SPECTRE OF ROCCO DISTRO

What does it mean to celebrate independence for a country built by stolen people on stolen land, with the highest total number of people incarcerated in the world? Many in the past and present have instead used July 4th as an opportunity to critically engage in thought and action against the oppressive systems the U.S. established and developed its independence on. Below is a short list of introductory material that challenges the myth and patriotism behind the celebration of Independence Day, as well as the anti-Indigenous and anti-Black limits of white/settler/master-led so-called liberatory movements in the northern bloc. Compiled for Fuck the Fourth, a letter-writing to prisoners event and distro.

The Farce of July | Unmasking Imperialism Ep. 84 Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez interviews Dr. Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History & African-American Studies at the University of Houston, about The Counter-Revolution of 1776 and how the preservation of slavery was a motivating factor for the so-called American Revolutionary War. Note: in the audience discussion section starting ~52:54, Fúnez expresses some standard Marxist-Leninist positions in support of vanguardism and against ultraleftist or anarchist insurrectionism that Spectre of Rocco disagrees with. In spite of these disagreements, SOR still believe this interview is worth distroing for its insight and efficiency in dispelling the colonial mythos behind July 4th.

Surviving Our Fallen: Chamorros, Militarism, Religiosity, and 9/11 On the anniversary of 9/11, Craig Santos Perez, Indigenous Chamoru poet from the so-called unincorporated territory of Guam, reflects on what it means to escape military recruitment for Iraq and Afghanistan and survive when his people and their land have been and are still continuously and colonially targeted for exploitation by the U.S. military's death machine.

The ABC of Decolonization Rowland “Ena͞emaehkiw” Keshena Robinson critiques some common colonial approaches to liberation by white/settler/master(-led) Marxists and anarchists, and counters with an actual material analysis of what settler colonialism is and what its end would actually require.

An Introduction to the Fourth World Kiksuya Khola and MerriCatherine begin an attempt to build what Robinson might call “genuinely revolutionary” solidarity, starting with the Black and Indigenous subpopulations living in Third World conditions within First World countries.

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