We are the Space City Anarchist Organization, an anarchist organization based out of so-called Houston, Texas. We have established ourselves first and foremost to build a movement in support of the people.
We do not seek to lead or direct the people’s path to liberation; we only seek to provide influence and suggestions as we all strive to build a better world where the privilege of freedom becomes the right of all peoples.
Our organization is based on especifist theory and praxis, which was established by the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU), and, by it, we refer to a conception of an anarchist organization that has two fundamental axes: organization and social insertion. With this model, we aim to radically transform the SE-TX region into a free society based on the people’s control of their own lives with no politicians or bosses ruling over them. This model will empower all who wish to build a life that is meaningful, connected, and free.
Through collective effort, individuals can prefigure today what tomorrow should look like; technology empowers us to coordinate our efforts in real-time, and we do not need permission from anyone to build a life free from the obligations and oppression of capitalism and imperialism. However, voluntary members of SCAO recognize that what we are facing is not just capitalism and imperialism but multiple interlocking systems of oppression, exploitation, and domination that operate on a micro- (individual) and macro- (societal) level.
At the root of it all, you will find that it is hierarchy that enables this suffering in every sphere of our lives: in our most intimate relationships, in our families, our churches, our schools, our government – and that capitalism and imperialism are just some of the many destructive fruits of hierarchy. Therefore, the voluntary members of SCAO are committed to working together to build a movement in support of the people residing on Indigenous Land.
We’re not fighting against an enemy, we’re fighting for a cause, so that every regular person can take their fate into their own hands and govern themselves. Our organizational platform is as follows, and we encourage anyone who finds themselves agreeing with our platform to join our movement.
- Feminism: We are first and foremost a feminist organization with no tolerance for misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, or machismo.
- Anti-Capitalism: We reject capitalism and all its forms of exploitation, oppression, and domination that enable a privileged few to profit off of the oppressed. Instead, we seek to build networks based on mutual aid, need, and respect for human dignity.
- Anti-Police and State: There is no collaboration with the state or overt authoritarian organizations. We stand in opposition to state repression of dissent and infiltration.
- Respect for diversity of tactics: The struggle and resistance against our oppressors cannot be limited by one strategy or tactic, and must embrace the full diversity of thoughts and ideas that empower individuals to achieve freedom and self-determination.
- Radical Democracy: As an organization, we believe that everyone who is affected by a decision should have a voice in the outcome. We operate by consensus decision-making whenever possible, and oppose any form of representative democracy, or any other system that one power over another.
- Unity-in-diversity: Our greatest strength, as both an organization and as a society as a whole, is our diversity. It is important that our organization where people of color, queer folk, neurodivergent people, disabled people, and anyone else that belongs to an oppressed group has their perspective valued and prioritized.
- Ecology: We must work towards restoring the balance of ecological systems that have been destroyed and damaged as a result of human domination of nature. We know from anthropological evidence that mutual aid, cooperation, and empathy were present in early human groups and that these values were reinforced by their communities, and contributed heavily to their survival. Moreover, our collective survival is dependent on our ability to rebuild society along rational, ecological lines.
- Anti-hierarchy: We oppose all systems of domination. This includes explicit and obvious forms of hierarchy, such as capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, and the state, as well as the oppressive social systems that underpin those institutions, such as classism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, and all other forms of bigotry.
- Dual Power and the Solidarity Economy: Power cannot come from voting and participating in structures set up by the system. Capitalism cannot- and will not- meet all the needs of the people. We aim to create a system that serves people, not the profit-driven ideals of capital. Our economic goal should be to give optimal control of the production and distribution of society to the people. We seek to eventually abolish the production of commodities for the purpose of exchange and replace it with a system of production based on ability and distribution based on need. In other words, an economy that is based on solidarity and care, instead of competition and greed. We aim to build better alternatives than what the state offers. Community Defense Organizations instead of cops, Community Clinics and Hospitals instead of privatized healthcare, and worker self-directed enterprises instead of corporations.
- Collective Liberation: We can’t be free unless we are all free. This means cooperating together with others to seize our own liberation, as well as respecting and supporting the ability of communities to organize within and among themselves. It also means centering those who face the most amount of oppression in our society currently, and ensuring nobody is ignored or abandoned by those who are more privileged.
- Disability Justice: We are all categorized by the state: by class, by sex, by gender, by race, etc. Recently, the State has recognized Disability as its own particular category. It is possible to say that we are all disabled by injustice and oppression of various kinds; the reality is that Disability exists as an unstable category that links all identities together. Any person or being can quickly enter this identity through accident, illness, or otherwise, and just as quickly exit it. However, the instability of this category shows us something revolutionary beyond static identity: that difference is the norm, that universals do not exist, and that we are all non-standard. With this in mind, we can move beyond the idea of bodies that exist in fixed, ahistorical, apolitical states into perpetually co-constructing an idea of the body that moves in flux with and is impacted by, the contingencies of the moment, accepting an unavoidable maxim that all bodies are always deserving of protection and access.