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Everyone should read Lorenzo Kom'Boa Ervin's "Anarchism and Black Revolution." It is an incredibly concise and informative work that absolutely deserves a place in the canon of commonly recommended anarchist texts. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin-anarchism-and-the-black-revolution
So, I finished Anarchism and Black Revolution and I want to say that this piece is criminally underrated and I can only assume it's because:
1) People haven't heard of it.
or
2) There is some assumption that it is only about the intersection of anarchism and black politics
1) People haven't heard of it.
or
2) There is some assumption that it is only about the intersection of anarchism and black politics
As for the second of these two, it is simply not the case. Although Ervin does spend ample time analyzing the connection of black politics and anarchism, this work is far more wide-ranging than that. It is both informative and important for a variety of people to read.
While the pamphlet was created by Ervin for the specific purpose of introducing anarchism to people in the black community, I feel as if it has extremely high value in its seamless communication to white anarchist and broadly leftist communities as well.
Particularly helpful is how he lays out the key shortcomings of white leftist organizers that lead to the severe lack of POC and specifically black Americans in radical left organizations. Put bluntly, they want to recruit black people, not show up for the issues that affect them
But that's not the only reason to read this pamphlet. Lorenzo Ervin has also created a truly impressive summary of anarchist praxis and organizing principles. Nowhere else have I found so many of these ideas contained so succinctly in one place.
Ervin's analysis of anarchism and the surrounding tendencies is both nuanced and comprehensive, historically literate but not too dense. Many of the ideas he synthesizes here are ones I had to pick up from a variety of sources, patching together the framework piece by piece.
Lastly, Ervin's critiques of Leninist tendencies, given special value by the fact that he was once a Leninist and that he visited countries in the Soviet bloc during their height, gives a special credence to the fact that he now rejects them wholeheartedly.
His problems with authoritarian leftism are equal parts articulate and biting, careful yet ruthless. He utterly rejects vanguardism, he excoriates the empty propaganda of Leninists and substitutes each of their ideological tendencies with anarchist alternatives.
Anyway. I think Anarchism and Black Revolution has been one of my favorite pieces I have read since Nationalism and Culture and I feel like just about everyone who is on the left, of the authoritarian or anarchist variety, regardless of their identity, can learn a lot from it.
