SAN GABRIEL VALLEY ANTI-REPRESSION COMMITTEE
POINTS OF UNITY
I.
Direct Democracy and Federation: W
e believe that hierarchical modes of
social organization lead directly to the dominance of the many by the few. We
instead choose to embrace a model of self organization that places decision
making power in the hands of those who would be most affected by those
decisions. We desire to build local assemblies at the neighborhood, city and
regional levels that can make democratic decisions for themselves.
Out of these many small autonomous assemblies, we can coordinate on
regional and even national levels through federation. An assembly of assemblies
if you will, that can come together to decide solutions to problems on varying
scales.
These assemblies would act to displace and replace the current state
apparatus.
II.
Self Management: We believe that those who work must control and collectively
own the means by which they create wealth - not for the profit of the few, but in
the interest of all people.
Capitalism concentrates power and wealth in the hands of the very few,
despite the fact that these few do little other to produce this wealth than to own
the means by which it is created. While the few profit off of our labor, we are left
in increasingly perilous conditions, surviving off of the meager allowance which
we are afforded by selling our time, muscle, skills or brain power. Not only this,
but often we are forced to work in service of projects that have no social utility
other than to generate profit. Combine this with capitalisms lack of a social or
ecological conscience and it becomes obvious why it must be opposed.
We believe that a truly democratic, self managed society will minimize
production time and maximize the social utility of what is produced. In other
words, we are capable of dramatically reducing the amount of time we must
work, while still producing enough for all people to achieve a comfortable
standard of living.
These self managed industries would be governed through assemblies
made up of workers themselves. Production can be coordinated to meet specific
geographic needs or to solve problems by federations of production assemblies
on local, regional or national levels.
III.
Racial Equality: We firmly believe that all people are born, live and die as
equals.
However, as anti-racists, we also acknowledge the fact that the history of the
United States is one rooted in white supremacy which has developed and
weaved itself simultaneously into the history and development of capitalism.
Because of this, we refuse to reduce our understanding of the historic
interplay between racism and capitalism to one of simplicity; by ignoring the
unique experiences of people of color under racialized capitalism. Similarly, we
refuse to ignore the commonalities of oppression under capitalism that are faced
by all people, irrespective of race.
We are anti-racists. We oppose white supremacy both in individual social
contexts as well as in the context of racist oppression perpetrated by the state
and capitalism.
IV.
Gender and Sexual Equality: We embrace and recognize the multitude of
gender expressions as well as sexual orientations that all people are capable of.
We also acknowledge and oppose the oppression perpetrated by patriarchy - a
system of male supremacy defined by heteronormativity and gender repression.
We believe that all people are harmed under patriarchy and that only full
gender and sexual equality can release us to freely embody our desires and true
selves.
V.
Equality of Ability: We believe that all people fundamentally deserve to be
understood, recognized, defined and valued on their own terms - regardless of
differences in physical or mental ability. Under capitalism, those who are deemed
unfit or incapable of performing work to produce a profit are often discarded,
maligned or relegated to a life of humiliation.
We seek to build a society that allows for meaningful social or material
contribution by all people, in any way that they see fit.
VI.
Ecology: We believe that in order to minimize the catastrophe of human caused
climate change, we must take immediate and decisive action to integrate
ourselves into a sustainable relationship with the natural world.
We believe that the well being of the environment is intrinsically linked to
the well being of all people. The natural world must be recognized as being
reflexively and solitarily important, meaning that it must not be viewed simply as a
vast pool from which we can extract resources. The capitalist mode of production
follows this line of thinking and we can plainly see the degradation and
destruction that it has wrought, now on a global scale, through the logic of
domination that it applies to the environment.
We understand that society is dependent on satisfying its needs by way of
the natural world. We believe that reorienting our relationship to the non-human
world, placing natural resources under communal ownership, a participatory
economic model and continued technological advancement will propel us toward
a sound relationship between people and the world in which we live.
