparations for itself

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Speaker 1: and its allies after World War Two, the victims of

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Speaker 1: various atrustees have received reparations for the injustices. But as

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Speaker 1: soon as Black people demand their due, demand their due, everybody,

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Speaker 1: you know, they want us to forget about it. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: everybody knows, and I think part of that is because

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Speaker 1: everybody knows that they can't actually afford it. You know,

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Speaker 1: if we were paid exactly what we would do, they

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Speaker 1: would not have the wealth that they have. And so

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Speaker 1: my stance has always been I don't think reparations will

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Speaker 1: come by ballot. I don't want it to come by ballot.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to receive some check in the mail

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Speaker 1: that says, Okay, now be happy, get over it, but

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Speaker 1: let me not get myself in any more trouble. I

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Speaker 1: believe it at that. I don't think it will come

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Speaker 1: by ballot. There as a lot of things that's reasonable. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've already said so much in these past two episodes.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of arms to this

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Speaker 1: survival program. Then bring things to a close a bit.

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Speaker 1: There as a lot of areas of struggle that we

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Speaker 1: can pick up, a lot of things that could be applied.

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Speaker 1: Of course, most of these things I think could be

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Speaker 1: applied beyond the Black community. But there's a reason that

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Speaker 1: the black community specifically was Irvin's focus, because of his

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Speaker 1: life experience, because of the need to address black communities

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Speaker 1: specifically in uh in an anarchist text, something that was

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Speaker 1: really lacking prior to the resurgence of you know, the

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Speaker 1: black radical tradition, the black anarchist specific tradition in the seventies.

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Speaker 1: So it's necessary. But I just hope you know, people

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Speaker 1: who understand who on that black didn't just you know,

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Speaker 1: click off, that I still hear that these ideas and stuff,

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Speaker 1: these programs are applicable more broadly. I hope that I

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Speaker 1: can see and contribute to these changes in my lifetime,

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Speaker 1: and as I consistently borrow from Ashanti Alston, another black

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Speaker 1: anarchist figure who I actually hope at some point we

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Speaker 1: could bring on or power to all the people peace.

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Speaker 1: It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

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Speaker 1: cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Speaker 1: You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated

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Speaker 1: monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening,