BumZenBumZen’s speech at Antifascist 1st of May 2022. The speech was held both at the demo march and at the antifascist scene in Fælledparken, Copenhagen.
Speech by collectivists from BumZen
Hi and welcome to this years antifascist 1st of May demonstration // Hey, what’s up
Fælledparken!
We are activists from the housing project and community center BumZen.
Many of you may know the house, but many of you probably don’t know us. The rumors are true –
we are a house of faggots and dykes, trannies and femmes, tops, but mostly bottoms.
During the last year we have had our work cut out for us; We have worked on several projects that
address the oppressive structures in the house.
We have made mistakes along the way and continue to meet valuable lessons.
We have created relations and work across borders and done our best to reach out to our
autonomous community.
New groups have come to the house and former groups have returned after the pandemic.
In our work, we have attempted to center those who experience state racism, anti-blackness,
islamophobia, classism, fascism, sexism, heterosexism and transphobia first hand.
Our call to the community is still to challenge and dismantle white supremacy and support QTIBIPOCs
in the struggle.
No one is free until everyone is free! // Don’t break down, break out!
***
Today we are here for antifascist 1st of May on International Workers Day.
As left-radicals we believe in a stateless and classless society.
– Because we believe people are better at deciding themselves what’s good for them.
– Because we know that the state functions on exploitation of lower classes, in which we are part
of.
Still, we need to answer the struggles happening right now – as antifascists, we need to step up
for workers strikes and help people unionize.
We need to take part in creating solidarity amongst working class people.
We also need to recognize that different structures seek to keep us in the working class – racism,
borders, queerphobia, transphobia, ableism all seek decide who gets to be exploited.
That why we know that we need to center our activism around QTI-BIPOCs.
However – this goal has still not been reached.
Both in the house – and in the broader community.
We want to address that generalizing words like ‘BIPOCs’, ‘QTI-BIPOCs’ and ‘community’, means
that we are not always able to see the intersections that exists inside these labels.
And therefore we can’t address the structural oppressions that exists both inside and outside
these labels.
BumZen’s praxis must, at all times, be informed by this awareness.
1) Fx. As long as those who are specifically targeted by state race policies, like refugees, asylum
seekers and immigrants without papers are not protected from cops showing up at our events,
OUR GOALS ARE NOT MET.
2) As long as black people don’t feel safe and free in the house; our goals are not met.
3) As long as our autonomous house cannot protect our racialised working class neighbors from
evictions 500 meters away; our goals are not met.
Don’t ever put BumZen on a pedestal in terms of antiracism, especially regarding anti-blackness.
Because our goals are not met.
***
Moving forward, we also need to recognize our accountability to the global south – working class
is not just who gets exploited here – it’s about who is exploited everywhere – it’s about the global
working class.
Working class struggle is therefore fighting borders and resisting deportations.
Remember that you are accountable to the revolution for the global south!
This we know is a heavy burden.
That’s why it is necessary to organize with exploited people across borders, who can answer
urgent and non-urgent calls and share resources.
We need international solidarity.
Repeat after us:
Styrk den internationale solidaritet!
But we also need anti-national solidarity and collectively defy the borders that the nationstate and
ruling class have enforced.
The immigrant struggle is a working class struggle.
***
In the last year we have spent a lot of time at BumZen, renovating the house.
Not only because we care about creating nice community spaces for us to use right now, but
because we need to create sustainability in our community.
The most important thing we owe to the next generation of activists is places in good shape to
pass on.
Especially at BumZen do we find this critical, since it’s not just a community center, but also a
housing project.
In the fight against gentrification someone needs to maintain what we – the working class and
immigrant people – already have. While we also work to create more housing for us.
Working class struggle is resisting evictions.
Working class struggle is renovations.
For too long white people have wanted to live trashy in our autonomous spaces, choosingly for
aesthetic reasons.
To our middle class, upper-middle class and upper-class comrades – please stop appropriating
working class struggle because you think it looks cool.
It’s not an aesthetic, it’s oppression.
Be aware of the mechanisms that contribute to you gentrifying our neighborhoods.
We should never accept that the homes of people are being torn down, while private interest
plans new luxury apartments for rich people to move into.
We need to fight the states racist capital interest in housing.
***
Lastly, we want to call out to our white comrades and ask you to question yourself on what
struggles you choose to participate in.
Why do you go to climate demonstrations, but don’t show up for people’s homes being torn down
I Vollsmose?
What about the Syrian sit-ins?
And close the camps demos?
What do you view as radical?
Why don’t you act when BIPOCs say that our autonomous and left-radical free spaces are hostile,
unsafe and white supremacist?
We don’t want to take credit for these actions, but we want to ask why we see lower participation
from white people in these struggles.
We encourage all white people to start talking to their white friends about whiteness.
Start whiteness groups.
Find materials.
Come to our community kitchens and talk to us and each other.
Massive progress has been made in the past year seeing how we finally can have these
conversations.
***
We at BumZen will continue to do more of this work and in the next year promise to reach even
more out to the locals in our politicized neighborhood.
The struggle is against state and capital.
The struggle is against borders.
The struggle is for the global south.
The struggle is for international and anti-national solidarity.
The struggle is for housing, better living standards and autonomous free spaces.
The struggle is against evictions.
The struggle is for gender affirming health services for binary and non-binary trans-people.
The struggle is against climate change.
The struggle is dismantling white supremacy and colorism – in society and within ourselves.
The struggle is understanding that all these things are purposefully tied together to exploit people
and create an upper class.
God Kamp Dag!