Our Politics: What We Believe
The original collective came together in struggle as radical Black feminist and organizers, under the shared respect, love, and study of Assata Shakur. They believed it was our collective duty to fight for our freedom. As an organization, AD continues to believe in that collective duty to fight for the liberation of Black people.
AD believes our freedom looks like quality public schools; our freedom looks like universal healthcare; our freedom looks living without fear of physical or sexual violence; our freedom looks like economic stability; our freedom looks like self-determination; our freedom looks like communities that practice restorative justice and that make police and cages obsolete; our freedom looks like the eradication of anti-Blackness and all forms of oppression.
We believe we will achieve this freedom through holistic investment in our young Black people; through the provision of revolutionary services; through inter-generational struggle; through political education; through base-building; through building relationships block by block; through organized and coordinated campaigns against oppressive forces; and through celebrating, exploring, stretching, shattering, re-building, re-creating, and re-imagining who we are and who we can be as people and as community.
Overall, we work to deepen, escalate, and sustain the movement for Black Liberation because we believe it is the best contribution we can make to achieving that freedom.
Deepen
We believe Black liberation requires long-term commitment & strategy, and a dedication to study of theory, and the radical strategies and tactics that have propelled the Black Liberation movement forward. We intentionally develop and train young Black people in the Black queer feminist tradition and in the spirit of Assata. We prioritize this work to help prepare young Black people to contribute to the Black Liberation movement and to carry it into the future.
Escalate
We believe in resistance and in the power of civil disobedience. Our campaigns agitate the status quo and directly confront the systems of our oppression. Our demands are not requests, they are an assertion of Black power and an insistence on self-determination. We encourage and support others to do the same.
We believe mass movements are built by organizing local communities. We are based in Washington Park- an historic Black neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. We organize ourselves and our neighbors against gentrification and police violence, to win material improvements in people's lives, and to alter the relations of power between community members and institutions of power.
Sustain
We believe in providing holistic nourishment, especially to those working to actualize Black Liberation. We believe in providing revolutionary services that will help alleviate the need for the oppressed to focus on surviving, and will contribute to their ability to thrive and focus on eradicating oppression and creating the world they want to see. We believe in living our politics, which means providing the young Black people we serve with food to combat hunger, money for their labor, guidance through this capitalist society, and assistance during critical times. We sustain our members so that they may sustain the movement.