A Reflection on “Native Liberation: The Way Forward” and “One to One with Professor Johanna Fernández”

The assigned resources for this week examine the work of the Young Lords and the more recently organized Red Nation in liberatory projects. Notably, both groups represent people who have experienced large-scale urban migration, largely because colonialist projects have decimated opportunities on reservations and in Puerto Rico. Both groups also set out as socialist or Marxist projects working not only towards the liberation of the oppressed groups represented in these organizations (Puerto Rican and Latinx people, Native people), but towards the collective liberation of all oppressed peoples. Estes is direct about the need to focus on collective liberation in his discussion of police brutality against Native people stating “we recognize that undoing the system that oppresses everyone requires multinational unity and class solidarity among the radicalized poor, colonized, and working-class peoples.”

Beyond their socialist foundations, the Young Lords and The Red Nation also share their refusal to allow capitalists to co-opt their work and derail their progress. In the Young Lords’ work, this is evident in their refusal of political figures like the Mayor of New York in their Garbage Offensive (McCarthy and Fernandez). For The Red Nation, this refusal of neoliberalism is in Estes’ emphatic statements against non-profits, capitalistic development, and partnership with the state. Estes is clear that these strategies hold little promise for collective liberation, saying “although seductive, these ‘solutions’ do nothing more than carry on, and carry out, the same power structure that Native people have been resisting for the last five centuries: colonialism and capitalism.”

As a member of a socialist organization, the DSA, I have already been convinced that neoliberalism and capitalism can never bring equality, only more exploitation, and that true liberation for any group can only come through collective liberation. A successful capitalist enterprise is measured by how effectively it can exploit its workers and our communities. The endless expansion of markets hurts us all and leaves us all vulnerable to climate catastrophe (Estes). Still, as a white member of a majority white socialist organization, I was reminded of the ways that my organization fails to meet the examples and expectations set through these groups. Estes critique that “organizations and movements mimic corporate and bourgeois competition over brands, logos, name recognition, clientele, and power” could certainly be leveled against the DSA at some points. Further, unlike the Young Lords, we fail to ask the many members of the communities in which we work what is actually needed or may not let those answers dictate our action. The DSA’s focus on electoral work limits the ways the organization responds to the needs of the communities where it organizes. This is a significant failing that only furthers critiques of the DSA as a group of gentrifiers instead of a community organization. The Young Lords’ refusal to work with politicians can also be considered in contrast to the DSA’s electoral work. This critique is more complicated, while certainly working within the neoliberal establishment can feel like acquiescing to capitalism, it is also responsible for some material gains that seem otherwise impossible. Substantial policies like New York’s eviction moratorium were accomplished with a combination of mass action, some of which might be considered reminiscent of the Young Lords, and socialists in office.

An image from New York Housing Justice For All’s March 2021 year in review. This documents a protest in 2020 in which housing activists blocked the street with furniture to illustrate the effects of eviction, in which people and their possessions are forcibly removed from their homes and left on the street.

Other current movements, like New York’s 2020 police abolitionist funding movement present a complicated picture of the organizing principles presented by Estes and through the Young Lords. Without leftists in office or sustained political pressure, a former police officer is set to become mayor and it seems that this movement has effectively failed. This is despite the mobilization of thousands of New Yorkers, a radical encampment outside of city hall, and a huge budget deficit. Still, these takeaways are complicated by the larger conditions of the Black Lives Matter movement, which certainly suffers from non-profitization and capitalist co-optation. This failure should also be a strong reminder of the importance of Estes’ call to avoid trying to fit our organizing into capitalism and its institutions.

Works Cited

#CANCELRENT Housing Justice For All [@housing4allNY]. “Our Favorite Action: On October 1, with help with @VendorPower and @FEWCoalition we built a living room on Broadway, calling our State Leaders to extend the eviction moratorium. #EvictionFreeNY” Twitter, 17 April 2021, https://twitter.com/housing4allNY/status/1383425121268879363?s=20

Estes, Nick. “Native Liberation: The Way Forward.” The Red Nation, The Red Nation, 17 Aug. 2016, therednation.org/native-liberation-the-way-forward/. McCarthy, Sheryl, and Johanna Fernández. “One to One with Professor Johanna Fernández.” Youtube, CUNY TV, 20 Oct. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7IhgK88G98. Accessed 2 Sept. 2021.

McCarthy, Sheryl, and Johanna Fernández. “One to One with Professor Johanna Fernández.” Youtube, CUNY TV, 20 Oct. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7IhgK88G98. Accessed 2 Sept. 2021.