My Political Autobiography (2017, 2024): The No-Body Who Dared To Talk Back & Fight Back.

My Political Autobiography  (September 2017, updated March 27, 2024)

The No-Body Who Talked Back & Fought Back.

by Miguel Angel Torres (Andres Nicolas Moran, Drew)

a.k.a. Manuel X.

Introductory Note:

I decided to write the following in order to retrace my steps, to analyse my political journey. One that eventually led me to Marxism. My political journey was intellectual and practical. My political journey was also formative and experiential. I decide to share the story of it publicly in the hope that it might be of value to somebody else, if only to compare notes. I recount my experiences with the International Socialist Organization, and with the Swedish SAC-Syndicalists. My involvement in the anti-war and anti-globalization movements in 2002-2003. The experience of Occupy! in 2011. My involvement with Revolutionära Fronten in 2011-2012, my interactions with the Aktion mot Deportation movement in 2013.All these experiences contributed in a formative manner to result in who I am today: A proud Queer Marxist, Stateless, Undocumented migrant. Advocate of Social Revolution.

(now)

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SURVIVAL ENABLES RESISTANCE. 

RESISTANCE GIVES MEANING TO SURVIVAL. 

MY POLITICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

POLITICAL ACTIVISM RECORD

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Related:

My Faith Journey (by Manuel Mendoza) 

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Appendixes: 

1. The International Socialist Organization "Where We Stand Statement".  

Another version of the "Where We Stand" statement is published online by the Socialist Workers Party (UK);  'What We Stand For' is the Socialist Workers Party's statement of principles. There is also a Denmark version and a New Zealand version. 

2. The Principles and Aims of SAC Syndicalisterna. The Anarcho-Syndicalist revolutionary union in Sweden. The website of the Syndicalists has more information about SAC, mostly in Swedish. 

3. SPEAK Karlstad sponsored a debate between representatives of all the parliamentary parties prior to the 2010 elections. The flyer promoting the event framed the event as a dialogue with the attending politicians about issues of environemental sustainability and social justice in Karlstad, Sweden. 

4. The SPEAK network values and vision statements can be viewed in the network's website. 

5. The Manifesto of the Swedish Revolutionary Front is available online in the networks weblog both in Swedish and English. 

6. The about Aktion mot Deportation statement and updates about current activities can be read on the network's Facebook page. 

Annotations:

(Obsolete links have been removed)

[Between 2008 and 2012 I lived in Sweden as an undocumented immigrant. Impressions of my experience of "living black" are posted elsewhere in this weblog HERE.]

1. International Socialist Organization (United States):

The "Socialist Worker" newspaper (United States version), can be read online. It is an excellent source for analysis of current events. "The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx" by Alex Callinicos is a basic introduction to Marxist thought. A hard copy of the book can be obtained from the ISO's Soclialist Bookstore: Haymarket Books. There is also a You Tube presentation on the Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx from the 2015 Marxism conference sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party (UK). The Socialist Workers Party (UK) version of the  "Socialist Worker" newspaper is also a good source of analysis on current events and politics in general. "The Revolution Betrayed" by Leon Trotsky can be found at the Marxist Internet Archive. "State Capitalism in Russia" by Tony Cliff can be found in the Marxists Internet Archive. "Origin of the Family,Private Property, and the State" by Friedrich Engels can be found in the Marxists Internet Archive. "Arguments for Revolutionary Socialism" by John Molyneux can be found in the Marxists Internet Archive. Anti-Capitalism: Theory and Practice by Chris Harman can be found at the Marxist Internet Archive. 

The International Communist League (Spartacist League), "The Bankruptcy of New Class Theories" (Spartacist English edition No. 55, Autumn 1999), is a critique of Tony Cliff's "State Capitalism in Russia" and of the "Bureaucratic Collectivism" theories proposed by Max Shachtman.

2. SAC Syndicalisterna (Sweden):

"The Anarcho-Syndicalist Answer to Corporate Globalization" by Brian Oliver Sheppard can be found at the Zabalaza Books Website. "The Black Bloc Papers" by David van Deussen and Xavier Massot can be found at the InfoShop website. No Authority But Onesenlf: The Anarchist Feminist Philosophy of Autonomy and Freedom by Sharon Presley can be found at theanarchistlibrary.org Website. The Anarchist FAQ can be found a theanarchistlibrary.org website. 

3. Liberation Theology (Leonardo Boff):

"Jesucristo el Liberador" by Leonardo Boff can be found online at elteologillo website.

Elsewhere in this weblog I posted Notes on The Radical Reformation.

4. Occupy/Indignados Movement Statements:

The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City can be found at the Occupy website.

5. About my Jehovah Witness Experience:

I have posted elsewhere in this weblog about my Jehovah Witness experience.

The official Jehovah Witness website is the best source of information for the theology of the organization. For the Ex-Jehovah Witness perspectives the best sources are the John Cedars Channel  on YouTube. 

6. World Socialist Website is my main source of news on current events as well as perspectives and commentary from a revolutionary socialist perspective. World Socialist Website is a publication of the International Committe of the Fourth International.

The following selection of articles cover the World Socialist Website perspective on the Global Day of Action against War on February 15, 2003: "An event of world historical significance" (February 17, 2003); Up to two million people took part in the London demonstration to protest war against Iraq on February 15, 2003; Some 75,000 people from all over the Netherlands and neighbouring regions took to the streets of Amsterdam to protest the war; The World Socialist Website also published letters from readers about the anti-war protests.

The following selection of articles cover the World Socialist Website perpsectives on the Occupy movement: The World Socialist Web Site spoke to protesters involved in the Occupy London protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral.; Occupy Pittsburgh protesters movilized against the massive inequality and the damage being done by the elite who rule America; "The Occupy Wall Street protests against inequality, which began in New York City over a month ago and have since expanded to hundreds of cities and towns throughout the United States and internationally, have arrived at a political crossroads."; Noam Chomsky spoke at Occupy Boston, but offered no way forward; Widespread public support for Occupy amidst police crackdown.

_Stop Deportations_

"1: Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2: to deprive the poor of their rights ...and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless." - Isaiah 10:1-2

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"He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor." - Proverbs 14:31 

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"You shall not oppress a foreigner. You know the heart of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt."- Exodus 23:9

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  "SPEAK up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."

- Proverbs 31:8

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...click on image above to read flyer...

Source of above flyer image: Aktion mot deportation (facebook)

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On Parliamentary Cretinism and the Obsolete Nation-State System:

The fundamental issue is that Nation States operate on the premise that they have a "sovereign right" to ignore and declare ''non-binding'' fundamental human rights guaranteed by the United Nations Human Rights Charter. Under the current system of international law, the sovereign rights of states are  considered above the human rights of persons. The forced removal of Afghan asylum seekers to a war zone is in fact a crime against human rights. The asylum seekers human rights movement should call  for a moratorium on deportations to Afghanistan until the war is officially over as well as an amnesty for Afghan asylum seekers under the age of 18. Everyone, including all migrants and asylum-seekers, have the right to liberty and freedom of movement. In principle, migrants and asylum-seekers should not be detained for migration control purposes. Seeking asylum or being in an irregular undocumented situation is not a crime. Detention must always be a last resort.

Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

The police repression being meted out to asylum seeker activists in Europe (specifically during recent asylum seeker protests in Munich, Germany and Brussels, Belgium), is a direct attack upon the political rights of migrants, rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

The reason nation states consider the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 'non-binding', is that its enforcement would spell the end of the arbitrary system of power relations which sustain the elite status of the political classes who administer the international nation state system. The ''legitimacy'' of nation-state power is based upon monopoly of violence; i.e. the assemblies of armed men called police and military. The nation states of Europe in particular are administered by technocratic bureaucracies and an entrenched professional political class; these elements constitute an elite strata similar to the 'nomenklatura' in the former Soviet Union. The facade of ''parliamentarism'' is in fact an oligarchy. The power of the nation-state rests upon its ability to deploy armed force in order to impose the political will of the state over persons. ''Social cohesion'' is maintained on the basis of the threat of force and through mass surveillance. The obsolete nation-state system rests on a throne of bayonets. The nation-state is in fact a concentration of political and economic power that claims ''soveregnity'' on the premise of socially constructed national myths. The protection of the national myth is the basis for the convenient declaration of universal human rights standards as ''non-binding''. 

If those who govern the European nation state system consider the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be 'non-binding'; then those who struggle for a world without borders and for the rights of the undocumented and of asylum seekers are justified to deploy the tactics of  non-violent civil disobedience against the police state tactics of the government; tactics which serve as the foundation for the migration control regime. The struggle against deportation is the struggle against the abuse of state power by the political class and a struggle against the police state. 

Source of image above: http://www.aktionmotdeportation.se/

On the specific issue of mass deportations to Afghanistan see also:

Kabulblog

Aktion mot deportation is a secular (non-religious) activist network working to stop deportations of undocumented persons and asylum seekers from Sweden. The views elsewhere expressed in this weblog are not necessarily those of the Aktion mot deportation network or its members.