NFL Football players are bending a knee in protest during the National Anthem for the same reason that cities across the country are abolishing Columbus Day and for the same reason that there are widespread attacks on Confederate monuments, Columbus statues, fallen officer memorials and veterans’ monuments. Symbols of American history and heroism have been methodically transformed into symbols of oppression, genocide and racism, not that the football players understand this. They are just the latest group of useful idiots being manipulated by a long-established resistance movement. Current American resistance movements and their armies of anarchist protesters thoroughly understand the subversive significance of these iconoclastic acts. The abolition of national holidays, the destruction of historic statues, the desecration of heroes’ memorials and publicly disrespecting traditional civic rituals are time tested revolutionary strategies.
Bending a knee is just another gesture in the plan to fundamentally transform America’s past and future. The American resistance movement existed long before Trump became president. It is comprised of many surprisingly unrelated national and global organizations from communists to environmentalists to black nationalists. Identity is their philosophy; decolonization is their doctrine; victimhood is their strategy; grievance is their industry; protest is their tactic; and revolution is their goal. Their unifying concepts are ‘intersectionality’ and ‘decolonization’. Intersectionality describes how various systems of oppression intersect and overlap. For example, you can be the victim of ‘dual oppressions’ such as sexism and racism. Perhaps dual oppression requires bending both knees in protest. The function of intersectionality is to create solidarity between oppressed groups to fight unrelated battles in the larger struggle for social justice. All grievances now intersect in one big cult of victimhood.
Every grievance and cause is interpreted in the context of colonization. Colonization is derived from the Latin word colere, which means ‘to inhabit’ and is defined as an invading culture establishing political control over the indigenous people of an area. Colonialism, often synonymous with imperialism, is generally described as the process of European settlement and political domination over the rest of the world. Police and military are viewed as enforcers of the colonial oppressors. This narrative has been very successful in enlisting anti-police movements to fight under the decolonizing doctrine. Victims of real or imagined subjugation are ‘intersecting’ to join the resistance in fighting capitalism and perceived American imperialism, racism and fascism under the banner of colonization.
Colonization is code for identity politics. It is the primary issue in the global Indigenous Peoples Rights Movement. Indigenous Peoples typically refers to aboriginal peoples, native peoples, or the original inhabitants of a given region. This is in contrast to groups that have settled or colonized the area. Due to the propaganda appeal, funding opportunities and political popularity of indigenous issues, other groups are trying to co-opt indigenous rights status. Activists are attempting to claim that the struggle for indigenous rights extends to Palestinians by characterizing Native Americans and Palestinians as having similar and shared experiences of colonization. Settlements have been called Israel’s colonial settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Occupied, Occupation and Occupiers are popular resistance movement phrases and are often used in Palestinian terrorist group propaganda. Protest signs depict the ‘intersectionality’ of causes: ‘From Ferguson to Palestine Occupation is a Crime’ and ‘From Palestine to Standing Rock We Are United.’
Decolonization refers to freeing victims of oppression so they can become independent and self-governing. Decolonization is a strategy that unites disparate groups such as environmentalists, black nationalists, anti-fascists, anarchists, socialists, communists, Native Americans, Palestinians and even football players. National and global movements are framing every issue in the context of genocidal oppression and enslavement with philosophies of indigenous decolonization, environmental decolonization and educational decolonization.
Decolonize functions as a popular propaganda slogan that appeals to naïve students, useful idiots and angry activists. It has become the motto of the resistance, the term du jour for every issue and given rise to popular phrases such as Decolonize, Decolonize Your Mind, Decolonize the New World, Decolonize Education and Defend the Sacred. The phrase Defend the Sacred was popularized during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. It referred to the defense of Native Americans sacred land and water at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Ironically the call to defend the sacred only applies to indigenous, colonized and so called marginalized groups. Civic rituals such as standing for the National Anthem and saluting the flag are not held sacred. They are the symbols and rituals of the enemy oppressors so it is acceptable to disrespect them. In fact, all symbols of the purported colonial imperialist fascist America and its police and military enforcers are justifiable targets. For this reason, Columbus Day presents an ideal occasion to depict the U.S. as the ultimate colonizer and introduce tactics that subvert all American traditions.
Christopher Columbus is a popular target because he is portrayed as a colonizing genocidal oppressor of indigenous peoples who should not be honored. There are several local and national political campaigns to abolish Columbus Day and/or rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Proponents argue that Columbus Day is part of a Eurocentric view of American history that ignores the brutal realities of colonization. Several cities and states have already replaced the municipal holiday with a day to recognize indigenous people.
One of the leading Abolish Columbus Day campaigns is hosted by the Zinn Education Project. The site is dedicated to “introducing students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history … that emphasizes the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history.” It is appropriately named in honor of Howard Zinn the guru of revisionist American history and author of the infamous book A Peoples History of the United States. Zinn’s Marxist anti-American interpretation of history is one of the most popular high school textbooks in America. The Zinn Education Project provides similar educational materials for pre-K to 12 public schools indoctrinating future anti-colonial anti-American social justice anarchists. Zinn led the stealth revolution to undermine American history, traditions and values. Recent iconoclastic gestures, vandalism and violence signify a more active phase.
A more militant approach to eradicating Columbus Day was organized by revolutionary anarchists. On September 21, 2017 the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM) posted a call to action on Antifa social media sites titled Deface Columbus Day: A Call to Action. The announcement called for collectives all over the country to take action on October 9th against Columbus Day by “decorating” their neighborhoods. The call to action includes a 1½ minute promotional video that depicts vandalism of Columbus, Confederate and fallen officer statues. The video contains references to racism, displays Antifa, anti-police and Charlottesville graffiti and shows images, flags and symbols from indigenous rights protests. The video ends with images of a city on fire, burned out vehicles and a protest sign that reads Defend the Sacred.
The use of the word ‘Deface’ in the title signifies that the call to Deface Columbus Day goes beyond lawful protest. The word ‘Deface‘ is defined as intentionally spoiling the appearance of something by writing on or marking it. The combination of recent attacks on statues, the message of vandalism in the video and the symbolism of the language and imagery in the announcement unmistakably indicates that the call to action involves a coordinated campaign to deface and destroy more historical monuments on October 9, 2017. The announcement encourages ‘revolutionaries’ to put a picture of their action on social media using the hashtags #FuckColumbusDay and #DestroyColonialism.
The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM) is an anti-police, anti-government communist organization that functions as the militant arm of Antifa. They describe themselves as a “political movement dedicated to freeing people from bondage and building resistance in the United States. “We situate our political movement in the context of the abolitionist struggle against slavery….. We believe the Civil War was never resolved and the system of slavery transitioned into the prison industrial complex.” Their manifesto is titled Burn Down the American Plantation: Call for a Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement. Plantation is another term for American settler colonies and code for black slavery, mass incarceration and reparations.
What starts out as bending a knee in protest of the flag and national anthem evolves into #FuckYoFlag, #FuckYoAnthem and FuckYoFlag911 where activists post pictures of people burning, stepping on and proudly wiping their ass with the American flag. Abolish Columbus Day evolves into abolish the constitution. Attacks on statues evolves into attacks on police. Symbolic violence always precedes actual violence. Anti-colonial anarchists justify violence against police and armed insurrection against the government as the abolition of colonial power and the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. Resist is code for overthrow. The revolution is here.
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