This
work is
an important achievement in clarifying the history and current
importance of Black anarchism. The substantive information that the
book presents will be new to many readers. For instance, one
important component involves the explanations of how hierarchical
principles within the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army
helped generate the emergence of Black anarchism among key party
members who later developed their ideas and strategies while in
prison. Likewise, the book breaks new ground in demonstrating that
Black anarchism has emerged not from the European/ North American
anarchist traditions but rather from roots in Pan-Africanism, the
Black radical tradition focusing on racial capitalism and the work of
Cedric Robinson, and grassroots struggles partly in the U.S. South.
The in-depth analysis of the somewhat different but complementary
focuses within the two generations of Black anarchism also is very
helpful. Finally, the book highlights concrete, contemporary
implications for revolutionary strategy, including a perceptive
analysis of the compatibilities between socialist and Black anarchist
approaches to current transformative struggles. I am sure that this
publication will become widely known and used, because it brings
enlightening new ways to understand and to act on the intertwined
structures of racial capitalism and the capitalist state.