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Left Coast Media
Wherein Our Berets Are Brown
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Could you boil that down into a five word question because I have no idea what you just asked.
Speaker 2All right. So can we do another episode of
Speaker 1post? We have a local calm right here from Les Brown berets. Before we get into the actual discussion, let's introduce ourselves. I am type areas, Caracas. I'm Erin and I am commune or sauce.
Speaker 3Hello.
Speaker 1Let me know if I'm pronouncing your name incorrectly. I'm terrible with names. I apologize. But it's definitely nothing personal. So I Heleo. Yeah. Okay. So you're always lost ground race. Could you somebody who doesn't really know anything except, um, maybe having seen some newspaper pictures, could you kind of lay out the basics?
Speaker 3Yeah, the breeze a started in 67. I need [inaudible]. I'm inspired by the Black Panthers and, uh, movements of the Times back then. Right. A lot of revolutionary left movements, uh, basically, uh, to defend the barrio against the police. And um, that was the origins of it. But, uh, it's been a while. So, you know, the politics have changed, you know, the situation has changed in such, so a mother, a lot of us in general, we've brought in Daraa political perspectives and you know, we're into basically anything that is, uh, you know, for the community, we're still a nationalists, which means, uh, you know, basically we just have a certain population that we, uh, we work for. And I know a lot of people are scared of that word today, but just like the word revolutionary, right? But that's just the, uh, I skewed understanding. I think it's, we are basically a revolutionary movement of today. Um, you know, for, uh, what it would be in the same cause, you know, working for the people in general, even though it's specific to a ugly, obviously Rasa. Right. But he can cut anybody out because basically, I mean at all in the end works together, right. In the same movement and stuff. So, um, yeah, that's pretty much it. I mean, every chapter and we'll have their own, uh, specifics, any preferences that they want to work on. But, uh, I mean that's pretty much the general, the idea right there. It's really just working for social justice and such. Um, w there are different, uh, organizations of brown berets, specifically four of them, and as that has a history, has factionalized the berets. Um, but I dunno, I think if there's a good and a bad, I guess for that to us, we're a autonomous and autonomous faction. And, uh, we started from, uh, the, uh, movements that are Watsonville started 94, 98. They want autonomous, they originally founded a themselves in 94. Uh, they were from the national brand Braves organization. The original organization was called Brown National Organization. Um, but, uh, uh, today they just recently in the past like year or to change your name to a national brand race. Um, but yeah, I mean it's with different organizations we have different uh, uh, politics and uh, you know, ways we want to see the movement and social approach it and everything.
Speaker 4What is the push and pull between the different factions? Is it more kind of focusing on like economic issues or you know, specific issues like police brutality or workers or what is the, what is the kind of like divergence going on?
Speaker 5Hmm.
Speaker 3I would say philosophical stances. Sounds like the left to me. Yeah. Some of 'em. Um, we'll even carry American flags and marches. I don't know why and others will be, uh, you know, just a straight up a movement, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 5MMM.
Speaker 3The autonomous faction is, uh, for the most part, what it, what it sounds like, right. At autonomous for each chapter. But we'll stay in communication with, with each other. And uh, out of the four of the positions were the ones who, uh, keep a lot of the, uh, native, uh, perspective native movement in, you know, in our gray and our stuff. Um, and with that includes, you know, non Saas Deca and all that stuff. You know, I'm really involved into that stuff also. So it's parallel, right? The native spirituality and all that stuff is, and issues, right. Are really parallel to a political movement. And that's, that's what has us a standing out and out of the four. Um, but like the national brace for example, they stick a little more to the original, uh, perspective of the, the movement of the 60s. They have changed just like they've changed their name recently. I with new membership and new a youth in the movement, they do in general think differently, but for a long time they were still under the influence and control are somewhat control at least of the Oji barets right of the 60s live them. And they were longtime parades and you know, they have been in the ranks and they still follow a military structure. And that's, I think what are the influenced a lot of their perspective. They still adhere to a strict nationalism and a liberation or the two principles of anything they do. There's also the, uh, Brown berets, their salon, there's, they're specifically out of San Diego County. Uh, they're pretty similar to the national boundaries accept. Um, they just started their own organization as a county, um, because, well basically like back then they split from the national berets, you know, southern Cali politics. And all that stuff. And uh, you know, just continued organizing. Um, pretty much, I mean, that sums them up, you know, uh, the other faction is the brown bears carnalismo and they're out of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, the whole region up there in Colorado and everything. They're the ones that would carry the American flag and stuff, you know, and I can't talk too much about them. They're really hard to communicate with you. I've reached out a couple of times, but um, yeah, basically those are the four organizations. Um,
Speaker 4it's like, uh, the, the balance of, do you, do you want to go super philosophical and radical and, or a little more mainstream and attract more people, right. Do alienator attractor, do educate them and bring them to the left. So maybe the American flags, I don't know as part of that. Yeah, the nationalism word, like you said, it scares people. Back in the 60s, it was like all these national nationalists, liberation movements all across the world and as part of like the global south kind of like rising up, but they're all in solidarity was like a movement and did um, kind of a, it seems almost outdated now, but I think it's still too, you know, the mainstream liberal. But I think it's so important. It's cool to see that it's still going, you know.
Speaker 6Well, and, and um, with that, like in the current era, a lot of the targets of the Trump administration have been exactly the kind of communities that would be involved or a part of the Brown baret movement. Have you guys been seeing like the DSA just a, an explosion and membership and people getting active? Like people actually saying there is something that is coming for us and we have to defend ourselves.
Speaker 3Yeah. There's an increase of interest. Even though people today are still a misunderstanding. Those were designed revolutionary nationalisms though, you know, I think there's a difference from back then to today. Basically just their interpretation of, even though you would have the same intention of how to apply that in the movement, right.
Speaker 1For my sins. I, I do not know very much about, about nationalism as the Brown berets kind of see it. Is it, is it kind of anti imperialist, anti American and, uh, Columbus European imperialism? Or is it kind of more about having, having a space or the combination of those things?
Speaker 3Uh, basically it's just about, um, being specific to having a population that I use a serve, uh, in the end. I mean, that's really all think a nationalism means if you look it up in the dictionary, talks about a unifying, or I'm being specific to, uh, people according to some characteristics like, uh, uh, mean was a jogger geographical lines, uh, uh, demographics and stuff like that. And right now, political tendencies or whatever, that's pretty much it. If you boil it down, I wear, I think in my mind, so, right. And I think what the word nationalism has meant, even in sixties, is basically just having a certain people. And that's really it. You know? Uh, I know that from talking to a lot of people, um, a lot of people are scared of that word because they think it means a certain tendency towards, I dunno, fascism or something. Uh, because of the history of the word that is, it was related to a world war two and stuff like that. Right,
Speaker 7okay.
Speaker 6Yeah. And nationalism in, in the sort of like a western European sense is a very, uh, chauvinistically thing. You know, as, as the nations were being sort of the idea of a nation was being developed, it developed alongside of imperialism. So nationalism in the, in the sort of like the European western context is inherently imperialistic. It is inherently xenophobic is, is bound up and all of these, these, um, uh, various histories of the, the atrocities committed by these western European countries. Whereas when you, when you start looking about looking at the nationalist movements of the Global South people and, uh, or people in Africa, people in South America, people in Southeast Asia, these, these national movements are movements of liberation, specifically a in opposition to the, uh, the imperialists desires of these western nations. So, so there is, um, a lot of leftists will say you can't be a true leftist and have a, a nation to work for, but that, that does ignore the facts and history of imperialism where these, like the Brown berets are having this, this idea of a nation freeing itself from oppression. And then once that oppression is freed, then we can let go of these, these nationalists ties. But those ties are what bind us in our oppression. And therefore those, you have to understand and work within that system of the nation too.
Speaker 7Break it.
Speaker 1I would say it's the difference between a nation as lines on a map of the western imperialist white concept of a nation versus the sort of a nation as a group of people, which especially when you're dealing with groups of traditional legal, even currently people,
Speaker 6um, that has very different meaning from just everybody who lives in this country. But it is, it is at the same time, very easy to go. Like for example, the nation of Islam route and basically use this as, as like a black supremacists movement or something like that. So, how do you guys sort of navigate that and the Brown berets, what, where is, where are those lines being drawn between, um, between the liberation movement and, and move in a nationalist movement in the more chauvinistically sense
Speaker 3that I think would come out of the woodwork of, uh, just being involved in the movement and having these conversations. Uh, and that's also why we have different factions along the way. Some people don't get along and all that stuff. And so, uh, while some of the, uh, uh, oh, it was some other factions may be a little more, uh, a reactionary, others might be a little more, you know, uh, on was the counter word I like to use revolutionary. Yeah, I use that word for everything, but, uh, it's, uh, I guess it's really just that and like talking about it. Um, and, uh, my guess, just seeing how every chapter wants to apply that in their own movements. Um, you know, some people, um, will be even anti white, other people will be blood more inclusive and all that stuff. And it's just a spectrum of, uh, where we want to go with it. And, you know, our affection is only a fraction. It does allow people of other races into the organization and stuff, even though, you know, as long, like I said, right. We will maintain ourselves as nationalists, but not overtly. Right. And I think it's really just up to the situation at hand to apply that. Right,
Speaker 6right. And this will be the autonomist.
Speaker 8Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 6Um, so as far as this specific region, um, I was wondering if you could talk about the history of the Brown berets and also some parallels struggles for the community that you represent.
Speaker 3Hmm. Uh, regionally the braise of some county we're founded in, uh, let's see. Uh, I think it was 71. Um, one of our ogs, he's, uh, it was in our, uh, our uh, type of, uh, Elder's council advisors council type of thing. Uh, Alfredo, he's really well known in the community. He was in there at the age of 15. He said that overnight he started seeing drugs in the organization. And uh, you know, after a while just things fell apart. You know, just, uh, from then, I mean it's just a, they stopped organizing, but, um, I want to say if it was in a 94, so, uh, they started a chapter here again and uh, it was a bunch of youth and they had a whole bunch of members. Oh. And by the way, the first generation had like 400 members in the whole county. Um, they would meet in Santa Rosa and stuff, but, uh, yeah, the second generation had a, had a good amount of numbers. I don't know exactly how much they were pretty active. Uh, what happened with them was that that read Sanchez, one of the famed co founders of the organization came up, visited and the basically threatened to sue them if they wouldn't take the, or use his name right. The Brown berets of America. And so half of them wanted to do it. Half of them didn't. And, uh, you know, that's how things fizzled out. Um, one of the events are movements that I remember that, uh, the people would tell me that they would do in that second generation was that, uh, they would not let the American flag go up at a, and I don't know exactly what day it was, his, uh, um, if you, I think it was 16th of September, which is Mexican Independence Day, the, they would do an honoring of the flag in Sonoma every year. And, um, I believe they still do it, but, um, yeah, the Braves would circle up and block everybody around the, uh, the flagpoles and now let us fly, go up. Uh, you know, being that Sonoma has a historical ties to, uh, you know, the, uh, the, uh, uh, nationalist movements around the movements of history and stuff. Um, he used to be a, uh, uh, military quarto of general via home, which is why, you know, the, uh, talent over here, it's called by home. He was a general in the Mexican army and he welcomed, um, uh, the, uh, uh, gold miners and such, and basically the gold miners ransacked and it took things over. And there comes a bear flag revolt and all that stuff.
Speaker 6Even not even talking about the gold miners, a Sonoma county and this area itself was kind of notorious for the slavers who came in and had these enormous rancheros that were sort of condoned by the Mexican government that used both. Um, you know, a lot of really horrible treatment of indigenous slaves but also of hasn't Mexicans as well. And so there's, there's a lot of that history up here for example, and there's a town just a little bit north of us in Lake County. Kelsey Ville must not be named after a guy who was a slaver and a child rapist. Yeah. He, he was treating the indigenous Po pomo populations so, so poorly that they eventually rose up and killed him. And this caused a, a military response that almost entirely wiped out the Pomo in the area. So like there's, there's a really deep and ugly history even even out here, even away from what, what most white people would think of as the south. Like, they don't, they don't see that this, this history of, you know, genocide and ethnic cleansing is a history that is out across the entire United States. So in California, and there was, there was only one confederate monument and that taking you down, but we have plenty of monuments to other genocidal white people. How does the, um, like you, you were talking about the indigenous movement and this is sort of a deep history for Sonoma county. Like how, how does that play in, like, go a little bit deeper into the connection between the indigenous struggles and the, you know, the, the Mexican, um, and an immigrant struggles?
Speaker 3Well, the movement in general being that it's a, for the cause of a, just defending the dignity and rights of the people does, I also have you reflect on yourself, right? Has you a question who you are and how you identify and all that stuff, taking you into account as a whole human being, all of your different parts, right? Because we come from a history of colonization. We have this inherited identity complex, right? And then we have a, on one part, you know, uh, some of us is a European on the other part, some of us as native, right? And in the end, um, a lot of us, most of us are Mestizo, right? Talking about the, the RUSP population. A lot of us actually, I'm sure we have a lot more, uh, African, uh, you know, DNA in us that we don't realize we do. But we have these questions, right, if identity and stuff. Um, and then we see, you know, the stuff that's been out there, right? These cultural expressions, uh, when we realize, I guess the, uh, that, uh, native spirituality is out there and question and investigate how it connects to us in that search for identity. We, uh, also bring that into our movement because it, uh, directly, uh, gives us space to the whole history of native resistance and stuff. Ryan, which is taking one side of ourselves, the, uh, and um, and acknowledging gain. Um, it is a whole different perspective on, uh, uh, of life, a whole different worldview or one of the anthropological term terms I've learned throughout the years. Uh, that it gives to life, this whole different world view that is so different than a, this western perspective that, um, it opens your eyes and to basically healing. It's healing that we can offer a ourselves to, uh, you know, historical trauma. You know, and that's the, uh, philosophical answer, I guess to the question, but I mean, it is open to everybody. Um, you know, it's, it's a, it is spirituality, but being spirituality, not necessarily religion, right? Religion is more of a structured, indoctrinated thing, but spirituality is more of an open type of belief type of system. Right? And so that's how that stuff fits into the, uh, the autonomous fashion is really open to it. Um, some of us really just go into it as much as we want. No, some of us, not as much, but I know I, for example, uh, um, uh, even one of the leaders of the local dance group, you know, we're part of the organized dance Azteca in Mexico. This is the traditional dance of a central Mexico. Um, and, uh, you know, we all are into it our own ways, but that's pretty much how we, uh, you know, put that in there. I also wanted to mention, since we kind of skipped over the third generation here, the Brown Breeza in terms of the history of it, the third generation of the Brown breeze was founded by me and a friend, Omar. Um, you know, this was in March, 2010 and, uh, well we were just talking about these movements and, uh, I learned about the breweries first when I was in high school. And so to me they were like these big idols in my mind, rain. So, you know, I had a gun involved in Mecha in 2008. Uh, I just got involved, learned about stuff and jump straight in a, in there and just took off running. So I met the berets and all that stuff, learn about it. And basically, you know, we just organize all that stuff. Uh, from there, uh, we've organized a few events. We've slowed down. We're not into being out in the public too much, but, uh, it depends also on the waves that we see. Sometimes it's not about doing all so much work as it is much about developing ourselves, but it really depends right where we're at, um, in each point in time. But, um, we, uh, you know, have our people out there are Oji uh, you know, and you know, we're just pressing forward with the movement. Um, you know, taking the, uh, same cause and at the same name but uh, always uh, developing according to, you know, what we need to a business that we need to handle. Right.
Speaker 6Yeah. Cause um, community defense is much, much more than just sort of opposing the fascist nature of the police state. It is also about making sure that the people in the community have a sense of self sufficiency and making sure that they are empowered within their own lives to, to affect the way that their lives go. I think that that's why before when we were talking, you were talking about sort of like anti capitalism as an important piece of the work that the brown berets are doing. It's not just this identity a nation building project. It is also, you know, an explicitly anticapitalist project that seeks to change the, the property relations between the people in the community and other communities. Right?
Speaker 3Yeah. And as a political science nerd, uh, I'm, I've also taken these words and you know, made my own, uh, spectrums in my own mind and stuff. Um, uh, I'm going to be going into Grad School for political science, so, you know, hopefully I can do what I can because books are not for everybody. Right. But since it is for me, I want to do what I can to, uh, offer these talents that I have, you know, for the movement. Right. But basically like you're not here, you know, capitalism and you know, all these words and stuff. And I think that'd basically like, I agree with that. Some professors I've had that it is, um, a evolving of a political economic systems. Right? You got capitalism. Then goes in socialism, communism and such like that. It will go different ways. We have different answers for different times and economic situations and such. But I think, um, that all just comes as a, as he goes by us. I think we need to stay conscious, you know, always keeping our eyes on the prize. Right. That's uh, uh, when, uh, the old, uh, phrases of the movements of back then. Right. Keeping your eyes on the prize and also in terms of the movement as some are national is the word that I like to balance it out with his international instrument. And it's a, not that it's only a one sided word, but there's a opposite to it. And I think both words are important for the movement. It's just that we know we have to have some balance to it. Right.
Speaker 6Um, does the internationalist characteristic of the GSA was one of the, the major themes that came out of the convention? Um, can you, can you sort of speak to the way that, uh, a predominantly white, you know, soft nationalist organization like the Democratic Socialists of America can, can maybe be interacting with you no more autonomist and vocal minority based or, or a press group based groups like the Brown berets or
Speaker 1I can give it a try. Yeah. Uh, one of the things that came out of convention is this impression that the DSA democratic socialists of America have been not really been looking internationally. Um, previously that just plain weren't enough people to really look internationally. But at, at the convention, some, some real kind of international issues got discussed. And um, we had unanimous passing of support for bds,
Speaker 6boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the apartheid state of Israel.
Speaker 1Thank you. Uh, and uh, we had visitors from socialist groups. I know Spain, Britain, um, I can't off the top of my head, remember pushing, okay. Brazil, Brazil. And there was this impression that now there are more people in Dsa who are willing to and wanting to look outside the country, outside the borders and address both us imperialism and other countries. Imperialism, I personally leading onto the second part about how DSA can reach out to majority minority groups or nationalist groups that are not the bad kind of white nationalist. My personal view on it remains that you don't go looking to get people in your court, you go looking to help people and then if you're doing a good job at that people will listen to the rest of the stuff that you're saying. And I think that there are plenty of calm rights. Did agree with me on that.
Speaker 4Yeah. You know, historically with all of these a nationalist, a revolutionary liberatory movements in the 60s the end of the panthers and the Brown berets and then like in the Middle East and the rise of the left, it was like, uh, like you said, like different communities like you know, fighting for their own liberation, but they all had solidarity with each other and they would assist each other or meet, you know, and discuss revolutionary action. And I think that is a good model that we can use today.
Speaker 1I think some of it, the DSA is lack of reaching out to other groups is kind of that we're blinkered. We think about the things that are that price to the top of our heads as DSA members tend to get the most attention. And as a hugely majority white organization, um, liberatory politics tends not to be at the top of people's heads. So we have to make a conscious effort to see what else is out there and elevate that. So we're not just always looking at, nope. Constantly single payer health, cattle constantly things that while are good for everybody or not focusing on marginalized people.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 6Right. So, so with that being said, I know that you're saying to the autonomous suburb within the Brown berets, they had been more accepting of people who do not identify as, you know, one of these Mestizo or Mexican or you know, immigrant, what have you, populations, what does, um, what does that kind of solidarity sort of like look like from your perspective? And in talking about these predominantly white sort of like leftist movements like the DSA, like how, how does that interaction work with the Brown berets or does it,
Speaker 3I think how it would look is basically something like this podcast right now. You're including me in your space, you know, thank you for that. You know, you know, just talking about movement basically with that understanding, you know, you've been involved in different events that we, uh, we'll hold collaborating with movements, uh, you know, and then that can come in any number of ways. You know, I think, um, a lot of organizations like that, uh, you know, including the Brown berets definitely. But, uh, I don't know. I think it's, uh, something that we could all work on. I guess always shine. It's a unnecessarily a bad thing. Sometimes we just get so focused in our work that we just, uh, you know, lose sight of other stuff. But, you know, I guess it can happen, you know?
Speaker 6Well, and it's, it's uncharted territory in America too. Even with the, um, cross racial coalition building that happened in the 60s and the 70s, like the rainbow coalition, that kind of stuff. We've never seen a truly maybe dereg July's coalition, a coalition of people from both oppressed and oppressor racial categories who really come together for the express purpose of a liberation for the oppressed people. And Yeah, and I, I think that I see that as something that is more possible now, but really from, from my perspective as, as someone who is, uh, who codes white, it's, it's something that like it's uncharted territory.
Speaker 4Um, on the similar note as far as, um, different groups, like I was wondering how you approach recruiting in educating and getting people into your ranks, be they from whichever communities you went in specifically in like today's Day and age as opposed to like we're saying in the 60s there was a more of a kind of, things are changing and we're in a different time, revolutionary consciousness and definitely after Trump we're kind of having a new wave of that. But even still, you know, people haven't heard these words like revolutionary before
Speaker 3for recruitment. Basically, our image really speaks, uh, you know, about what we're doing. We do have this military look to us, you know, a lot of people, you know, raise eyebrows to that. Um, it's in z as good though. Yeah. And it's, uh, you know, they'll approach, they'll ask about it as they see the events that we are holding. Right. With that outreach that we do advertising everything. Um, and uh, that is our main tool for recruitment. But, uh, we will also basically just, uh, get the word out right from the people that we do know and stuff. And you don't have this, uh, security type of a thing going on, right. Well, we have people that know people that can vouch for them and everything like that for education. It's really just about, uh, you know, and just taking the time to speak point by point cause you know, as much as we would all want to share all our knowledge all in one instant, you know, we, you don't have to take the time to you and to show them, uh, you know, event by event you caused burqas and you can just take it from there. I ain't know it was or whatever questions that they have and any preferences that they would like to because you know, as we know that the movement is an applied only in one way, it can be all kinds of different things. Right?
Speaker 6So you're talking about a community actions and events and this kind of, these kind of, um, having said that you guys are doing as a group, if you can speak a little bit more to the nature of the events that you guys are doing and, um, the way that those events are sort of brought into this more systematic approach of liberating, uh, the, the people in your community.
Speaker 3How's it centralizes around the general cause of the General Movement? Uh, basically it's just a, what every other chapter does ride is focuses on their specific community. Um, the braise have traditionally always been the ones who stand between the cops and the people, you know, and had marches specifically or any other public events. And so, um, you know, we'll do that and I just like this weekend, right? We'll be out there in Berkeley and San Francisco, you know, against the right wing and all that. But, uh, you know, we can do a whole number of things too. We've done, um, discussion panels, you know, broadcast is live radio, collaborated with student groups like Mecha, you know, a whole number of things. Uh, car shows, you know, organized a security at marches, you know, or, or any other places too as people call. This also will do security for their events too. You know,
Speaker 6on a side note, for our listeners who aren't familiar, could you explain what Mecha is?
Speaker 3Mitch as a, in Spanish, and we'll, we mentors the studio until Chicano, Chicana Salon, which is a in English, the Chicano student movement of Aslan. Uh, they started in 1969, uh, also in La as basically the same type of liberation group, uh, but basically has students reign as a student, um, movement. Um, and actually the brown berets were part of the initiating of the organizing between a different high schools in east La. Uh, it was Garfield link in and I'm not sure what else bud and movie walkout is cool to watch on that history because we all know who love movies, right? So easy to learn history sometimes that way, you know. Um, but, uh, yeah, they started around the same, a focus for the Movement for Liberation Movement back then and still are around today. Um, they've also changed different structure and different stances and basically, you know, that's what they are in a nutshell. Right.
Speaker 6Yeah. So I guess going back to the, the actions that you guys have been taken, have you guys been involved in, for example, the, uh, the movements at standing rock and, you know, solidarity with, with other indigenous and tribal liberation movements?
Speaker 4Okay.
Speaker 3Yeah, we, uh, had a few of our brains out in standing rock. Uh, some would, uh, come and go, go several times. Uh, some of our comrades in Sacramento, I, we're pretty heavy on that. We would also do protests at the border out in San Diego stuff, you know, uh, with that we have a lot of our members involved in the Ansa steak also. Uh, and that brings a whole no connection to the local natives and stuff, lot of ceremony and everything. Um, man, uh, you know, keep in touch with their issues also that and then we can always collaborating and such.
Speaker 4I was struck by the, the focus on like security and especially in events that aren't inherently explicitly political. And I think there's a big significant significance in that. Right. Cause it's like self sustainability, not relying on the state or the police to, you know, organize something like security or other, you know, a community services.
Speaker 3Yeah, definitely. Like you said, sometimes the events are not politically oriented. There'll be ceremonies, you know, we'll also be a ceremonial security in that sense. Also for the same thing. Right. Some people may not know exactly what's going on, but you know, as we've seen in history, sometimes they'll have a certain agents come in and try to disrupt the ceremony that's not even political, but you know, we just go in and just do what we do.
Speaker 1I think that being able to sub communities, being able to protect themselves and also um, yeah, being able to protect, protect themselves and protect their events and also, um, kind of rigid uses the average white person's instinct to think that the police are the first choice to everything and having security and having self defense that comes from within the community strengthens those bonds within the community rather than having it come from some kind of external force. In this case, the state oppressive forces of the police. Do you find that true? You'll personal work as a brown baret do you find that you've strengthened community bonds or, I'm pretty sure that most leftist people would say that just being in the movement has given them so many friends. But have you had a chance to kind of see how your work has affected the community and bonds within communities?
Speaker 3Somewhat indifferent neighborhoods we have. They'll, we'll have people that come out of, you know, some neighborhoods and just like in any community, right, we have some people interested in all kinds of different things, right? Some of them will be interested in, in these movements. Right? Well, we will see them, uh, you know, develop as organizers and as activists and as a perspective we take. But, uh, you know, it's not the only perspective, you know, it's, I know sometimes w in them realizing what the cause is, the nature of the movement. They'll also come to this epiphany, you know, of life really. You know, just maybe sometimes, um, when they are brought into some of these events and such, they'll take a lot more appreciation even into their own personal life, right. Their own family or anything else that they may be involved in spirituality or whatever. And, and I've seen that to some of our members that have come and gone have had this turnaround just from being involved with us. You know, it's really nice thing to say and, and see and share, you know,
Speaker 6along the track of like the idea of, of community self defense. Um, have you guys done any work with, for example, the anti police terror project that's a based out of uh, uh, Oakland and the East Bay?
Speaker 3We haven't directly, but we have a organizers and some of our members I do their own organizing, uh, Yup. Individually that have been involved with that. That would be, was it against the urban shield and what's that called when they do that zoning thing?
Speaker 6My mind has just gotten that pug gang injunctions. Right. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1I would like to kind of touch a little bit on, on spirituality. I know you, you mentioned, um, Don said Azteca. How, if you don't mind, how has your spirituality kind of informed your, your work, um, founding and being a fundamental part of the Brown Baret Lumen in this area? Yeah,
Speaker 3it has really influenced how I apply, um, the movement, my organizing in the sense that most of the work that I do as a Bray turns out to be organizing for them to stucco. And like I said, I lead a group man. I have permission from the elders in Mexico and stuff. My travel out there, I do ceremony out there and stuff like that. So I really bring that stuff out the out here and, uh, you know, just share it with anybody that's interested, uh, that we'll be able or that wants to come into the circle and everything. It's a changed my perspective also in life in general because like I said, this worldview is native worldview is different than this western philosophy and such. And I also even learn a little bit about that even in an anthropology classes to the right look to look at things a little differently in respect to other perspectives and stuff, uh, and identify characteristics of different cultures that make them think differently. One of the characteristics of the Brown Bray movement, especially the modern one, is, uh, is that he carries this intention of decolonizing one's mine. Right? And that's part of the same intention of a nationalism that we carry is that it encourages the taking on of this, uh, native, uh, identity, because that's just another way for ourselves to be real with ourselves at the same time following then staying true to the cause. Right? It's nice to have that. And I'm really glad that the autonomous faction includes that in a general movement and one of their main intentions, but it's not open for everybody. Right? It doesn't call everybody and that's okay. That's totally fine. But, um, it is a one where it is one influence that I've had that has really changed who I am as a person and how I want to go ahead with, uh, the movement. Right. My personal intention for the movement in general has always been a lot more on a political basis, but, uh, you know, I guess that's just how things have developed right now. It's a lot more of the spiritual thing. But, uh, like I said, I'm trying to go to school and get into political science a little more of a, because that's, that's where I feel my contribution and my fight would really be, you know, and I think that, uh, we all have just different, uh, uh, Coleen's and you know, I hope that, uh, it can all go, you know, in the most productive way for the movement in the end. I mean, that's, in my mind and I'm sure a lot of our comrades mind, right. And that's the thing that should be held above it. Most things are maybe not everything, everything, but like is the movement, right?
Speaker 6Right. You mean, as mark said, from, from each according to their ability. So if you, if you have the ability to, to articulate these thoughts about these complex political economic issues, if you have the ability to take that and to teach others and to help others find their own way within the system, like that's, that is an important part of the movement. You can't just have, you know, people going out there. And do you know, for example, punching Nazis, some somebody who had a punch Nazis, but not everybody has to, not everybody should
Speaker 3totally. I'm also one of the, uh, paper pushers in the movement. Um, I'm not really someone that will just want to go out and marcher punching Nazis and stuff. I mean, you know, that'll have its time in its place. You know, I can't shut that out even for myself completely. But, um, you know, I, I do have an emphasis on developing these ideas and the plan that's a ahead so that we can get to the ultimate goal, including making our own nation, including going up against any, uh, federal agencies or any people out there that want to organize against us in none of this we intend to do in any bad way. We're not trying to break a laws just to laws. Right. All we're trying to do is just be there in service for the people and we'll do that, uh, for as long as it takes and do whatever it takes.
Speaker 6Sometimes liberation is illegal.
Speaker 3Yeah. I don't think we will legislate government to give us liberation. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 6exactly. You know, you're, you're talking about these, we mentioned Nazis, the recent events in Charlottesville that, that took our comrades life. Can you sort of give us a little bit of a little bit of notion on what's that been like here? Where we are?
Speaker 3Well, we obviously take stances on the right. It's always for the movement. We've just maintained a contact with our comrades that we do throughout the west coast and everything. And I think that, uh, specific to our North Bay, we will have, our organizations are different, uh, uh, comrades out there that have done events and, you know, speak out on things, uh, too bad that these things need to happen or maybe not need to happen, but do happen at all. But, uh, I agree with, uh, one of the early organizers of the braise. He says that, uh, sometimes people just need a kick in the butt to stand up, you know, and I think most of the time really, but, uh, it does bring up conversations within our families and our communities. As much as we don't like to think our selves as left as apart from the community. Sometimes we are apart from them, you know, I think where we can tell that there is movement or some of these left ideas going on in the communities by those conversations that we pick up on right. In class or at home or at work. Right.
Speaker 1Have you noticed much, much in the way of a difference in your community organizing or in people around you? Or is this as, I personally think this is just another event in a long chain and it's not really any different from five years ago.
Speaker 3I definitely have sense. People in the community react to this. Uh, there are sad about this, they're angry about this. Uh, um, you know, they're definitely against it happening. So there has been more interest in these ideas that we carry. Uh, some, um, we've seen more people interested in our organizations. I'm not saying only the berets, but in general, Ryan are, our community of organizers out here have been approached more in general and it's a gum glad that has happened. Um, but, um, yeah, I, I have seen that out there, these emotional response and uh, glad to have people approach us, right?
Speaker 6Yeah. I was actually just talking to uh, calm right down and Dsa Orange County and he was talking about like even the liberals that showed up to counter demo against the fascists, that and Laguna, um, they were like militant and radical, right? Nobody, nobody was trying to tone police the movement. Nobody was trying to say like, oh no, you have to be nicer than that. Like people, even liberals right now, at least the ones who, who, you know, more more sort of self identify as progress's even even as these like worthless centrist on Twitter and online are, you know, talking shit about the, the important work that we're doing. Like even even those people who previously would have stood in our way and say, you can do this. Even they recognize the necessity now eat too to an extent is like you said, it's, it's a terrible thing that it took such a tragedy to, to galvanize people. But sometimes tragedies have to happen for people to wake up to the fact that, you know, tragedies are happening quietly all the time.
Speaker 1Sometimes it takes the death of a pretty white girl to get white people's attention.
Speaker 6And there's that too. There's that aspect.
Speaker 1Not to toot my own horn or anything, but if, if something like this is required, again, I, I volunteer to be a dead pretty white girl. I volunteer as tribute. Yeah.
Speaker 6Okay. Um, yeah. Like it's the mask. It's coming off to us, but you know, commute. Other communities have seen it just wide open for years. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1this shit has been going on as long as the country. This is why the big columns and the panthers started in the first place.
Speaker 6Well, there was the, that sheriff who murdered Lopez. Oh, back to a couple of years ago. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1Uh, have you, and has your group been involved in any way with, um, the movement to recall Scharf Rightis and the, the work on kind of looking to see who's going to be his successor?
Speaker 3Not yet, but we have been out there paying attention to the candidates. I haven't done that personally, but, um, I do know we have several finally for the first time in decades, um, several candidates try and running for the sheriff position
Speaker 6yeah. Who aren't hand picked by the police union.
Speaker 3Right. And some of them have actually shown up to Andy Lopez events, you commemorating events and stuff. I was out there for some of them.
Speaker 1Hmm. The community action coalition has been doing, um, kind of opportunities to meet and ask pointed questions of uh, candidates. Uh, and you can kind of get a feel for, obviously they do not endorse anybody. And the only thing that the community action coalition endorsers is the abolition of the sheriff's office completely. But from who is willing to come to the meetings and actually discuss you kind of get a little bit of a feel for the spectrum from
Speaker 4incredibly terrible to merely mediocre. Um, one of the candidates showed up to the city council, um, when they're voting on moving forward that law that would allow the cops of lockup homeless people just willy nilly basically. And He, I don't know if you remember this, he talked about his experience in Sonoma county as a child was a mother, those mentally ill and being homeless himself and the fear of, you know, the law basically. And he's identified as someone who's running for sheriff and was like, Holy Shit. It was, it was, I've never seen something like that. So, yeah, definitely not so terrible. It's, he's still a damn cop. But
Speaker 6yeah, I mean, yeah, that's the thing though. Like any, anybody who's going to be up there and running and stand a chance that an election is a cop and they are, they are, even if they put a nice face on it there, they're upholding this really nasty carceral police state. So, I mean, so, uh, we're, we're running up for about an hour right now. So why don't we sort of a wrap up on this issue of policing, you know, cause obviously the brown berets had started out as a, um, a defense against racialized policing. Once you to sort of talk about like where, where specifically the, the Brown berets nationally and uh, your, the autonomous section and sort of locally what you guys are, are thinking about and are sort of acting on in terms of uh, um, trying to either reform or abolish the police or, or at least defend your communities from it.
Speaker 4Okay.
Speaker 3We've done a community patrols right since we started organizing, uh, also locally here. That's basically the patrols that we have done, not necessarily against the police Predator, a Meta stuff, right, which is ice cream. We have, uh, gotten in touch with our local pastor, cop watch people and with them, you know, trained the, have the, have had them train us on cop watching and stuff. So we'd go out in, um, you know, just do patrols around the community most times drive, but sometimes walk around and stuff, you know. And that's been a pretty, a common occurrence. Also with different Bray chapters as checkpoints happen sometimes when they are not in a likely neighborhoods where you would think only DUIs happened. Um, you know, we're specifically what, where you would think that they are targeting people of color. We would go up and disrupt their checkpoints, will stand at the very beginning of a, the streets and basically in Spanish have, you know, writing that there's a checkpoint coming up, you know, how get then right. Uh, letting the Rasa know that there is that checkpoint. And in that way we're not trying to dissuade a DUI drivers to go in there and cause we want them to get caught. Right. Cause that does put a, the community in danger. But we will try to uh, have uh, uh, the people who a lot of times basically are in the eagle who need to drive and don't have a license from entering and getting their car towed and having their life disrupted. Cause I know, cause we all know that, uh, in this society we do need a car to get around and really are rely on a car for work and anything else that we need to function on. Right. We do have, um, also know your rights workshops side. We commonly do, uh, both, uh, in regards to the cops but also with ice or, and that's pretty much the, a pattern that we have within a national state and local baret involvement or about a cops today. If it's okay, if I can go back to quick history thing.
Speaker 6I was just gonna say, I think that this is a pretty good place to say, you know, whatever you want to, uh, whatever else we haven't asked. Whatever else you want to expound upon, just go ahead.
Speaker 3We'll talk him. When I was saying about the, uh, the, uh, founding of the factions and the different generations of Sonoma county breeze, uh, how the brace started fractionalizing was that, uh, after being formed in La, uh, cointelpro was getting really heavy. They started killing a lot of organizers. Uh, the founders, the different founders a of the time decided to disband the organization, but not everybody wants to disband. It got really big. They had thousands of members throughout the country and even outside of the country. And so that's how San Diego continue to organize. And also, uh, the whole Texas New Mexico area, the whole region out there, um, some different chapters throughout California and everything. And since they continue to organize and they didn't have any other comrades or berets actually, and they didn't have any other brace to organize with, well, they just basically organized with whoever they could, you know, like I said, in this case, San Diego County state together and the whole, uh, Texas region, you know, organize together. And throughout time they just picked up their own names and that's how they're, those factions. Uh, continued. Uh, La didn't start organizing until the early nineties. Uh, they, uh, they started, uh, bringing in the original breweries. A lot of them did have the same mentality of the sixties and seventies. It was apparent, even when I got involved in 2010, I had to deal with a lot of them. And so they started up as a, like I said, the VPN on the ground, right. National Organization. Um, and only until recently changed her name to national boundaries, they've changed their, some of their political stances and outlook on things organizing. Uh, and the other, the autonomous fashion didn't start until 98 specifically from the Watsonville chapter. They started out as the BB. No, but in 98 they broke apart, it called themselves the autonomous prom breeze of Watsonville. And they did such a good work in the movement. There was so notorious within the movement that a different chapters throughout the nation came up in their intention to organize and they call themselves autonomous. And that was the birth of the fourth faction basically. That explains the four factions of the brace today might, uh, yeah, it's, it's a whole moving, uh, mechanism, right. And that we all have had our own individual movements in however is that we can contribute.
Speaker 4Right. And that's really the parallel of just the left since the 60s. And a lot of that was purposeful intended by infiltration, FBI agent provocateurs and misinformation, all that stuff. So I always say today we're still going to face that, but it's going to come from probably private defense contractors, private security like, um, which have even less oversight, you know, they can do what ever the hell they want.
Speaker 9Okay.
Speaker 4Well Pinkerton's had been a thing for a long time. Yeah. So I'm just going to have to, you're just going to have to fight back against the pinkertons. Now
Speaker 1if somebody's listening to this in the North Bay area, wants to get involved with your autonomous, um, Brown baret Lubun um, how, how should they kind of kind of do that? Is there and an easy kind of way to link up with, with you all that you could describe over a podcast or is it more kind of like catch us when we're out at an event and, and talk to us there?
Speaker 3Oh, you can add us on Facebook and email us a on Facebook. We just have a like page, you can message us. Uh, just look up a autonomous primaries of Sonoma County and our profile pictures of unum was a Mayan symbol, basically a Mayan, a Yang Yang, right? You'll see the, uh, the design up there. The uh, email that we're at is Sonoma county dot Brown. barets@gmail.com and yeah, just get at us for anything that you would like
Speaker 1and Tiberias we'll, we'll put links in the, in the show notes so that people who I have a podcast play that supports that can just click right on the Lincoln and get to that. So
Speaker 6I think that that's a pretty good place to wrap up. Then speaking of ways to get in contact with us, uh, you can find us on, uh, on Twitter under the handle. Left-Pad uh, you can find myself, uh, on my fairly new handle at Checka informant, you can find Erin at four hours and an n, R R R R, n and someday I'm going to get you to change that and do something that is easier.
Speaker 1Uh, you can get to five and he, oh my God, that's what he said last time. I know. I know. I think, I think I got that. Yeah. From him. Uh, and you can find me on Twitter at communal source. Uh, I am happier than I should be about the fact that I just broke 1000 followers so that, Ooh, that's a lot of people to routinely disappointed. Uh, you can also find left coast podcast on Facebook. Um, and you can read it, right?
Speaker 6Yeah. Was a sub reddit, reddit.com/r/left coast. Hit us up on email. Uh, our email address is left coast podcast@gmail.com
Speaker 1and we have a phone number
Speaker 6and we have a phone number. It's going to be a (707) 800-9221. Go ahead and drop us, say a voicemail message and you can probably get your question answered on the show unless you're a fascist idiot and we'll just ignore it.
Speaker 10Thank you very much for coming in. It's been an educational and amazing and um, yeah,
Speaker 6yeah. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Comrade. Incredible. Yeah.
Speaker 10Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6All right. Comrades. Thanks for listening to us today.
Speaker 2Peace and be in solidarity. Cheers. Because the lady we got jumped by sundown. Husky was nothing for them. Listen to automatically correct Bam on the big yellow.