Do “#WeKeepUsSafe”? Notes on Action Security & Some Resources

by #IndigenousAction admin, September 30, 2023

"'We keep us safe!' is an abolitionist assertion that the state or some paternalistic organization will not protect us from #colonial, #fascist, #WhiteSupremacist, #Queerphobic attacks, so we must organize and defend ourselves and those we are in community with.

"We cannot leave this slogan to be an empty gesture or posture. It must be conveyed with the necessary training and organizing to address the hyperpoliticized and conflictual environments that we organize in.

"While we cannot anticipate and prevent all fascist assaults, if we pronounce that 'we keep us safe,' we can and must do what we can to organize and be prepared. Liberal and 'radical' non-profit managers constantly decrying the 'inactions of cops' does not keep us safe, it only invokes further police violence. Additionally, calling on colonial politicians to respond to fascist violence as a 'hate crime,' is really a call to further the carceral state and its institutional violences (courts, prisons, more policing, etc).

"On September 28th, 2023 #JacobJohns, an #Indigenous person was shot by Ryan Martinez, a colonial invader and #MAGA fascist at an action called to confront the re-establishment of a monument to the genocidal colonizer Juan de #Oñate in so-called Española, New Mexico. This shooting occurred under the same watch of an organization that hosted a previous anti-Oñate monument action in 2020 where #ScottWilliams was shot and severely injured.

"From #HeatherHeyer, #JosephRosenbaum, and #AnthonyHuber to many more who have been injured or killed while resisting authoritarian nationalism (aka fascism), these deadly attacks are occurring within a context of historic, ongoing, and escalating colonial violence.

"Since 2020, groups based in occupied New Mexico organizing anti-monument actions have been directly challenged for putting people at serious risk. Calls that have been made for more organized security have been denounced by inexperienced organizers in these groups.

"These issues and considerations are not new, the #BlackPantherParty for Self Defense and #AIM initiated armed patrols and armed resistance in the face of state, white supremacist, and colonial terror. Amorphous entities such as #Antifa and #BashBack have continually mobilized street warfare in defensive and proactive ways. These groups have long recognized that we cannot merely rely on 'safety in numbers,' (though numbers do help) our enemies are more organized than that, so why aren’t we?

"We cannot pronounce liberation without simultaneously preparing and mobilizing defense.

"As everyone should be doing #MutualAid, everyone should be prepared for #MutualDefense. We cannot depend on any organizers or organizations to simply do this for us. If 'We keep us safe,' we better fucking mean it.

"As Goldfinch Gun Club stated, 'Community defense has to be about #solidarity and uplift mutual aid, not just arming vulnerable peoples. By the time someone starts shooting, everyone has already lost. The best defense is #ABetterWorld. It’s possible. We have to believe that.'"

Full article and resources/recommendations:
https://www.indigenousaction.org/do-we-keep-us-safe-notes-on-action-security-some-resources/