3 years ago

In this episode of his "Thinking Out Loud" series, Double D examines how armed activists showed up to stop a Dallas homeless encampment from being displaced.
Double D jumps into the video by reading an op-ed article from Dallas News, which condemns the activists for showing up with weapons to interrupt city policy. He dispels the city's claim that they were "just intending to clean up the camp", noting that such "clean ups" amount to material violence on some of the most vulnerable in our society, often times resulting in the destruction of their belongings or even bringing about police violence.
Double D counters the articles condemnation of the armed defense, which the author claims "suggests the possibility of violence", pointing out that this "suggestion of potential violence" is in response to decades of violence against homeless people perpetuated by a system of violence. He states that evicting people from their homes is violence, that forcing people to live on the street is violence, that failing to provide adequate housing and sanitation is violence, and that maintaining a system which commodifies the essentials as life such as food and healthcare is violence.
Double D goes on to advocate for a policy of leaving homeless communities in peace while officials implement the resources necessary to lift people off the street. He suggests that if homeless encampments "need to be cleaned", that city workers should show up with the necessary resources, then work hand in hand with the homeless encampments to clean and sanitize the area. He also points out that while cities such as Dallas and Houston are doing more than others to house people, it will not be enough to permanently solve the issue. He notes that homelessness itself is not the problem, rather that it is a symptom of a system built on capitalist appropriation which turns the basic things necessary for life into commodities.
Further dispelling the article's condemnation of armed defense, Double D quotes Frantz Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth" which elaborates the idea that everyday people react with violence because the system and culture which dominates them is violent. He maintains that never in history has it been working people who have instigated violence, that they have always only ever responded to violence with violence.
Rounding off the video, Double D suggests that it is only through this form of direct action that working people have achieved any victory against systems of domination. He maintains that while elections and protests play an important role in building mass movements, that it is only through stringent community and political organization, coupled with sustained direct action, that fundamental and lasting change can be achieved.
Ending the video, Double D shouts out "The Illahee Spirit Runners", a pan-indigenous activist group committed to ecological defense, de-colonization, and Land Back initiatives. He calls on his audience to get involved and get organized, reminding them that unless we walk the walk, systems of domination and exploitation will only grow more malevolent and destructive.

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Solidarity forever.

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