Rafales: Black Autonomy & Prefigurative Politics (In Conversation in Montreal)

Recorded live at Rafales (the anarchist learning camp hosted by ORA (Organisation Révolutionnaire Anarchiste) in Montreal).

We sat down with Zoya, one of the organizers, to dig into what Black autonomy actually looks like in practice: as theory, as daily organizing, and as a framework that refuses to wait for someone else's revolution to be finished first. From prefigurative politics to Afro-pessimism, from the Black Liberation Army to Cooperation Jackson, from Standing Rock to the Anarchist Group in Sudan, this conversation traces the lineage of Black radical struggle across generations and geographies. We also get into what it means to show up as Black folks in a diaspora full of contradictions; navigating immigrant families, queer identity, settler land, and the ever-present question of who solidarity is actually for.

Edited by Badger

Want extended show notes? Check out our Patreon post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/rafales-black-in-157439680

About Rafales: https://ora-rao.org/rafales-en/

Organisation Révolutionnaire Anarchiste: https://www.instagram.com/ora.rao.rev/

Support independent bookstores by purchasing with our affiliate link on through Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/lists/what-we-re-reading-at-the-dugout 

Media Mentioned

Books

• Lose Your Mother — Saidiya Hartman
• Afropessimism — Frank B. Wilderson III
• Tip of the Spear — Orisanmi Burton
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X — Malcolm X & Alex Haley
• Assata: An Autobiography — Assata Shakur
• In Defense of Looting — Vicky Osterweil
• Fear of the Black Nation — David Austin
• An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States — Kyle T. Mays
• Seven Fallen Feathers — Tanya Talaga
• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa — Walter Rodney

Documentaries

• Dope Is Death — dir. Mia Donovan (Young Lords & acupuncture in North America)
• The Takeover — on the Young Lords' hospital occupation

Thinkers & Figures Referenced

• Kuwasi Balagoon (New Afrikan anarchist, BLA, Panther 21)
• Saidiya Hartman & Sylvia Wynter
• Ruth Wilson Gilmore
• James Baldwin
• Amílcar Cabral
• W.E.B. Du Bois & Marcus Garvey
• Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael)
• C.L.R. James

Organizations & Projects

• Rafales / ORA — the conference
• Cooperation Jackson: https://cooperationjackson.org/
• Malcolm X Grassroots Movement: https://freethelandmxgm.org/
• Anarchist Group in Sudan (fundraiser at opencollective.com/support-sudanese-comrades)
• In the Belly — abolitionist prison media publication: https://transformharm.org/ab_resource/in-the-belly/
• Black Queer and Intersectional Collective (Columbus, OH): https://bqic.net/

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EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

09:33 – What Does Black Autonomy Actually Mean to You?

19:29 – How Does Black Autonomy Push Beyond Liberal Inclusion Politics?

30:01 – What Are Prefigurative Politics and Why Do They Matter?

35:30 – What Does Prefigurative Organizing Look Like in Real Life?

40:53 – How Do Black Autonomy and Indigenous Sovereignty Connect?

47:48 – What Does Real Solidarity Look Like Beyond Symbolic Support?

52:06 – Which Political Thinkers Shape Your Vision of Black Liberation?

56:43 – What Does Afro-Pessimism Get Right—and Where Does It Fall Short?

01:00:54 – How Do Gender, Queerness, and Disability Shape Liberation Struggles?