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From Kuwasi Balagoon - revolutionary New African anarchist

"i think we tend to use the term "left" too lossely, everybody left of Reagan ain't left. Basic self-determination, the means of production being in the hands of the workers, should be the criteria of recognizing an ideology as left. Just because someone doesn't want some fool in Washington to blow the world to pieces doesn't make them left. Everybody who protests the curtailing of civil liberties that effect them, ain't left. And we make a mistake when we assume that they are, and they let us know we made mistakes when the basic issues arise.

When a gay group protests lack of police protection, by making an alliance with police to form a gay taskforce, they ain't making a stand against the system they are joining it. Putting more power in the hands of those who attack them for being what they are in the first place. Those women's organizations with membership with underpaid Black, Puerto Rican and Mexican maids, who decided to vote differently when the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated, can't be called Left, just as Blacks mobilizing to field a presidential candidate arn't left. Left is the land and means of production in the hands of the masses and Right is land and the means of production in the hands of a few pigs."

Kuwasi Balagoon was a Black revolutionary soldier who died on Dec. 13, 1986 from AIDS related illness. While I think we need more than just the means of production in the hands of the masses, I think this is a helpful statement from Kuwasi for us to think about. Kuwasi is a forgotten queer hero who struggled for liberation!