Anarchist People of Color is an American anarchist/anti-authoritarian

Anti-authoritarian

Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as a "political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism." Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil...

 group created to address issues of race, anti-authoritarianism and people of color struggle politics within the context of anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, and to increase/create political (safe) space for people of color.

Initially started as an e-mail list and website by Ernesto Aguilar

Ernesto Aguilar

Ernesto Aguilar founded the Anarchist People of Color email list and website in 2001, which led to the formation of the current Anarchist People of Color network.No longer an anarchist, Aguilar edits the website...

, APOC is inspired and influenced by such historical anarchists of color as Lucy Parsons

Lucy Parsons

Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons was an American labor organizer and radical socialist. She is remembered as a powerful orator.-Life:...

, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin

Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin

Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin is an American writer, activist, and Black anarchist. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party. He has lived in Memphis, Tennessee since 2010.- Youth and early activism :...

, Ricardo Flores Magón

Ricardo Flores Magón

Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas....

, Práxedis Guerrero

Práxedis Guerrero

Práxedis Gilberto Guerrero Hurtado was a Mexican journalist who served as an insurgent leader during the 1910 Revolution....

, Martin Sostre

Martin Sostre

Martin Ramirez Sostre is an American activist.He served time in Attica prison during the early 1960s, where he embraced doctrines as diverse as Black Muslimism, Black Nationalism, Internationalism, and finally anarchism. In 1966 Sostre opened the Afro-Asian Bookstore in the black ghetto of...

, and Luisa Capetillo

Luisa Capetillo

Luisa Capetillo was one of Puerto Rico's most famous labor organizers. She was also a writer and an anarchist who fought for workers and women's rights.-Early years:...

.

APOC is not a centrally organized group, but a loosely organized network of individuals, collectives and cells. APOC has also been known to use tactics/strategies that they call "APOC Blocs" and tend to be direct action

Direct action

Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

 oriented.

APOC held its first national conference on the campus of Wayne State University

Wayne State University

Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...

 in Detroit, Michigan, in 2003.

In Spring 2007, the APOC website went offline. A new site, Illvox, appeared in July 2007 as a mirror of previous APOC site content, and to continue posting of articles.

External links

• Anarchist People of Color
• Resistance, Community, and Renewal - Institute for Anarchist Studies article on APOC conference
• Senzala or Quilombo: Reflections on APOC and the fate of Black Anarchism
• http://podster.de/view/5649 podcast: "Unser Quilombo heisst jetzt APOC"(Pocast in german about APOC)